Grapes

My parents dropped by for a visit this week and when they arrived they yelled out to me to come to the car to collect a surprise present - a crate full of grapes from their vine at home.  My husband is well known for his homemade wine.  So far he has made the most delicious fruit wine from homegrown or gifted fruit.  We've had feijoa, strawberry, grapefruit, grapefruit and mint and plum (my personal favourite).  Until now we have not made grape wine, so this will be an interesting experiment.  I spent last night washing and plucking grapes from bunches and then we crushed them in a stock pot (with a potato masher by the way, and not our feet!).  The juice is drained from the pulp and water and yeast is added.  The mix is now fermenting in a glass carboy and will be bubbling away for a few weeks until it is ready to bottle.  We didn't really have enough grapes for a decent batch of wine, so we're not expecting something toast-worthy.  I just hope that my parents have a bumper crop of grapes next year so that we can try again.. with enough left over to eat.  They were delicious!