Join us for our last of a two part series of making wine from our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from our backyard vines. We have six Cabernet Sauvignon, and three Gewurztraminer grape vines. This year we harvested the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes on September 29th, and finished the process to let them sit for three months starting October 14th. In this part two, you will see us sterilize the equipment, siphon the wine into bottles, and then cork the bottles. I forgot to record some steps in the process, but in future episodes I will be more on the ball.
Time Stamps
- 0:00 Intro
- 0:25 1. Sterilize the Equipment
- 0:57 2. Siphon Into Bottles
- 1:53 3. Cork the Bottles
- 2:24 4. Drink the Wine
- 3:30 Outro
Transcript
Cold Open
I am only a few months away from starting my next year’s batch of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Intro
Welcome to another Campbell’s Garden episode. During the growing season we post weekly garden updates and recipes all year round. Today we are bottling our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from winemaking! We’d like to invite you to subscribe to the channel and ring the bell to get notified about future Campbell’s Garden videos.
Discussion
It’s been nine months since I last siphoned the wine. It’s a bit hot on the nose, but I’m hoping that eases off a bit with resting in the bottles. The fact that I combined the free run wine with the hard-pressed wine is the primary reason for this, I believe.
1: Sterilize the Equipment
At this stage it is imperative that you do not introduce any contaminants into the wine, so you will want to sanitize and sterilize all of your equipment that will be touching the wine. You can use a number of products to this end, I traditionally use Iodophor or Star San Sanitizers.
2: Siphon Into Bottles
When the equipment is dry, you’re ready to siphon the wine from the secondary fermenter into the bottles. I completely forgot to film most of this second video process, so you will have to excuse me. Siphoning into the bottles is easiest with a bottling bucket and a hose with a bottle filler. I always use one, except for this batch. I forgot to sterilize the bottling bucket so I made due with a siphoning hose. It was messier by far!
3: Cork the Bottles
Now that I have the bottles filled, I use my Double Lever Corker to cork the wine. I load a sterilized cork into the corker, then use both hands to press down on it to insert into the bottle. I ran into one bottle that resisted a bit and had a little glass fracture off the side. This has always been a fear of mine, but it didn’t affect the inside of the bottle neck, so I left it as is.
4: Drink the Wine
At this point you allow the bottles to rest standing for three days, before you put them on their side. After three months I thought I should give the wine a try. It was still a bit hot on the nose, but the taste was what I was looking for. I think I will give it another few months before trying again to see how it ages.
My next year’s batch will be made with natural fermentation only and it will be interesting to compare and contrast the two seasons with alternating methods of creation.
Outro
Thank you for joining us for this last of our Winemaking episodes. If you have any questions or tips, please leave them in the comments below. You can also email us at info@adampcampbell.com. Please consider hitting the like button and leaving a comment to help other gardeners and winemakers find this channel. Thank you for watching, and until next time, have a fantastic day!
