Bockelin

Just before Christmas I had to put the demi-johns of wine in the shed to be out of the way. I brought them back inside the other day. As they warmed up I was worried they might start fermenting again. I could not bottle the wine if it was not finished fermenting. After a couple of days in the kitchen the demi-johns were up to temperature. I judged that all but one wine had stopped.

I had been saving wine bottles over the Christmas period so had loads to sort through. I needed thirty bottles. I tried to find five matching bottles per demi-john. Having sorted through the pile and found pretty much what I needed. Then it was just a case of washing the bottles, syphoning off the demi-johns into the bottles, capping or corking the bottles, checking the specific gravity, writing labels. Then the small matter of washing out the demi-johns and cleaning up. And that was the bockelin done.

The demi-john that needed more time has been put in the corner of the dining room until it stops bubbling. This d-j is the wine made from my own grapes. The finished bottles were put away in the shed until the summer.