Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

One of our family heirlooms is one of the last bottles of my grandfather’s homemade wine. It’s in a Ballantine Ale bottle. I remember my father saying it was either really good wine or very bad vinegar. It remains unopened in my kitchen cupboard but I thought I’d look into winemaking in Somerville by starting with my grandpa.

Grandpa was a Somerville school custodian.

There was a sprawling grapevine in his yard that is still there today. All the stomping and bottling was done by my grandpa right there on Elmwood St across from the Western Junior High school. The cellar still contains the bottle capping gizmo and a press.

Here are some reader comments:

“My grandfather made wine down cellar. He had his own wine press and grew his own grapes in the backyard. My brother is going to try to make some wine as well using the old wine press!”

“I have great memories of eating grapes in grandpa’s backyard with my cousins.”

“My brother and I would raid a neighbor’s grape arbor, often he would chase us away.”

“My grandfather made wine down our cellar. He had his own wine press and grew his own grapes in the backyard. My brother is going to try to make some wine as well using the old wine press! So many memories in that house. “My family owned it for four generations, I am still so sad that it had to be sold. Of course, the new owner is making condos. I have read many posts about people saying negative things about Somerville, but despite it all I miss it terribly.”

I’m sure my grandpa and his friends had plenty of wine to get them through Prohibition in the 1930’s. In the meantime, the bottle of grandpa’s will stay in the cabinet.