The wine has been settling now for 6 months so it’s time to bottle. I managed to get a few more bottles which takes me up to the 30 that I will need. They have all been washed and soaked to remove the labels:
The first stage of bottling begins 2-3 days before, and involves creating a ‘liqueur de tirage’ which is a mixture of water, wine, sugar and yeast. This is left to ferment at 20°C until the yeast is at its peak of activity at which point it is mixed into the main bulk of wine with some more sugar and then bottled. It is this yeast and sugar addition that ferments in the bottle, creating the fizz.
I created the liqueur de tirage using a spreadsheet I created which works out the correct quantities based on how much wine you have to bottle:
The mixture was then put into a demijohn with an airlock and left for the yeast to work its magic:
