elderberry, the hard part is over

[bg7mm]

well, the elderberry is bottled and stored in the racks sitting in a cool dark place. now time is my friend. the wine taste great as is for a young wine, age can only make this much better. i had a time cleaning all the equipment with the nasty stuff formed by the berries. backsweetened a tad using a simple syrup of 4 cups of water and 4 pounds of sugar simmered for 30 minutes until cleared. i only added a small amount of this syrup solution to give the wine a very light sweetness. i'm guessing age will do the rest

was my first shot at making elderberry so i only picked enough to make this batch, next year i'll definately be making 2 or 3 batches of this wine.

 

[BobF]

Nice ... I love elderberry

 

[Julie]

looks pretty good, lol, and the hard part is not over..... the wait IS pure torture

 

[ffemt128]

I have to agree with Julie on this one. The hardest part is waiting to sample....LOL

 

[TwinMaples]

Congrats on bottling your harvest already. Nice labels. De-stemming is a bit of a chore, equipment cleanup is a chore, but have to agree with Julie - waiting is the hardest part!


Kinda jealous of all the elderberry wine started from this year's crop. My winemaking takes place in our kitchen, and right now, .there's no extra space for another batch. Yet. I will have a bottling party in about two weeks bottling 3 wines:

• Strawberry Skeeter Pee (the lees come from a 1 gallon pure strawberry juice wine batch.).
• Elderberry Blush (was bland tasting orginally, uncorked 30 bottles, oaked it, enhanced it with just a little sweet elderberry syrup, and now it's pretty good). Will be part of the wine for my son's wedding in October.
• Cocoa Berry (French cocoa powder, full-bodied elderberry wine, and a little of that elderberry syrup. Very yummy!). The bad news? This is only 3 gallons.

When this is bottled, I will start 2 minimum, probably 3 wines, as I'll again have some room.

Have 5-6 wines I want to make, including some of this year's Elderberry. Some will have to wait.

Jim

Jim