wine 101: step 9

A few of my readers have noted that I did not mention a certain age-celebrating event on Monday. It is rather surprising that I neglected to tell the world that I am now the ripe old age of twenty-seven, but it may be because Facebook did such a good job for me. I got 32 well-wishes on my Wall, which almost makes up for the big fat zero number of physical birthday cards I received in the mail. In any case, I am now older than my mid-twenties and wiser about how much alcohol is actually in a fish bowl.

STEP 9: Is it done yet?
There are several telltale signs that your wine is fermenting or done fermenting. The first is very obvious - it bubbles. If your wine is at a good temperature, it should start bubbling and foaming within a week. You'll be able to see the carbon dioxide bubbles floating to the surface and popping. After about another week, the foaming should die down. The little bubbles will still be there, though, and I like to put my ear to the top of the vessel and listen to them pop. It reminds me of Rice Krispies.

The second sign is that your kitchen, or wherever you left your wine, starts to smell like bread. Eventually, the odor will change to the smell of alcohol.

After about a month, check to see if you can still hear your wine popping. If it is silent, take the cloth off and stare at the top of the wine. If the surface is still slowly swirling, give it another week (make sure that if you moved your wine to get a good look you also gave it time to settle again). When your wine no longer talks to you or makes mesmerizing swirls, it has probably completed it's first fermentation. Yay! For most wines, this means it is now drinkable, although maybe not as tasty as it could be yet.