Just For Sunni, And Other Things
August 22nd, 2005 | 
Author: I’ve had some email correspondence with Sunni Maravillosa which has included a wee bit on the subject of wine making. Sunni indicated to me that she was interested in making her own wine, but wondered about the amount of time that would have to be dedicated to this. I’ve tried to convince her that basic winemaking, which can produce very good wine, takes up 15 minutes to get going, and about 15 minutes a week until bottling time. Bottling time for 5 Imperial Gallons will take about an hour or so – but it’s not critical to bottle on any particular day. In fact, if you can’t bottle exactly 28 days later (for a one month kit), your wine will do nothing but bulk age a bit longer, which is a good thing!
So with this email discussion in mind, I have added a new article on Getting Started, and specifically had Sunni in mind when I wrote it. I hope she’ll read it and get started! The article is available at Getting Started – Part 2.
I did not get to starting a ginger or cranberry wine today, however I did rack my Pinot Noir from a primary into a carboy. I had a wee taste of it at the beginning of the syphon process, and it was quite nice already! The specific gravity measured at 1.010. Dead on for the secondary fermentation in the carboy.
I did start an inexpensive four week Liebraumilch kit, which was the basis of the new article I wrote, mentioned above. I was disappointed that dried elderberry flowers were not included in this kit – and I’ll have to see if I can pick some up somewhere and add it to the muss in the next day or two.
So tomorrow, hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to start that ginger wine! I might try two different batches, if I have enough ginger. One that will be fortified with grape juice later, and one that won’t be.
I’m also beginning to like the smaller pails with the tight fitting lids. I just have to punch them down a few times each day during the primary fermentation process – but I can even stack a couple of pails on top of each other, which I can’t do with the larger pails and the non-sealing lids. I know that some folks like to have an airlock on their primary fermenters if they have tight fitting lids, but I’m not convinced this is necessary if I’m around to punch the lids down.
I’ve also come across an interesting study on whether or not oxygen is important in the ageing process. Too much oxygen is BAD. But some swear by ageing bottles of wine with cork bottle closure. It’s this belief that small amounts of oxygen can pass through the cork to assist with ageing that has kept many wineries using cork with their more expensive wines. I’ll have more on this when I do more research on the study.
And that’s about it for today!
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