Bottling Day

Not Earth Day, not Oceans Day but Bottling Day. Today was the day we finally managed to bottle our wines from 2021. We had intended to bottle after six months but life and death both got in the way. 

The red has a beautiful colour and nose. A bit sharp on the tongue but not undrinkable. Let's hope it ages well from here on. 

The white has an interesting colour, sort of rose, and nose as well, but to me it tasted more like a dessert wine. Alex just thought it had a strange flavour. We only have 2.5 bottles of it so no great loss, but it's back to the drawing board. I think it is time to take a course in winemaking now that I know what questions to ask. 

The Brix reading was 14 for the white and 15 for the red.  That would make the alcohol content 2.8% for the white and 3% for the red if I am calculating it correctly. It's hard to remember how to do something when you only do it once per year. 

The specific gravity was 1.010 for the white and 1.020 for the red. Not nearly enough and the hygrometer indicated it was the finishing SG for beer in both cases! Oh my. I hope it does not spoil with too low an alcohol content. How did we get it right the first time? 

We got 18 bottles of red plus one for the remainder with dregs to settle out. It was six bottles plus a little extra for each of the three demijohns of red. 

Naturally, we made a mess in the pantry as I was doing the filling while Alex was watching the volume in the demijohns. At least now we have room in the pantry again. Next year, we should have a shed in which to work and store our winemaking equipment. That will make it more reasonable.