Today we bottled our first batch of wine! Here's what we did:
(a) Clean, sterilize, and prep bottles. To remove labels, we soaked the bottles in a water-ammonia solution, and in ideal cases the labels just peeled off; other times we had to get out the knife and start scraping. Then we washed the bottles (alt soapy water & ammonia water) and rinsed really really really well. Then just before bottling, we rinsed them with boiling water.
(b) Rent a corker. In order to insert corks, you need, well, a device to get the corks in the bottle. And we were told a hammer wouldn't work. So, we rented something that looked a lot like this: a
"Portuguese Floor Corker".(c) Final racking and
sulfiting of wine: We racked once more to get as much of the
sediment out of the wine, at the same time blended in a hint of other wine(s) to achieve a balance to the big
tannic Cab we made. Also added in 50ppm potassium
metabisulfate, to keep the wine preserved through the bottling process (and ideally to the table months down the road).
(d) Bottling: We used a hand-device, spring loaded at the bottom with a very precise on-off flow (you push down to get it to fill, release and it stops instantly). The tricky part was that you had to insert the wand ALL the way into your bottle, then once you pull it out you have an *almost* full bottle of wine (they filled a bit on the low side). So I had to aim to have the bottle be just-to-the-top full, such that when I pulled the wand out there is the ideal head space in the bottle (ideal = 1/2 - 1 inch from base of inserted cork, depending on who you ask).
(e) Cork Prep: there was a LOT of advice on how to prepare the corks - boil them,
sulfite them, keep 'em dry, buy only directly from manufacturer, etc.
This to me looked like the most concise advice on the issue (from WineMaker Magazine's WineWizard column.)(f) Corking: Using the rented
apparatus was surprisingly easy; folks said I'd need to practice but both Bruce & I got it working on the first try. We were then instructed to store the bottles upright for a few days, to let the corks expand properly before capping & turning on their sides, which is how wine is *supposed* to be stored.
Here's a
nice overview of the whole process from EC Kraus, a supply retailer.
Things we considered:
(a) Filtering the wine would have involved buying a filtering apparatus and filters (they look a lot like water filters actually). I've had lots of advice over whether to filter or not, unfiltered finally won because the wine tends to maintain more of its color and flavor, we racked enough to not worry about too much
sediment, and quite frankly one less complication during our first bottling seemed like a better idea.
(b)
Fining the wine would have involved precipitating a substance through the wine to make it more clear, and possibly reduce / soften some of the acids still in the wine. Egg whites would have been what to use for reds,
bentonite for whites, but ours looked OK so again we didn't bother this time around. Especially for the -06, which we probably racked *too* much.
(c) Non-cork closure. Yes, I love my
screwtops from a practicality standpoint, but apparently to get the right seal you need a special device. I have to say the corker was surprisingly easy to use, so we'll probably stick with it.
Final stats:
* 2006 Cabernet
Sauvignon: 77% Cab (Leach), 15% Cab (Overlook), 9%
Malbec (California), 2.2 cases
* NV Cabernet
Sauvignon: 16% 2006 Cab (Leach), 2% 2006 Cab (Overlook), 36% 2007 /Cab (Overlook), 36% 2007 Cab (Leach), 10% Cab Franc (Santa Ynez & Sonoma), 2.5 cases
* 2007 Pink: 90% Cab (Leach), 10%
storebought to fill jug (our thanks to Big House Pink!), 0.3 cases
The grapes are looking really purple, and tasting kinda sweet, so figured we better measure the sugar content.
Today we had our second in a series of parties - this one to get plastic netting over the vines, such that we, not birds, get the grapes. Here's what they looked like once we finished.
