Wine Migration

The weather’s turning colder. Winter is upon us, annual migrations are underway. That includes our “cellar” of homemade wines!

Storing the product of our wine making has not proven easy. As a half measure last winter I stowed the filled bottles in a corner of our guesthouse. Many bottles froze, despite being heavily insulated in cardboard, crumpled newspapers, and layers of thick quilts top and bottom. I continued to keep them there through last summer, but now, as freezing weather threatens, we decided to move them to warmer storage.

Culling, vital to the health of the migrating herd: a glass of Anway apple wine (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

Culling, vital to the health of the migrating herd: a glass of Anway apple wine (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

We started by clearing space under the computer desk upstairs so I could move our empty bottles (see Ready to Bottle) up there. That allowed me to fill their old space, under one of our bookshelves in the coldest corner of the cabin, with full bottles. That space got used up pretty quickly, as I need to find new housing for about 125 bottles of wine at the moment. I stowed all that would fit under the stairs, and we even piled some in Aly’s bedroom for now—although I’ve resolved to move those out before she comes home for Christmas.

I’ll likely stow some in the root cellar, in plastic coolers to keep them from getting too wet or gross. I hope that works, but some solution needs to be found. Other than the obvious, of course, which is to drink it all up and be done with it!

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