Bottling the Cherry Wine

Months have gone by since I started my first batches of cherry wine for the year.  I started the wine with fresh boxes of cherries back in June.  I washed and pitted the cherries, then squashed them to release their juices.  The addition of yeast kick started the process and fermentation went on for several weeks.  Once things died down the wine began to clear and I racked it into a fresh carboy and let it rest an extra month before it would be ready for bottling.

Finally the day had come to bottle the wine for long term storage.  I went through the process of sterilizing all the bottles with boiling water and setting them out to dry.  Once all the bottles were ready I lined them up close to the carboy filled with cherry wine and then began filling them.  One by one each bottle took on the ruby red color of the dark cherry wine and when I was finished I had filled 15 bottles.

The rainier cherry wine was started a couple of weeks later, but followed the same process on a smaller scale as I was only making one gallon.  This variety of cherries for wine gave the finished product a much lighter rosy yellow color and it filled 5 bottles.

Some of these bottles have already gone to trade for various things such as boxes of fruit for future batches of wine.  At the low price I already paid for the fruit to make the wine, I feel like I may be getting the better end of the deal.  Either way, my stores continue to grow and I will be enjoying the fruits of my labors for months to come.