Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Spring Barrel Tasting



We shared our first bottle Monday night with some special friends.
It was delicious!!!!!!!!!!1

I have been waiting all week to get some more pictures of our weekend, as my camera battery died in the middle of... I guess the term is called "racking off" some Rose` wine this weekend. (According to Strider, who has been patiently waiting for these pictures all week to be posted?)
This very good friend of ours happens to be a wine vintner as previously mentioned in my past post. He is one of the most generous people I know. He gladly wanted to share his knowledge and expertise with us and helped us through our first wine making experience. It has been great fun. We started last weekend with the Rose` and will soon be "racking off" our homemade Riesling. Our buddy wine maker even has me growing my own wine grapes in my backyard. He just planted...oh I don't know a gazillion more this spring. A variety called Viognier. I can never get the pronunciation correct.


His newly planted grapes, with a fountain in the middle!

I am so far from a wine snob here folks; I barely know a good wine when I taste one, but our friend is kind and patiently educating us. We live in a region of WA state that is getting very well know for their wines. It has become quite the industry here.
So this is what "racking off wine" looks like.

Preparing the equipment

My son helping clean the corking apparatus



Strider in charge of the corks!

So what we did after all the cleaning and prep, Strider filled each bottle with nitrogen oxide, to force all the air out of the bottles. Because it is heavier than air it stayed in the bottles.

Then the wine was siphoned out of the keg and into the bottles.

Here we see my husband and son getting ready to man the corking machine


First bottle!

First taste
The wine maker and his helpers (Strider, Winemaker, Husband, Son)

It took them several hours to do one keg which I think produced 7 cases of wine.

I was also blessed with a gift of their freshly laid chicken eggs. We made omelet's for breakfast the next day! mmmmm


Thanks G. family, you are all amazing, and if you have a chance R. email me those other pic's :>)

10 comments:

Dorothy said...

Well...What I saw in all of this wine activity...was a beautiful and happy occasion of family and friends...The end results down the road...another happy occasion with a nice glass of wine, thanks to all your efforts. What a fun post...Dee Dee

Barbara said...

Looks like you all had fun. We used to make wine many years ago but not with grape. Elderberry for red and Elderflower for white plus many other flowers and fruits.
One year wemade ginger beer. Did not get to drink it though. We stored it in our garage and all the corks popped. Nice mess.

Vee said...

Looks like a lot of fun. I started chuckling right in the middle of it because I looked to the right and there was Puddin' Toes grinning at me as if she was in on the whole thing. Too cute!

Enjoy the wine; I hope that it's delicious!

Knitting Mania said...

I'm so impressed you guys...a family affair too! Can't wait to be one of your privileged guests to sample your first batch of wine!

How long does it have to age? And do I see new fancy wine glasses on the bar? hmmmmm

Please bring a bottle to MT when you come visit this summer-- ;)

Strider said...

I see you guys finished off your first bottle. We had one for dinner on Tuesday night. It was really good. You forgot to tell the folks that Dan and I named our wine MD 50/50. You would think that name came from me, but it was your husband! I wish I had thought of it. Good time, good post, ugly photo of me!

Nadine said...

How cool is that. Looks like lots of work, but I bet it tasted really good.

Make mine pink said...

Hey Cindy! That looks like it was so much fun!!! What a terrific experience you all were having! And I can say for sure that the wine the other night was delicious! Totally delightful!

I hope I did this right. When I signed in, it didn't seem to work right...I think having used my hotmail account has messed up something. Let's try and get together and you can show me what I'm doing wrong....maybe we need to do it over on gmail? Anyway..let's hope this posts okay.

Linda said...

I tried making my own wine many, many years ago and ended up with vinegar. Looks like fun.

Strider said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. Maybe you'll get to do just that! You never know...God is out side of time....Back, to the future!

Lavinia said...

Hello there, my first visit to your blog, after you so kindly commented on the photo of the clematis vine on mine...

Your banner is just lovely...masses and masses of colourful tulips, I want to gather them all up in my arms...

I love that fountain! How beautiful it will look when the grape vines have grown...but it is already beautiful as it is. I adore fountains.

This wine racking looks like a lot of fun. And work, but mostly fun.

Thank you for posting and sharing this glimpse of your life.

P.S. Your granddaughter is a little beauty!

Regards,
Lavinia Ladyslipper

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