Bottled my White Zin today Pics

This wine is awesome! I tried a rather large glass from the bottom of the carboy. It was cloudy but so good. I think it is ready to drink now but I will wait.I ended up with 30 bottles.

Wow- that is beautiful! Such a great color. I bottled some beautiful apple wine today (no pics, though) but I did a motley assortment of bottles and it isn't nearly as gorgeous as what you have there.

Thanks for sharing your pics!

Yooper Chick said:

Wow- that is beautiful! Such a great color. I bottled some beautiful apple wine today (no pics, though) but I did a motley assortment of bottles and it isn't nearly as gorgeous as what you have there.

Thanks for sharing your pics!

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Thank you for the kind words.
I bet your apple wine is fantastic. How long did it sit before you bottled it? My two gallon batches have just started getting clear and it's been about 7 weeks. I noticed today that they are no longer suitable for photography props.
I figure they will need another 4 or 5 months before bottling.

RichBrewer said:

Thank you for the kind words.
I bet your apple wine is fantastic. How long did it sit before you bottled it? My two gallon batches have just started getting clear and it's been about 7 weeks. I noticed today that they are no longer suitable for photography props.
I figure they will need another 4 or 5 months before bottling.

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My apple wine was incredibly quick- only about 4 or 5 months from ferment to bottle. I bottled it dry, at .996. It is really tasty- a bit tart but still a good bit of apple flavor. My dandelion wine, however is another story. I fined it to help clear it finally, and racked it again today. The dandelion tastes fine, but there is no way it's ready to bottle yet. I bet it'll keep throwing less for a while. I might need to sweeten that one a bit- it's at .992 and way too dry for that type of wine. I think I 'll let it sit a bit and see what I think in the spring.

I think your apple wine would still be photography worthy. Go ahead and take a pic and let me see!

But......it isn't white.

Dude said:

But......it isn't white.

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OK. OK.
I just bottled my pink zin...
Better???

mmm...looks de lish! i havnt tryed making a zin yet. yet! we got 15 gallons of concord grape wine in it 7th month going right now! cant wait!

I just opened a bottle to give it a try. It's been a month and the directions say it should be ready. I thought it tasted pretty good but when I turned around and looked at SWMBO, I thought she had tasted rat poison. I hope it improves over the next few months or I'm going to have to drink 29 more bottles of wine by myself...

The wine looks good for sure, but I'm impressed by your corking abilities. All of my corks stick out 1/4 to 3/8 of and inch and everyone of them is slanted on the top. I bought a used wing-type corker, but cannot get them corks flush or even.


The wines that I make for SWMBO are kit wines and drinkable in 4 weeks. I'm not much of a wine maker I guess, but this stuff is good.

Flyin' Lion said:

The wine looks good for sure, but I'm impressed by your corking abilities. All of my corks stick out 1/4 to 3/8 of and inch and everyone of them is slanted on the top. I bought a used wing-type corker, but cannot get them corks flush or even.

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I bought this corker:
http://store.thebrewhut.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=62

I used synthetic corks and adjusted the corker so they went in just below the lip of the bottle. It was a piece of cake and I actually enjoyed the process.

I have that same corker (or one very similar), have adjusted the thing to plunge these corks well into the bottle and even soaked my corks in sanitizer for at least 15 mins per my LHBS instructions. This is just an unresolved problem I have--not trying to hijack your thread...

EDIT: oh and I also use synthetic corks.


I can think of worse things than drinking 30 bottles of wine alone, if you try hard they could be gone in a month.

Flyin' Lion said:

I have that same corker (or one very similar), have adjusted the thing to plunge these corks well into the bottle and even soaked my corks in sanitizer for at least 15 mins per my LHBS instructions. This is just an unresolved problem I have--not trying to hijack your thread...

EDIT: oh and I also use synthetic corks.


I can think of worse things than drinking 30 bottles of wine alone, if you try hard they could be gone in a month.

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I didn't soak the corks. The instructions said there was no need to.
I'm very new to this but I think there are two things that cause resistance. 1- the cork is compressed and shoved into an opening that is a smaller diameter and 2- you are compressing the air in the top of the bottle. I've heard of this air pushing the cork back out.
One trick I think Walker talked about is placing a thread or small string into the bottle next to the cork. after the cork is inserted the string is pulled out and the air is released.
30 bottles of wine in a month? Can I still have my beer too?

I think I remember the string idea from when I hijacked your applewine thread. I gotta stop doing this to you --it's your pictures, I think.

Flyin' Lion said:

I think I remember the string idea from when I hijacked your applewine thread. I gotta stop doing this to you --it's your pictures, I think.

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Not a problem what so ever. We are keeping the conversation going and that's a good thing.

If SWMBO doesn't like that White Zin and you want to do a swap let me know. Everyone who has tried this Calypso Bianco has liked it.

Flyin' Lion said:

If SWMBO doesn't like that White Zin and you want to do a swap let me know. Everyone who has tried this Calypso Bianco has liked it.

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I might just do that. I'm going to give it a few months but no matter what, maybe we should do a swap.

I'm up for it.

Another question, when you "operate" the corker, do you use a slow and steady motion or one quick jerk. I try to be slow and steady, similar to capping beer bottles.

Flyin' Lion said:

I'm up for it.

Another question, when you "operate" the corker, do you use a slow and steady motion or one quick jerk. I try to be slow and steady, similar to capping beer bottles.

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I pretty much did it slow and steady.

Nice job!

I wish I had the luxury of drinking 30 bottles of wine in a month... ;D