Saturday, 11 August 2018

Chateau Hearnden's latest cru

Cru ... perfect description, not really to do with the wine in production but everything to do with our next trip ....... Champagne-Ardenne!

My next few posts will be full of bubbles; this post has bubbles too but not quite in the same way. Every so often I put my vintner skills into practice; I say skills but the master vintners have no need to worry just yet.

This time Chateau Hearnden is producing rhubarb wine. I bought the rhubarb at a local village fete. It was soon chopped and in the big bucket with a gallon of hot water .....

....... a month (or so) later this was the result.


Anyone fancy a glass? Thought not!

A careful procedure next to remove all the fruit and growing fungi to reveal a gallon of very concentrated rhubarb juice.



As you can see it still has many fine particles, the next stage is to filter the liquid through a fine muslin and add sugar.


A clearer juice with its energy ready to go. I did leave this a few days to see if it would activate itself but no bubbles appeared. A little wine yeast soon had it activated and bubbling away.


I wonder how long it will bubble for, hopefully we will not come home from holiday to an explosion!

I have no idea when this 'cru' will be ready, wine making at home is a bit of a 'wait and see' hobby so time will tell. I last made rhubarb wine in 2014 and I would say it hadn't really developed fully until last year.

Off now to see how it should be done 😉

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