Last year in April I started my very first batch of homemade wine. Most of you will remember my diary about making dandelion wine. I am now ready to bottle it.
Just a quick reminder of how I started for those who didn’t read the diary.
I transferred (racked) it again and topped it off with sugar water.
Racked again a few months later.
And now the rest of the story…
I racked the wine again into a new demijohn. It was still a bit cloudy so we used a clarifier.
And it cleared up after a couple of days.
A gallon of wine makes five bottles. The bottling is quite easy. You mix up a batch of hot water and sanitizer and pour some into the bottle washer, give them a few squishes and put them upside down in the bottle rack.
Then we sanitize the bottle filler and add water to it to create a vacuum. My husband gets it started in a container and then starts filling the bottles.
Luckily, there’s a little left over for us to taste. It’s citrusy and light and quite good. Every website says to allow it to age in the bottle so we will.
The next step is corking the bottles. We use a hand-corker.
Now the labels are on and in the cellar where they will age in the bottle for a year. I’ll start batch two in April when the dandelions reappear. I think I’ll use a slightly different recipe for the next batch.
And now on to the only thing blooming in my garden. It’s Hellebore ‘Wedding Cake’. This is the second year for these and as my mom always says about perennials — The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year the leap.
They're definitely creeping.
What’s blooming in your gardens?