Here it is, five months later, and after five exciting months of watching nothing visible happening in the carboy, we decided to do something about it. Dad had taken a sip a couple of weeks ago and decided that it needed a little more sugar. Last night I finally made up a small batch of simple syrup (two cups sugar, one cup water, simmer until dissolved) and called him to come over today and decide how much to add.
When he tasted it, he thought it was ready to bottle and didn't need any sweetener! So we bottled today! I was not prepared for this, so when we gathered everything we needed....26 empty wine bottles, labels removed. Twenty six corks, set into a steamer insert and put on the stove to steam. Special tubing to siphon the wine from the carboy and into a six-gallon bucket, leaving the sediment behind...called "racking." And a special tube to bottle the wine, a cool little device that has a valve on the bottom that stays closed until you press it hard against the bottom of the wine bottle...then the wine pours out and fills the bottle. When the wine reaches the top of the bottle, you simply lift the tube and the flow stops. I just thought that was so cool! I'd thought we would be holding the tubing with a thumb and making quite a mess in the process!
When I gathered our supplies from the cellar, I discovered that everything had a strong musty smell, so everything had to be washed in a mild bleach solution and rinsed a few times. We worked together with a sinkful of bleach water and a sinkful of clear water and got done in no time.
Then we racked the wine from both the carboy and the one-gallon jug, into the pail. We put this pail onto the kitchen counter, and set up our bottles on the floor beneath it with lots of rags to absorb inevitable spills. I handed Dad clean, empty bottles while he filled them, then I took the filled bottles and put them in a clean wine box with cardboard dividers. Some of the bottles were so dark, I finally figured out that a flashlight would be useful to see the level of the wine before it got away.
We filled 26 bottles and one swing-top bottle was filled halfway. I have plenty of cloudy dregs to filter to make wine vinegar, too.
Then we used a cool little corking device that is simply two pieces of plastic that fit together. You put the steamed or boiled cork in one, like a cup, then fit the other piece inside. Place it over the neck of the bottle and push down firmly. Voila! A corked wine bottle! I was like a little kid, corking all those bottles with that ingenious little device.
I still need to clean up the kitchen, label the bottles and carry them to the cellar to age, and make my very first batch of vinegar. I'll report later when I decide exactly how I am going to do that.
Oh, and Dad said the wine tastes like cheap, cheap wine right now, but it should age nicely into something better. I tasted it...I've not been a wine drinker due to sulfite sensitivities....and I can imagine drinking it as is in a nice sangria recipe. I look forward to tasting it later when it has mellowed to see if I enjoy drinking it without disguising it with sweet juice.
I also have a small batch of elderberries in a pan on the stove that I picked, destemmed, and brought to a simmer and left to cool on the stove for a day before straining out the juice. I picked a few more tonight, and when Dad saw them, he told me he knows were there is a huge patch were he and my mother go walking....they will pick a pail or two tomorrow. Elderberry wine next! I also have a quart or two in the freezer from last year. If we don't get enough, we will mix it with purchased white grape juice and make a blush wine.
Too busy!) My poison is vodka and any citrus juice....yum!
