Chokecherry wine bottling day!

I'm bottling 18 gallons of chokecherry wine tomorrow. I have 90 cleaned bottles, the corks ready, and the wine up on the island to rack in the morning. Here's a picture:



It's one of favorite wines, and since it's time to pick chokecherries for the 2010 batch, I thought it was time to bottle the 2009 batch.

Yoop, I am thinking about experimenting with mixing some chokecherries that we are picking this weekend with other fruits in test batches. Any suggestions?

Never had chokecherry wine...but Yoop like the way your kitchen is laid out...I bought a siphone hose with a value that will cut off when bottle is full. If you do not have one it is worth the 30.00 as cuts down on the mess...

chip82 said:

Yoop, I am thinking about experimenting with mixing some chokecherries that we are picking this weekend with other fruits in test batches. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

I've never mixed chokecherries with anything except some concord grapes, and some black cherries, so I don't have any experience with that. Chokecherry is pretty good, with a light cherry flavor, and some tannins so it may be good with other fruits. I usually make "straight" wines and blend later if it's needed.

Turnerdude1 said:

Never had chokecherry wine...but Yoop like the way your kitchen is laid out...I bought a siphone hose with a value that will cut off when bottle is full. If you do not have one it is worth the 30.00 as cuts down on the mess...

Click to expand...

I have a bottling wand, and I actually racked all of the wine into a bottling bucket to bottle it. It's easier to add sulfites, and I wanted to rack off of the oak chips. It took several hours, but it's all done now. We ended up with 95 bottles total.

You can't see it in the picture, but my sink is off to the left and the dishwasher is on the island facing the sink. I put the empty bottles on the dishwasher door, and fill them there. Any overfilling spills onto the dishwasher door and then it's easy to just close the door when we're finished! I fill the bottles and put them on the island, and Bob stands on the other side of the island, corking and labeling. It goes pretty well.

uneducated here - whats the purpose of the towels on the carboys? keep sunlight out?

59f100292 said:

uneducated here - whats the purpose of the towels on the carboys? keep sunlight out?

Click to expand...

Yes. There was indirect light in my kitchen but the carboys were in the brewery/laundry room before that. I don't have any bright windows in there, but I still keep the carboys covered.

what damage does the light do - i heard rumor that it damages the color - any thing else?

59f100292 said:

what damage does the light do - i heard rumor that it damages the color - any thing else?

Click to expand...

Well, "light struck" wines taste funny, too. They almost have a sherry note to them. Not good.