My adventures with my Super Teaneck wines made from Moscato and Zinfandel continued through December when I racked the wine off it’s incredible amount of dead yeast cells or lees for the final time before bottling. I transferred the wine into bottles this past December according to my Gurus at Corrado’s – my wine mecca.

I then dusted off the Bordeaux and burgundy bottles I had in the basement lo these many year between my home wine making adventures. Washed everything up and got ready to bottle. I found my old corker and learned how to use it again with the help of my mini-assistant who thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Every new bottle and cork some of the wine would spray out which he called my wine bath. This activity kept him in stitches.

When I finished all of the bottles and laid them down to rest in the cellar I was very pleased. I have no idea how the wine will be because I didn’t add sulfites. Some home winemakers do and others do not. I racked my wine twice post fermentation but perhaps should have done another passage and then added the sulfites. I found these interesting comments about home wine making which I thought were useful This year I only made around 45 bottles so if it’s terrible, only a few friends will have to suffer through it. Not the larger quantities I made the first two times out. Here are more ideas about the sulfite debate for home winemakers.

I’ve got a long way to go before entering one of my wines in a competition but that is another wine goal for the future. I labeled a couple of those wines for Christmas but just imposed them on family. The whole thing is very fun and educational for all concerned.