Wine Making at home

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Pinot Noir
Behold, our latest endeavor; a bottle of wine. Well, how about 30 bottles of wine.

About 6 weeks ago we bought this particular Winexpert kit and yesterday was  bottling day. We had the choice of having the wine store make the wine for us but we decided to to it all ourselves at home. The kit was purchased from them (Water and Wine, Truro) and we just put everything together according to the instructions.

Making wine at home is so simple today and the results are quite consistent from kit to kit. The wine tastes great, as it should. After the kit purchase itself and the supplies including bottles, corks, sleeves and labels the cost is around $5.00 per bottle. However, the kits are comparable to store-bought wines that are in the $15-$20 range.

We borrowed a corking machine from the store and found that particular task to be easier than we thought. The only thing we did not do was filter the wine, but it was pretty free of sediment after I racked it from the secondary back to the primary just prior to bottling. I added a 1/4 teaspoon of Sodium Metabisulfite to the mix in the event that we plan to keep some bottles for an extended period (2+ years).

All in all a great experience. After making beer for about two years, wine making is even simpler. The end result is the photo above showing a corked wine with a plastic sleeve and the appropriate Pinot Noir (New Zealand) label. Looks store bought, doesn't it!


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