Wine making at it's best...

*Apologies are in order.  I know that I should have posted this earlier, but, as usual, I am running a little behind.  It just wouldn't be me if I didn't post it way after the fact...lol.  So sorry.  We actually mixed our wine about a month ago, so it's almost ready already!  We should be able to drink it at the end of this month.  Hooray!  There are still a few bottles left unclaimed, so if you want one let me know!  It's going to be yum-o fo' sho'!

How to make wine 101:
Always start with sanitized mixing instruments and vessels.  You don't want to end up with spoiled wine!  (Don't worry the peeps over at OENO do that part for you ahead of time.  Thanks guys!)

Mix some bentonite, aka clay powdery stuff that helps to clear the sediment out of your wine, with some water to dissolve it.

Pour in the concentrated pre-crushed grape juice and some water.  Stir.

Using a cheesecloth bag to form somewhat of a large tea bag that can be easily removed come bottling time, add in the grape skins and pulp collected from the crushed grapes.  Stir.

It's a two woman job!  Be careful not to get splashed with grape juice.  Hey, it stains!

Add in the oak shavings.  

(Don't worry the shavings will get filtered out.  This is what adds that nice oakey flavor to your wine when it isn't allowed to ferment in an actual oak barrel.)

Stir, stir, and stir.  When you think that you have stirred enough, stir it again.  You want everything to be well combined. 

Once the hydrometer, the tool that measures the sugar content, gives you the a-okay, you're good to go!  This is me kicking off the fermentation process by adding the yeast.  We covered it up and sent all of the good vibes that we could muster out into the atmosphere in hopes of a fabulous batch of wine in return.

Here's La'akea with all the 'nearly ready to be bottled' wines in OENO's fermentation room.  Our wine will be there soon!  Excited, excited, excited!

For now, we wait...