I’m pretty lucky that I’ve got a very good relationship with my ex-wife, mother of three of my sons. She enjoys wine, and I thought I’d help her out and purchased a starter winemaking kit along with a Chamblaise kit for her birthday.

I wasn’t around to help her out, but one of her co-workers makes wine, and Angela thought the co-worker would be able to assist with the various steps. Angela’s co-worker did help with starting the kit, but wasn’t around when it was time to rack the wine into the secondary. So, Angela followed the directions provided and did that part on her own.

Yesterday, I drove to Ottawa (where my ex and three sons live), and thought I’d give Angela a hand with another racking; her wine should be ready for bottling in a week or so. She did rack the wine about three weeks ago herself, but it still not quite ready as far as having cleared. It also needed some degassing.

So, we go take a look at her wine in the carboy. A closer look at the air lock reveals no water in it at all. Bone dry. Angela did not realize that she needed to put water in the airlock, so it had been sitting for three weeks, wide open essentially, to air.

I was a bit concerned. Well, a “bit” is an understatement. Here I had been telling Angela all about the wonderful benefits of home winemaking, and now would I have to tell her that her wine was no good?

I was expecting to taste the wine and find off-flavours, if not outright vinegar. First, I smelled it.. smelled fine to me. Then I tasted – again, it tasted just like a young Chamblaise should taste. Amazing! For three weeks, essentially there was no real airlock on that wine, yet even through the biggest rule was broken, it was still ok.

I will suggest that Angela add a bit of sulphite to the wine before bottling, just in case. I’ll probably be back out there in about two weeks to help her do the bottling as I have a floor corker and she has none at this time.

But there you have it. The biggest and most important rule of winemaking was broken, but still, it would seem, the wine is turning out fine.

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