Saturday, October 25, 2008

MAKING WINE

This Fall we are making white wine, it is either Riesling or Pinot Grigo. We have made the reds before. While the process is similar it is a bit different.

With the whites you have to press the grapes for the juice and with the reds you mash and filter later. The process of juicing takes a while, we did about 40lbs of grapes in 3 hours. Once the grapes are juiced you then add the chemicals and let it sit for about a week, then you transfer it to another jug. You keep transferring to new jugs until clear. Then you get to bottle.
The wine is coming along nicely. We did our first transfer last night. I tasted it and boy it would have been easy to sit there on the kitchen floor with that tube and just drink away. It has such a great taste. Sweet but not overly so, no after taste and had the best fruit flavor. Joy, it reminded me of LaVelle's...close at least...yes you will get a bottle....giggles.
If you look closely at the upper pictures you will see the sediment in the bottles, this is why we transfer the wine. This bottle isn't as "thick" and cloudy as the others.

2 comments:

JoyB said...

Kim the wine is looking great. I slept all day again today but people said that is not unusual with jet Lag. I just wanted to pop in and tell you how much I am missing our time together. Hope to see you soon. JoyB

susanmark said...

HI My dh makes applejack. Have you ever made that? BOY is it good. Esp after it's set for several yrs.

Your wine looks good,too.

Susan