A little wine

We tackled some wine chores this weekend.

The vodka/Everclear/lemon peel mixture had steeped for the full 40 days for the Limoncello, so I strained out the liquid. The iced tea jug came in handy for that- I just drained out the juice and discarded the alcohol soaked peels. My garbage smelled like drunk lemons, which is better than the way it usually smells.

Then I made the simple syrup with cane sugar. While that was boiling, I filtered the clear, lemon flavored, lemon scented, lemon colored alcohol through coffee filters, and added it to the still-warm syrup. This is what happened:

It's supposed to be crystal clear- yellowish but transparent. My Limoncello is most definitely not transparent. A little Googling told me that warm syrup caused the liquid to cloud. Permanently. So I guess, we'll just pretend that it's supposed to be opaque (and indeed, some recipes call for a cloudy result- just not the one I used). It still tastes very very good. The big bottles are back in the basement, for another 40 days of ageing. The little jar is in the freezer for tasting (that's where you store Limoncello, though I don't know if it all has to be kept there, or only the bottle we're currently drinking. I'll have to Google some more). I'll rebottle the aged stuff in smaller bottles (those are liter size), and then we're good  to go.

BTW- the reason that the Limoncello is in flip top bottles instead of the iced tea jug is because the spigot developed a leak, which luckily I spotted before I took it back to the basement, where 40 days and about $30 worth of ingredients would have leaked out all over the floor.

I might try the recipe again, with grapefruit next time. And next time, I'll make the syrup a day ahead and chill it.

We also racked all of the wines and added clarifier and sulfite to the carboys.  We just have to wait for the wines to clear (the Chablis is there already) and then we can bottle them.

The 2010 Taylor Made Wine tally: 3 gallons Barbera, 3 gallons Chablis, 5 gallons Chokecherry Riesling, 5 gallons Rhubarb Riesling, 5 gallons Gewurtztrauminer. None of it will be ready to drink for at least 6 months, and we'll sweeten the fruit wines (unsweetened rhubarb wine is nasty- plain and simple). We're pretty much done for the year, though it wouldn't hurt to start a 5 gallon batch of Merlot, so it'll be ready by Christmas.