RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

MAKING A GREAT WINE THE EASY WAY

One of life little pleasures is sipping a nice glass of wine with my girls. I've been meaning go get some started but it's been one thing after another and I never seem to take the time to do it. I wanted to have some for Christmas since all my girls will be home.  So on April 13, I made a special effort to get to Wine Kitz up town and purchased two wine kits since I wanted a white and a red wine.
It just happened that both of the wines that I wanted were on sale for 20% off. I saved $50. plus a bit of tax. An unexpected nice surprise.

George looking at something as he walks to the store. I'm so glad that he could spare the time to help me.

I happen to love a full bodied Ultimate Estate Gewurztraminer and I'm not a wine connoisseur like my son in law is but it's a darn good wine. Although I love red wine, I'm always afraid to drink some as I get terrible stomach cramps and red face with big headaches. I will try one sip and wait to see if I react before consuming anymore. I explain this to the lady at the wine store and told her what I was looking for and she suggested Valpolicella  pronounces val-poly-chella.
I've tried it and it's a lovely wine and I have no adverse effect with it so I'm really happy. I know that the girls will love it. I'll try some other types later.

With two batches I knew that I would need some help to bottle and cap and seal and I asked my husband George if he could help me bottle. My appointment was at 3:00PM and I needed to be back at work for 4:00PM to feed the calves and check on the expectant heifer.



The kits come in big boxes and the grape juice is in thick plastic bags. There are a lot of carboys   full of wine waiting to be bottled. The big plastic containers each hold fermenting wine.I'm only showing one section of the long room.

 My wine was ready to bottle on the 17 of June but since they had a sale, they were bursting at the seam with customers wanting in on the deal. I could only get an appointment on the 26th of June for bottling.



Here is another room with full of carboys filled with wine and again, only a section is showing.

Together it only took us 30 minutes from start to finish to process both batches. Each batch is 22 litres. A large bottle of wine is 1 litre and a small bottle is 750 ml.  The girl told me that I would need 62 small bottles. Since I had 22 large one litre bottles and 31 smaller bottles I had just enough. I washed bottles at home until my legs got numb from standing. That was the only real hard work I had to do to get my wine ready.



On the other side of this wall there are a multitude of wine kits and on this wall supplies for those who make their own wine at home.

 The folks at Wine Kitz were so helpful, they help carry the boxes of bottles from the car and back again when we were done. We worked super fast as time is money for them. They are very busy all the time.


Some wine labels for a variety of wine.  Not showing,  a section for plastic toppers to add a nice finish to the wine bottle.

You can see the corking machine on the left side of the photo above. The bottle sits on that little platform and it goes down . The cork goes above that shiny thing on the top and the see through door is closed and the cork is pushed into the bottle in the blink of an eye.
I asked permission to take photos of course and explained that some of my blog followers had never heard of such a store.  She was all too happy to oblige.

Since we were in such a rush, the photos are just snap shots and not great quality.



This is my uncle's  brother in law, not my sister in law as previously stated, lol. What a surprise to see him working there.
While I was running around taking pictures and choosing labels he sterilized my bottles.  Against the wall are my bottles. He was finishing off someone else 's wine.  That machine is adjustable for different height bottles. Here he was finishing filling someone's bottles.


The system is flushed and cleaned for my batch. In the back, the lady is putting another batch of my smaller bottles through the sanitizer.
On the right of the photo is the corking chamber. Sorry. I forgot to take a decent photo of it. I would have needed another person to take photos.


This little red hot coil is the plastic cap shrinker. All I did was place a plastic cap on the bottle and place the top of the bottle in the coil for one second only and the plastic shrinks tight on the bottle top.   It's quick and very easy. You place the bottle in a compartment and place a cork on top and close the compartment door and the pressure pushes the cork in and you open the door and remove the bottle.



With every batch of wine there is a little extra left over and George was in a rush to try it.
See the plastic cap on top of the green bottle.


