This week has been all about bottling! It is the final stage of the wine making process after 2 years of aging in our oak barrels. Everyone is a little sore from all the corking, but that is nothing a little wine drinking can't cure. Each barrel gives us about 24 to 25 cases of wine, but only if you don't have too many taste tests. (You'll notice the glass of wine close to our bottling station.) The wine tastes quite promising now, but it should benefit from resting in its bottle for yet another 6 months. 
Last Saturday my husband, parents, and I bottled a barrel of the Cabernet (a.k.a. Red Moon) and two barrels of the Malbec Syrah (Just Plain Red) with the help of all four of my grandparents. It was a rare treat to have them all together in one room enjoying the "fruit" of our labor. Tuesday was yet another family affair with my brother, cousin, and mother bottling two barrels of our Cab Merlot blend (a.k.a. Eclipse) and two barrels of the Cab Malbec Syrah (Summer Solstice Red). Our last two barrels of Eclipse will be bottled tomorrow. This will conclude the 2010 vintage, the last wine we will bottle privately. If I am doing my math right, that is over 2,600 bottles of wine! Surely our private reserves will be set for some time. Our 2011 vintage will be the first wine available to the public at our 2013 summer opening. It is kind of sad to think that our home wine making days have come to an end, but it is also exciting to enter a new chapter in our passion for making wine. Cheers!
You can visit us at our website www.plaincellars.com.
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