Some Things Do Get Better With Age

My most recent hobby is going well.  Step four, of four, got taken care of this weekend, and I now have 27 bottles of wine aging away.  The recommendation is to wait at least one month before opening up a bottle so the full glass, taste test is yet to come.

When we bottled on Sunday, we took a sample and closely examined the color and got a small taste to make sure it was drinkable.  I didn’t know what to expect, I had only tasted a small amount at step two while trying to get the siphon going, and mostly it was a mouthful of liquid with a few bits of bark, that kind of tasted somewhat like wine.  No bark bits in this glass and it did, in fact taste like wine, and not too bad wine at that.  It didn’t have a lot of legs, (wine terminology having to do with the alcohol content) and I am not sure if that improves with age, proof I am totally learning every bit of this as I go, but in a month’s time, for sure it will taste even better, so says the box anyway.

These do it yourself kits are great!  They come with everything you could possibly need, and a few things I didn’t even know we would need.  That bottling attachment was the coolest!  We didn’t spill one drop while bottling and all of our bottles were perfectly filled to exactly where they needed to be.

With a vineyard growing,  hopefully all of this wine making will prepare me for what is to come when we really do have grapes to do this with.  Although, our vineyard is a muscadine vineyard, and my neighbor often reminds me that muscadines aren’t considered grapes here in Tennessee, anyone else heard of that?  Oh well, they are grapes to me.  I am trying to get my hands on several gallons of muscadine grapes this week so I can see how making a batch of wine from fresh fruit goes, but it is close to the end of the season and not many places have a lot left (I may get to stomp grapes yet!). But if that doesn’t pan out, another 20 odd bottles of Merlot may be next on the wine making agenda.