Hi everyone, this is Susan. I feel a little responsible for keeping up the Down Under blog while my beloved Melonie is in the U.S.
Tomorrow I'm going on a solo road trip. Yay! Anyway, I couldn't bear the thought of all those beautiful volunteer muscatel grapes out the back going rotten (or being eaten by the carroway birds!), so below are some photos of my first attempt at crushing grapes ... all 11 kgs! ... the hope being that I'll have time to take the frozen juice I made and turn it into some organic red wine. Yum! At least, that's the hope!
Picked and ready for washing and de-stemming.
It took some time to get rid of the stems and separate the unripe green muscatels. Hoping the greenies will ripen off the vine and I can crush them, too, in a few days.
Sanitized the bucket, washed my feet, and climbed on in. The first step was the squishiest! Lovely! Friend Sabi turned up just in time to take the photo!
I must admit that around this time, I was thinking about my old life in Seattle, wondering about all my friends working in offices while I was in the Aussie bush playing with grapes! (BTW, that's Buddha's teddy, not mine.)
Super juicy! Got about a gallon after we poured this through some clean muslin. Not bad for free grapes! And the vine is still laden with more yet to ripen. Ho boy, tho, very time consuming and messy!Now I need to find the right recipe for a nicely alcoholic, preferably dry red. I might wait for Melonie to return before taking next steps. You know, for some extra confidence. It's a bit hot to start fermentation right now anyway.
Say, thanks Karen and Sara for your advice and inspiration!
4 comments:
I don't think that I'd drink your wine...did you wash your feet??!~X
hahahahahahahaha!
I adore these photos. And the seriousness of the enterprise! But good lord, darling, if you had come and visited me in the South, you might have encountered the thick-skinned muscatel grapes and the "wine" that is sometimes made from it. It's said to have started the Civil War by making all of South Carolina go blind and bat-shit crazy.
I may have made that last bit up. Be forewarned, however. You may want to hire a taster. Someone, shall we say, expendable.
mmm feet fungi wine. This could be a new thing.... I'll pass.
Of course I washed my feet! LOL.
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