“Who should we invite to make wine with us?” I asked my fellow East Coast Mom, Heather Nolan, of MmmisforMommy. “Definitely Jody,” was her response.
I immediately laughed. Jody, you see, has a blog called MommyJuiced…which, should give you some indication how much she loves wine!
So…it was last week that found the three of us visiting the Maritime Wine and Beer Emporium for a lesson in winemaking!
Which went something like this…
OK…actually, more like this…
We started with a fabulous explanation and tour through the shop that’s simply overflowing with every possible wine and beer kit you can think of, as well as wine making supplies, rental equipment, books on wine-making, labels, corks, and much more! After a little lesson on the difference between the kits, we chose to make the Cellar Classic Winery Series’ Winemaker’s Trio (which included real crushed grape skins) and an Italian Pinot Grigio…which will produce 60 bottles of wine for our enjoyment this summer.
Then…we headed out back for the next part!
Tim Feeley (owner of Maritime Wine and Beer Emporium), along with his staff, were very quick to help out. OK…actually, they did ALL of the work while we sat around, laughed, joked and took a couple of pictures! They opened the kits, poured them in buckets, created the “bomb” for the red wine packed with wet grape skins and oak chips (’cause we’re not aging in any barrel around here) and basically, did everything you’d do if you bought a kit and brought it home except…without any mess whatsoever!
BUT…we did the hard part! We actually poured the yeast in the buckets!
After that…the buckets were taken out back and, over the next few weeks, the magic wine making fairies will do their thing….ie, let it ferment in the buckets for a few days then transfer it to air-locked carboys until it’s all ready for the next part.
We’ll be showing up again on July 3rd to bottle our wine using the fancy schmancy automatic bottling station and try some of the wine we made by hand…ish. After that, you’ll find me filling my wine cabinet and uncorking a bottle or two on my back deck with friends.
A HUGE thanks to RJS Craft Winemaking and Maritime Wine and Beer Emporium for treating us to a fantastic day of wine-making! Click on the links to follow them on Twitter and make sure to drop into the store on Lady Hammond to start your very own wine kit!
Summer is fast approaching…and there’s refreshments just waiting to be made.
I love that they – kind of – did all the work for you. This probably guarantees some yummy wine for your very first try at making it, right? Yay!
It looks like a fun friend activity and you chose your third amiga very well!
I hope you will write a follow up for the uncorking.
Did someone say wine? Ha. I was SO into this and I’ll be SO into enjoying the yummy wine. Can’t wait for July 3rd and bottling these babies.
Hey! That’s me!
As someone who never thought I would make my own wine. This was very exciting for me. And easy. I like that.