Are You Wine-ing? You Should Be!

About 5 years ago, the Blisschick and I started drinking wine.

I'm not sure why we didn't drink it before, but we didn't.

I guess we were primarily coffee/ espresso people and simply hadn't yet branched out into other oral pleasures so much.

Then, we made some friends who appreciated wine, made their own, and introduced us to the intricacies of the Chianti, the Shiraz, the Zinfandel, the Sauvignon Blanc, and more.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now we love wine and are always excited to try new things. Our new current favorite is the Petite Shiraz. We haven't yet tried one that we haven't liked. Our favorite is made by Bogle.

"Wait," I can hear you thinking. "What does this have to do with Rabbits?"

(Or, was that Miss Zoe I heard? Hmmmmm...)

Anyhow, a couple of years ago, I was struck with the sudden desire to want to try making my own wine.

I know, it might sound crazy. When we told our neighbor about my new hobby she said this: "Oh, yeah. My Grandmother used to do that, too. She would put frozen grape juice concentrate in a bottle and sprinkle yeast on it, and then put a balloon over the mouth of the bottle and place it behind the couch. It tasted like gasoline."

OK. Seriously?

So, no, that's not what I have going in the kitchen.

What I have in the kitchen goes a little more like this:


And, no-- that's NOT a balloon on the top of the carboy. It's an airlock. It serves the same purpose, only it's much classier, I assure you. Observe:


For anyone interested in trying this, it is actually quite fun! We have a great wine and beer supply place just a couple of miles away called the Beirhaus. The dude who owns it is a totally laid back guy who MAKES WINE AND BEER FOR A LIVING!! Come on. What a great job.

I have not actually crushed my own grapes or anything yet, but that's the eventual idea. We have a couple of vines out back. Cabernet Franc, here we come!!

Well, someday.

For now, I use wine kits from the Bierhaus. It's great practice for the real thing and it also sates my strange longing for chemistry.

Ahem. Plus, it's fun to drink.

So, this summer's first batch is a Chianti. What you see in the pictures is about 6 gallons, which translates to about 30 bottles of wine.

It should last a couple of weeks, anyhow.

Hee, hee, hee.

The second batch will be a Zinfandel.

We got the kits on sale last year for about $50 each. So, besides being fun, making your own wine is also terribly cost effective.

Chemistry AND Maths! My mom would be so proud!

As for what it has to do with Rabbits, here you go:


Miss Zoe can't wait for the first batch to be done.

And, in case you're looking for her, she'll be the Rabbit with the lampshade on her ears.