As I write these pages, I like to think that we are having a quiet conversation with a bottle of wine, cheese, crackers and other assorted munchies that are really enjoyable. Now onto the business at hand, a wine scrapbook.
This was fun to do, and I still like looking at the names of the wines that I have had. Years ago the labels were very easy to soak off of the bottles, and then I could paste them on a page. Today the labels tend to be much more of a challenge to soak off, and I have even asked at some of the wineries for suggestions. One of the suggestions they offered was to add some white ammonia to the water, while they soak. I still have two cases of empties where the labels refuse to budge, so I have to try some other ideas. If I find one, I will certainly make mention of an idea that works. If anyone reading this knows of something, please share. The new labels are now printed as self-stick for ease of production (similar to the self-stick postage stamps we use now to pay a bill or send greeting cards. I now use a very thin and flexible steel pancake flipper that I can get under the label after having it soak in hot water. The flipper is flexible enough to curve around the bottle.
Sometimes I made additional notes on the tasting, but most of the time I just glued the label into the book. I tried to keep pages of like wines or areas together, as a reference to myself. I smile as I look at these pages now, there may be a generic blend of the region next to legendary label, but each had their day in the sun to me. Sometimes I marvel at the good fortune I have had, to have tasted these wines. I now realize that at the time, I may have been too immature to fully appreciate each bottle at the time, but that all adds to the enjoyment of wine. To me, almost every bottle has a story, and that is what I am, a teller of stories and anecdotes, in other words a raconteur.
I no longer mount the labels in a book, as they have become the wallpaper in my wine cellar, which I will talk about in later ramblings. I am showing a couple of random pages from my scrapbook, just to give you an idea of how I started it.
The Wine Raconteur 
Great idea! Friends of mine completely covered all the flat sides of their countertop (in their up-north log cabin, used for a lot of entertaining) with all the wine corks from their “samplings.” When friends discovered what they were doing everyone started “donating to the cause.” Needless to say they completed the re-construction of the kitchen island in no time flat! Should they decide to paper their walls I’ll share your idea.
Yvette, that is a great idea to re-use the corks, especially with the branded side showing. You go into wine shops and you see where they sell kits to make trivets utilizing your old corks.
I have even been to restaurants where they have made murals on the walls all in cork. There are a lot of artistic people out there, with clever ideas.
Myself, I have buckets of corks that I have saved, for my next project. I plan on sealing each cork with lacquer, then will use the corks to make a crown molding of several layers thick in my wine cellar, and then the room will be complete. If you study some of the pictures that I have posted or will post of my cellar, you will see that I have left space at the top of walls just for that purpose.
As they say “great minds think alike,” and that gives you another reason to open a bottle, because you need that cork. Salute
– John