I started making my new batches of wine in the last 2 weeks, 16 gallons worth. All my wine is made from blackberries from our property and wineberries from up in the Jefferson National Forest. It took about 35 lbs of the wineberries and 16 lbs of the blackberries for this year's batches. I had to add a little bit of grape juice to the blackberry wine because I didn't have enough berries to make 5 gallons. After fermenting for 5 days it gets siphoned into a glass carboy to sit for a few months before I siphon it again to remove the sediment. I'll repeat that every few months till the sediment is gone. It will be several months before I bottle it.
I've given several of last year's bottles away. Sometimes I gave it too early, before it aged enough and I wonder what those people had to say about my winemaking abilities. Most recently I've given it to friends who were very complimentary of it. I don't know, maybe they were just being kind. A few even said they'd pay money for it. Hmmm, I wonder. As you see in the pictures I dress my wine up, ok, maybe not up, but I dress it. It's supposed to be kept in the dark so I put jackets on it instead. The blackberry wine is in James' letterman jacket from high school.
Today I decided to try something different, a drink we sampled in Italy last October. It's called Limoncello. It only has 4 ingredients, pure grain alcohol, lemon zest, sugar and water. It only has to age a month or less. It will be fun to serve it with our woodfired pizza, Italian style.
As I type this I'm munching on some bread I made this afternoon, a new recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, mashed potato, rosemary and garlic bread. It's unbelievably delicious. I will definitely make this one again. This one could fatten me up in a hurry, it's so good. I put LOTS of garlic in it. When I capitalize "lots" you get the picture right? No one is going to want to get near me tomorrow. Now Polly just needs to have her babies so I can make cheese from her milk. Bread, wine and cheese, mmmmmm mmm. That's the good life, for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment