The Howling Good Red was the
largest single batch of a wine we've bottled. It was intimidating to
think about the overall quantity: 34 gallons of wine put into 168
bottles. Yikes! Kelly and I were very happy to have my sister
Rosalie, who had just moved here, available to help with the processing.
Kelly and I had performed
blending trials and had ultimately decided an even split between the 2010 Lodi
Zinfandel (CA) and the 2010 Yadkin Valley Syrah (NC). The acidity of the
NC Syrah helped balance out the intensity of the Zinfandel, and it lowered the
alcohol content. It is not often that winemakers, amateur or
professional, get the opportunity to make a wine from two grapes that were
grown on opposite ends of the country. This truly American blend is about
14.5% alcohol by volume.
It took our small assembly line
of three about four hours to bottle all of the wine. One person prepped
the bottles, one filled each bottle using the Enolmatic, and the last person
corked. We rotated among the positions. Definitely a very hands-on,
exhausting experience. But fun none-the-less.
The fun continues as we still
need to label the 14 cases of wine. Luckily that's something that can be
done small bits at a time. At least we’ve learned the valuable lesson of
at least labeling the boxes right away!
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