Saturday, September 18, 2010

Started first red wine

Ok, so I'm into amateur winemaking. So far I've made two rhubarb wines (the first of which was aweful, the second one turned out much better and is about ready to be bottled).

Once I started those rhubarb wines, I also planted a couple of vines to do the real stuff. This year came the first (small) harvest of those plants.

The grapes about a month ago, not fully ripe yet
Last Wednesday I harvested the grapes and prepared to crush them. Luckily (or sadly?) enough I didn't need stomp them with my feet, for someone at the local wine making (and tasting) club came to the rescue with this gem:

First harvest, ready to be crushed
Note the many small green grapes. Those are grapes that weren't fertilized (common among local winemakers this year, it started raining at the wrong time). Hopefully they won't affect the end-product too much.

Whizzing the grapes through the machine
The juice had a nice acidity but only slightly more than half of the required sugar. Corrections will be made after the pulp fermentation. That fermentation has been going on for a few days now (started with a Port yeast).

Pulp fermentation
I'm exited to see (taste) how my first red wine turns out!

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