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Showing posts from April, 2009

Filtering and Bottling - End of the Line?

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Six months since the grapes were picked. Today the wine is bottled. I am thrilled that the taste and color have met my expectations. Very satisfying to get this far. Loading the filters into the pump assembly. Connecting the tubes to the chilled and unfiltered wine. Running the pump and filtering the wine. The finished wine in blue bottles with labels. Nice! The bottles in a case. Carboy 1 is history. We bottled the wine after coarse grain filtering using a Buon Vino motorized pump and filter. The result was 25 bottles and 1/2 half bottle. I used the half bottle to top off carboy 3. I labeled the other 25 bottles and placed them in cases. 50 more bottles to go (including the Oak Riesling) and then no more winemaking until the fall. In the meantime, I am planning a lot of hard cider and maybe an experimental beer.

My Sample Labels

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The designs above will be tested on the first run of bottles.

Fixing Acid Levels on the Remaining Carboys

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Tartaric crystals added to a small wine sample. Pouring in the tartaric doped sample. The acid fizzes as it hits the wine. Ice packed around the carboy for maximum coldness. To the fridge for cool down. Looking vibrant, but needs Polyclar treatment to get that pale golden color.

A Taste Test First

Today we opened the test bottle pictured below during the IP lunch meeting at work. About 7-8 people sampled the wine. The reviews were good. Not only were the tasters a bit shocked that the wine did not suck, but I was a bit surprised since the test bottle came directly from the bottom of the carboy from the last racking. It was loaded with excess tartaric, with large crystals clearly visible in the bottle. The wine is young, but the flavor is there. I think it is just a matter of aging, mellowing and dialing the color back a bit from orange to yellow.