I hope that you enjoyed seeing how easy the process  of making your own wine without the fuss of caring for it at home if you are a busy person. There are several wine making stores in my city and probably in yours too. I hope that you give it a try if you drink wine. It's way cheaper than buying wine at the liquor store.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit and be sure to follow my blog by clicking the Bloglovin button on my side bar. Only a few days left before July 1st and Blogger will discontinue Blog Reader.
I'm looking forward to reading your comments. They are like personal visit and I love them.

JB

21 comments:

  1. truly neat to have this convenience! love all their quick machines, too. and glad you found a red you can drink without the effects of the tannins. :)

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  2. Julia You never cease to amaze me. the wine ferments for two months? ... hmmm well? I don't drink much of anything any longer but I thought wine needed to age longer.... well? it'll finish aging, however in the bottle, right? since you will open it for Christmas time.

    What fun... ;)

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  3. That's very interesting! Thanks for taking us along. I'd probably happily sample the white... ;-)

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  4. This was really interesting! My brother in law makes wine, and loves to do it. I don't drink alcohol at all; I get migraines. I am glad you were able to find one you enjoy!

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  5. Very interesting! I'm one of those who had never heard of such a thing. I'll have to look and see if there is one in Bend just 45 minutes away. I have a strong feeling that there is because Bend is like the micro-brewery capital of, well, at least of Oregon. Bend-ites love their social drink!

    Blessings, Debbie

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  6. Very clever indeed Julia, & now the contentment of knowing that you have this labour of love to sip & share with your girls!
    My husband Bill was always doing this process with the boys, the stories they would come home with, now you've provided the photos of their adventure!
    The wine company you used is the same one that Bill used in London Ontario, so I'm sure it's a 'chain store' & many of your readers will be able to stock their wine racks too!
    Bill just loved filling his wine racks & sharing a glass or two...with family & friends. He's just too busy out of town these days however I can see him making his wine again in a few years.
    Cheers Julia!

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  7. Very interesting to see how you make your wine. I had no idea there are stores like this and you can make wine in this manner. My nephew makes his from scratch to finish. My brother has started growing grapes to make his own wine. It has become a very popular thing to do now I think. Enjoy all that wine sweet Julia! Hugs

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  8. Julia- what an enormous project- I can't even imagine taking that on!! I'm sure you will enjoy the fruits of your labor!
    Thank you for your visits and comments- you mean so much to me--
    Vicki

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  9. had no idea, this as very interesting!

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  10. This was an interesting project to read about! How special it will be to drink your own wine. I don't think I've ever heard of this before in my area. I may have to investigate. There are several wineries nearby, and some of them are set up for tasting and tours.

    I hope this will be a good holiday week-end for you! Of course, when you have a farm, there are no holidays.:-)

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  11. This is news to me! I have never seen a do-it-yourself wine store. Is there anything you can't do, Julia?

    Sarah

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  12. I've never heard of such a thing, how great. Love your pictures. You said something about blogger stopping July 1, don't tell me we are your to lose your blog???

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  13. Wow this is unlike anything I've ever seen. I would really love to visit a store like this someday and see all that they do.

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  14. It's great to be able to do all that in the store. Then just come home and uncork one. Cheers!

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  15. I'm not an alcohol drinker, but this is an interesting process and looks like a great way to go instead of doing it all yourself! Thanks for sharing!

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  16. Wow! I had no idea what all went into bottling wine. Great post.

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  17. Hope your wine turns out great! I've been trying to leave you a message but thus far still hiccups with bloglovin... Hope you had a wonderful Canada Day!

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  18. wonderful post, Julia...I feel like you opened
    a bottle of wine for my eyes
    and I'm seeing something I hadn't known
    there was to smile about:)
    what a cool way to purchase wine!
    I love how organic the process.
    That is just totally awesome.
    thanks for inspiring me
    (and I can't drink red wine either...I wonder
    if I just haven't found the right one yet)
    -Jennifer

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