final seal. A great way to recycle old bottles. The little ones up front are actually frosted which kinda makes the wine look cloudy, but it actually came out pretty clear with the color akin to white zinfandel.
corked
It should be the end of the process but actually these get to age for at least a year before drinking. And who'da thought that three little vines planted under two years ago could end up looking like this. Granted, this is it... just a few bottles of finished wine, but it sure was fun running with the process. Sure you can buy the juice and make wine from that, but I really wanted to see what it would be like to run the whole gamut, from seedling to bottle. It breeds a new appreciation for the final product. This batch definitely isn't what hopefully will ultimately be produced when the vines get bigger, but it does represent a commitment which really was the whole point. What fun.
Last August they looked like this...
Then the "not so nice looking" part of the process. The bag in the bucket contains the crushed stems and seeds.
A month later it starts to clear.
Even more.
Then into the carboy and a few other steps before the bottling which I did today. Proof again that the "middle" part of any process tends to be the part that looks the roughest, can be the most tedious, is the least glamourous, and takes the most patience.
WOW!! After all that and having to wait a year to taste it, that will require some patience. I hope you will make a label for it. It really needs a name and a label.