The hard work needed to produce a bottle of wine !

How much effort goes into making a bottle of wine.

For years I drank wine just really thinking of the taste and fun of drinking it.

It never occurred to me that someone might make it by hand. Production was always an abstract concept.

That is until last year. My mum cultivates a little strip of vineyard and makes her own wine. Even as you read this, it does not sound like to much work.

But here are a the things that go into it, and that Bob and I have helped to do.

• Clean and rinse the empty bottles - done in such a way that the bicepts get a big workout !
• All year long pruning and cultivating the vines
• Harvesting each bunch of grapes by hand - using cutting shears
• Using a manual press to extract the juice
• Storing the wine by pumping it into barrels
• Pumping it out of the barrels into the individual bottles
• Storing the bottles and labeling the bottles

Obviously there is more work than that. I am just so proud of my parents, especially my mum, for making their own wine.

When it comes to harvest time, a lot of our family comes for a visit to help pick the grapes and it becomes quite festive, as everyone is given a tot of Schnapps at the start !

So wine is social in more ways than one...

By the way, her wine tastes great !

Biggi

The " troupe " assembling

Bob testing his Might

Albert co-ordinating the de-stemming.

My mum and Bob

My uncle Guenther