About
For Those Who Serve....
For Those Who Serve
This page isn’t about winemaking techniques, fermentation chemistry, or the perfect grape variety. Sometimes the most important thing a community can do is stop and acknowledge the people who make everything else possible. Jack Keller — the winemaker, teacher, and archivist behind decades of home winemaking knowledge — set aside space on his site to honor military service members and their families. We’re doing the same.
A Prayer That Still Holds Up
More than 250 years ago, George Washington stood before the Continental Congress and offered these words:
“Almighty Father. Bless us with thy wisdom in our counsels and with success in battle, and let our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with enlightened minds, that they become sensible of their injustice, and willing to restore…liberty and peace. Thy will be done. Amen.”
— General-of-the-Army George Washington
What’s striking about this prayer isn’t just the humility in it. It’s the part most people skip over — the ask that enemies be given clarity and reason. That’s not weakness. That’s the long game. Washington wasn’t praying for domination. He was praying for a world where conflict becomes unnecessary. That idea holds just as much weight today as it did in the 18th century, no matter where you stand on faith or politics.
To Those Deployed and Those Waiting at Home
Service doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For every person wearing a uniform overseas, there’s someone at home recalibrating their entire life around an empty chair at the dinner table. The waiting is its own kind of service — quieter, less visible, and no less demanding.
The winemaking community is a wide one. It spans backyards and basements across every state and country. It’s a safe bet that a meaningful slice of the people reading fermentation guides and crush schedules right now have a personal connection to military service — as veterans themselves, as spouses, as parents, as children of someone who served.
This page is for all of them.
Why Jack Keller Made Space for This
Jack Keller built one of the most thorough and generous winemaking resources the internet has ever seen. He gave it away freely, updated it constantly, and wrote it in plain language anyone could follow. He also clearly believed that being a complete person mattered more than staying narrowly on topic.
He created this tribute page on March 19, 2003 — the day the Iraq War began. He kept adding to it for years afterward. That context matters. This wasn’t a casual gesture. It was a deliberate choice to say: the people who make a free society possible deserve to be seen, not just during holidays, but on ordinary days too.
We respect that instinct. A winemaking site can also be a human site.
Raising a Glass
There’s an old tradition in military culture — and in plenty of civilian traditions too — of raising a glass to those who are absent. It’s one of the oldest functions wine has ever served. Long before wine was a hobby or a craft, it was part of ceremony. It marked the important moments. It acknowledged the people who mattered.
If you make wine at home, you already understand that the best bottles aren’t saved for perfect occasions. They’re opened when something real is happening — a reunion, a loss, a celebration, a quiet night when you just need to feel connected to something larger than yourself.
So if you have a bottle open, or a batch fermenting, consider this a reminder: someone out there is doing something hard so that you can have ordinary days. That’s worth a moment of acknowledgment, and maybe a pour.
Why This Works
Here’s the mental model: winemaking is fundamentally about patience and care applied over time, with results that are shared with other people. That’s also a pretty good description of what service members and their families do. Neither one is glamorous in the day-to-day. Both involve tending to something you believe in, even when the outcome is uncertain.
Jack Keller understood that. We do too. The knowledge base we’ve built here exists because of the kind of society that allows people to pursue things they love. That society has a cost, and other people pay it.
Remember them. It’s the least we can do.