On the 5th weekend before Christmas

I bottled some wine.  24 bottles to be exact.

You may notice one empty bottle at the front - well you do have to test it!

Making wine is quite a long job but fun.  I make two sort, the first is what I call tinned wine. This is the kit wine where I buy a kit which contains a tin of concentrate, this makes 6 bottles of wine in about 6 weeks.

The other sort is made from scratch using fruit and vegetables.  These are either given to me, grown by me or foraged.

I bottled some elderberry kit wine, elderflower and apple and plain elderflower which was started in June this year, not quite ready to drink yet. The apple and elderflower started in June last year would not clear, properly, so have given up and bottled it anyway.  Not one to put in a show, but fine to drink.

 

I also needed to "rack" some other wine.  This is a technical term for syphoning the wine from one demijohn to another to take away the sediment that forms in the bottom.

Bottling the wine is a bit of a faff.  Firstly I collect the bottles from the storage bin behind the shed and give them a good scrub.  Pour in the steriliser and leave for a bit.  Then with some help syphon with a plastic tube into the bottles.  Push the corks in with a special corking tool, write a label and transfer to my "wine cellar". Haha- I mean the garage.

This whole palaver of bottling 24 bottles and racking 3 jars took me all afternoon!

I make wine for a few reasons

It is nice to drink!

It is much cheaper than bought wine.  The kit wine works out at about £1.50 a bottle and the homemade is the price of a bag of sugar and some yeast, sometimes a carton of fruit juice too. Maybe 30 p a bottle.

There are less chemicals in homemade.

It is better for the environment on two counts.  Firstly my wine hasn't been shipped across the world.  sometimes we buy wine from Chile and Australia and I wonder how much energy it takes to get it here. then there is all the  travelling to the shop to buy it and bringing it home. Wine bottles are quite heavy.  Secondly I constantly re-use my bottles, I have been making wine for around 5 years and keep using the same ones, so don't have to take loads of empty bottles to the recycling bank.

Anyway job done- until next time.  

I also managed to tick some other jobs off the list including defrosting the outside freezer, doing some shopping, getting my tickets for the pantomime and cleaning out the chicken hutch.  Phew!