For sure a steady improvement, especially the Mateus, and I’m sure your homemade is head and shoulders above those.
Various members of my wife’s family have made their own wines with mixed results ranging from those that have that distinct old sock taste and aroma, to my father In laws decent red wine. To be fair to the others, my FIL didn’t start from just the grapes opting for a head start starter approach.
I’m not a wine connoisseur per se, however I recently graduated from what I thought was good $2.99 per bottle Cabernet and Merlo from Whole Foods, to joining two wine clubs to take advantage of discounts.
I mostly order French and some Italian/Sicilian reds, with an occasional Spanish/Australian/South American/Portuguese bottle, and paid $6.99 per bottle for wines that retail at $20-$30 per bottle by using sales and quantity discounts. An Amex card promotion got me started in these wine clubs, appealing to the penny pincher instinct.
There is definitely a difference in taste, smoothness, and after effects/symptoms, making the wine with dinner experience much better! Maybe too enjoyable for my own good.
The best red wine experience ever was when I was 13 years old on vacation in Sicily, and we visited people who were a family farm, and amongst other things raised crops, farm animals, and made their own red wine. I snuck off with a bottle of their red and climbed part way up an almond tree to drink it.
It was and still is in my memory the best red wine I ever had, and is why I try bottles of Sicilian to this day, trying to recreate part of the experience!
