We decided not to continue cementing today; we’re both quite tired and Brett’s back is a bit achy.
So we went into Castelo Branco to buy wine making equipment. We came home with a 350L wine vat (we had thought about getting the 500L, but decided that this year we’d start small!). The vat is for collecting the crushed grapes and juice into, then it’s left in there for a week or so until the rapid fermentation is over and then it’s put into ............... and it’s here we get confused. It can go into demijohns with air locks, but you’d need an awful lot for 350L of wine (70 in fact), or you can put it into wooden or plastic barrels but it still has to be racked off a couple of times or they sell these stainless steel cylinders with gauges and doors and gadgets that we don’t understand – but we think these could be what you’re supposed to use, and the internet’s no bloody use. We need to talk to someone who’s done it, preferably someone who speaks English.
Hoopoe Feather found just outside camp
We walked around looking at our grapes this evening; on the internet it says you need to wait until the sugar content of the grapes has a specific gravity between 1.095 and 1.105, which you measure with a hydrometer – can we find a hydrometer here? (the answer is no!) I’ve got one back in Wales (but have never understood how to use it), so we’ll just have to guess when our grapes are ready – we’ve guessed lots are ready now.
We’re thinking that in our larder we can have several barrels of wine, rose, white and red, plus barrels of cider and perry; also we’re quite interested in making aguardente which is a spirit made from the crushed grapes and skins after they’ve been used for making wine (we’d have bottles of this not barrels).
Tomorrow we’re hoping to finish the floor and in the evening we’re going to Pam and Mark’s for pizza (cooked in their bread oven).
Another beautiful sunset
Base camp at sunset
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