UNITY — When life gives people lemons, some make lemonade.

When life gives Clem Blakney sour grapes, or Prairie Star, Niagara, La Crosse, Mars or Reliance grapes, he makes wine.

Blakney owns and operates Younity Winery & Vineyards on Albion Road. He and his wife, Jeri established the vineyards in May 2007 and registered Unity Winery in 2009.

Soon after, they were notified that a winery in California had trademarked the word “Unity.”

“We took what could be considered a bad situation and turned it into an opportunity,” Blakney said. “Do not let adversity set you back.”

Blakney, who enjoys plays on words, said he considers “you,” or each individual customer, to be the “Maine ingredient” in his wine. So he tweaked the name of the business to Younity Winery & Vineyards.

The couple enjoy coining catchy names for their wines, all of which are made with Maine grapes and other Maine fruits.

For instance, their cranberry wine, which is pale pink, bubbly and slightly sweet, is called Tickled Pink.

The rhubarb wine, a semi-dry white, is named Rhuby Slippers.

Star Crossed, a dry white wine, is made by combining Prairie Star grapes with Lacrosse grapes.

Somethin’ Blue, a full wine made from wild blueberries, has an apt name to be served at weddings.

The Palmer Sisters, a spicy, complicated elderberry wine aged with oak chips, is named for Clem Blakney’s grandfather’s sisters.

And, Over A Barrel, which has a fruity, slightly sweet taste, is made with Niagara green grapes.

Blakney envisions a nonalcoholic homage to John Wayne made from grape juice called John Wyne.

Connie Bellet, an artist living in Palermo, designs delightfully themed labels around the Blakneys’ creative names and concepts.

Her label for Tickled Pink features an ecstatic dancing pink hippopotamus wearing a tutu.

She imagined green rhubarb leaves in the shape of elegant footwear for Rhuby Slippers.

For the Star Crossed wine, Bellet created a Romeo-and-Juliet-style scene with a male suitor standing below a balcony on which his lover stands. Grapevines frame the balcony and above the star-crossed lovers, a night sky is alive with twinkling stars and a moon with a man in it.

Blakney described the Palmer Sisters, who all lived to ripe old ages, as spinster teetotalers. Bellet’s label shows three women wearing hats seated at a table. A fourth, who is standing, clutches a bottle of wine behind her back.

On the Over A Barrel label, a hand holding a wine glass sticks out of a small hole in a wooden barrel as it plunges over a steep waterfall.

The designer labels have been so popular, Blakney said, that guests at wine tastings want to purchase the artwork on posters.

Blakney, 60, learned about making wine from his father in Washington state.

After he moved to Maine a few years ago, his hobby turned into a business venture.

Each of the 1,200 vines in the vineyard stretching alongside Albion Road, produces about 10 pounds of grapes. “The yield increases every year,” he said.

Someday, Blakney said, each vine might produce 20 pounds of fruit.

Maine’s grape-growing season runs from June to September and Blakney said vines can climb six to eight feet each season.

Grapes and vines are like children, he is fond of saying.

“Every one has a personality,” said Blakney, who sings to grapes while he prunes vines.

“If you let them go wild, you pay for it,” he said. “You have to nourish and guide them and they’ll grow up rewarding you.”

Blakney said the entire process is satisfying — from planting vines to sipping wine with guests in his cozy tasting room, which contains a small wooden bar, stained glass lights, and a view of the vineyard.

“I want to get people enthusiastic about wine,” he said. “The more wineries, the better it is.”

People will appreciate Maine wineries even more, he said, if there is a whole bunch. “You see one grape, you say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ You see a cluster and you say, Wow!'”

Younity Winery & Vineyards is one of 15 members of The Maine Winery Guild dotting The Maine Wine Trail, which winds from Prospect Hill Winery in Lebanon to Dragonfly Winery in Stetson, to Shalom Organic Orchard Farm & Winery in Franklin, to Oyster River Winegrowers in Thomaston.

Guild members open their vineyards and tasting rooms to the public.

Next to Blakney’s tasting room, in the basement of the home, wine ages in two 120-gallon barrels.

Blakney said each barrel, which is covered in homemade cheesecloth, produces about 500 bottles of wine.

“Never judge a wine on the first taste,” he said. “The first wakes up your taste buds; the second taste is the true flavor.”

And if a batch of wine doesn’t turn out as he wished, well, that’s part of life.

“Do not be afraid you might get your toes stepped on,” he said. “If you don’t stick your feet out, you never move forward.”

Wise words from a man who is barefoot most of the time.

“I like to feel the earth with my feet,” he said, explaining that as a child, to save his shoes from getting scuffed on gravel roads, he walked with his shoes slung over his shoulder.

Mistakes, said the self-described barefoot vintner, are opportunities to learn. And Blakney rather relishes them.

When a batch of Somethin’ Blue didn’t taste quite right for wine, it became a tasty, tangy spread for crackers — BB’s Maine Blueberry Sting.

“Beware of a wicked sting” reads a warning on the label, which instructs users to shake, open and devour.

Blakney said his tasting room will likely be open for a couple of weekends before Christmas, then he will hibernate and remodel until spring.

Calling ahead is recommended for those interested in a weekend wine-tasting, conversation and a walk with Blakney through the vineyard.

Those who get his answering machine will hear his cheerful voice say, “Drop in, we can talk. And certainly we can drink.”

Beth Staples — 861-9252

[email protected]