Blackberry Wine

With the excitement of wine harvest in Oregon, it was only fitting Jackie and I dust off our wine making skills and try our hand at making a homemade wine again. What do you get when you combine wild Oregon Blackberries and wild Wisconsin grape juice? A delicious Blackberry wine that is. Yum Yum. It all began on October 10th. We sanitized all the equipment, put the crushed blackberries in the straining bag, poured all the grape juice in, and dropped the rest of ingredients into the pail. It was ready for its 24 hour rest. The first fermentation stage or when the real party started with the yeast was on October 11th. Another two weeks went by with the yeast still enjoying the warm party atmosphere of the hot water closet. On the 3oth, the party ended. Sadly for the yeast but happy for the winemakers. This brings us to today. The wine made it to its final resting place till next year and before the big individual bottling. Another two months of resting for clarity and flavor development. We are looking around the beginning of New Year to try the wine and possibly bottle. The estimation of alcohol is around 11%-12%. As another experiment at that time, we are going to take part of the wine and make a port.