Sunday, July 28th ....

Yesterday was the big day: our first lesson in running a winery.  Jamie and I were up early, eager to get started but there was no sign of Pamela.  By 10.30, I was becoming anxious so I rang her ... she would be there soon!  So, it was 11.30 before we got underway.

Of course, we had no fruit so our task was to work on the wine which had already been made.  There are vats of Cherry, Raspberry, Blueberry and Blackberry which had been made in early 2012 but they were sitting happily so we planned first to filter some Strawberry wine, made in the past eight months which is best bottled fresh.  Each batch needs three filterings before bottling.

The big thing is hygiene so we spent some time cleaning and sterilising the stainless steel vats to transfer the wine after it was filtered.  Pamela had expected her ex-partner, Geoff, to be there to help us but he hadn’t turned up, so she rang him ... he would be there in 45 minutes.  It was almost 2 o’clock when he arrived so we agreed we should have lunch first.  You can imagine how twitchy I’m getting by this stage.  We hadn’t even opened up the vat!

However, at last the first vat was cracked - 200 litres of Strawberry wine made from 109 Kg of frozen berries in December 2012.  The aroma was overpowering.  It took about 15 minutes to run it through the filter machine into a clean vat.  It will need one more filtering in a couple of weeks before it is bottled.  Surprisingly, it is bone-dry and we will add a little fructose as the final process.  This will bring out the flavour.

The second batch was 400 litres made in March this year from 208 Kg of fresh strawberries which Pamela’s supplier didn’t know what to do with at the height of the season.  Apparently, we’ll get inundated with fruit during the summer as the growers have surpluses.  We’ve got to be ready to make wine in a hurry as the fruit rolls in. 

It was close to 6 before we finished and cleaned up.  It’s not a difficult job and can be done with one person but Pamela is small and it’s beyond her.

Today, we’re giving the final two filterings to some Raspberry which we can bottle over the next few days.  Normally, there would be two weeks between filtering but this wine is particularly clear so we can filter twice on the same day.  Most of this will be sold as cleanskins to the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and they’ll attach their own labels.  A lot of the Strawberry will go to The Berry Patch in Turners Beach under a similar arrangement. 

We’re also having a stall at the Craft Fair where the big money will come from selling Pink Ladies – little bit of wine, ice cubes, filled up with lemonade, $4.  Pamela and Jamie will have to run this as Marilyn and I will be too busy.  BTW, it’s now 11 o’clock and Pamela hasn’t arrived yet so Jamie is going to start getting organised.  I’m sure we can do it on our own if we have to.