Faithful readers may recall that in the Fall of 2009 Barb and I
helped brother-in-law Mike harvest his grapes out at their lake cottage.
Click here to refresh your memory.
After we had cleaned them of all stems, Mike took the grapes in to a wine-making
establishment at one of the local malls. They do all of the hard work and
give a call when the wine is ready for bottling. That call came
shortly before we arrived in North Dakota this year, and we finally got around
to that pleasant chore on Dec. 7. Here are some pictures taken
during the bottling. Oh, and the wine actually tastes pretty darn
good.
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Step 1: sterilize bottles and put on rack to dry
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Barb feeds bottles while Mike sterilizes
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Placing a bottle over this gizmo causes it to squirt sterilizer up inside the bottle
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Bottles drying on the rack
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Step 2: fill the bottles using an auto-feed pump
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The pump sure beats having to siphon -- ask me how I know
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Step 3: cork the bottles
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Step 4: clean bottle and place foil over cork
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Step 5: Seal the foil by placing neck in this heating device for a few seconds
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Filled, corked, and sealed bottles ready for labeling
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Step 6: Place the labels on the bottles
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Step 6: Place labels on the bottles
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Handsome label, no?
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Good enough to taste?
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They sure think so!
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December 7, 2010: Bottling Wine; North Dakota
