The first blueberry and strawberry: Raw but Promising

Its been way too long, but waiting is the name of the game when it comes to making good wine, yes-no?

I haven't laid down anything new, because the season for getting good fruit in NY has waned, unless I really wanted to make some apple wine, we got plenty of those right now! I wanted to see how the blueberry and strawberry I laid down in June came out. I had made a gallon of each if you recall.

Well on September 28th, we busted open the gallon jugs and I racked it into new ones to get out the sediment, and Tim and I started imbibing it. It was raw and lacked any real nuance, but it was certainly quaffable and pretty enjoyable. I had about a 13% alcohol content in each flavor from the vinometer test. I will post some pics of the evening we had shortly!

For a first attempt, it wasnt bad. I had little to no hope of it being drinkable even though I was very meticulous about the process early on - adhering to strict sanitzing practices and cleaning everything, as well as making sure my measurements and timing were dead on. The strawberry and blueberry flavors came through nicely, but there was still a yeasty scent and taste to it, that I imagine would have dissapated had it aged a little more and been bottled before quaffing. The blueberry had very nice body to it, and reminded me very much of a new grape wine. The strawberry was a bit thin, and I think it could probably use some grape wine concentrate to round it out a little more. I will remember that before I bottle the next batch.

I am going to wait a while longer and bottle the next ones coming down the line, most of which were first racked in July: 1 gallon of peach, 1 gallon of blackberry, 5 gallons (MORE) of strawberry that has cleared very very nicely and 6 gallons of Pinot Noir that I will be interested in trying soon as well. I think around Thanksgiving I will do another update with the peach, blackberry and other. I may start bottling them around that time.

Talk to you soon, and expect some pics shortly!