It's official! The homemade wine season has arrived and we are thrilled! (Perhaps not as thrilled as Lucy was in this classic clip of her grape crashing scene!)
It looks like 2014 is shaping up to be a great season with an abundance of quality grapes from most regions in Victoria. Here's a sneak peek of the grapes that just arrived last Friday, just in time for our 2014 Advanced Homemade Winemaking Course. Bookings have now closed for our 2014 Courses, so if you missed out this year, we will be holding more Advanced Wine Making Courses in 2015. We'll keep you posted with news of any additional one-day wine making workshops this vintage.
We thought we'd share some highlights from the first class of our 2014 Advanced Homemade Winemaking Course, where we covered the first stages of the homemade winemaking process including; selecting the grapes, crushing techniques, the fermentation process, options for wine additives, plunging, testing, sterilising equipment, trouble-shooting and wine corrections.
A great night had by all, ending with a feast of BBQ sausages and salads and a fabulous group of people again this year. We are looking forward to tasting their individual drops of wine over the next few months. If you would like to see more photos from the night, check out the photo album on our Facebook page.
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- Free Testing -
Don't forget, if you are making wine this season, our Reservoir and Clayton stores provide complimentary testing throughout the winemaking process. We recommend testing your juice straight after crushing your grapes and at all main stages of the winemaking process.
- Extended Hours -
We have also extended our trading hours for the vintage season to 7 days a week. We are now open from 9.00am until 3.00pm on Saturdays, and 10.00am until 2.00pm on Sundays. There's now no excuse not to bring in sample of juice for free testing as soon as you have finished crushing!
- Equipment for Hire -
You can also take advantage of our range of equipment for hire during the wine season. Our hire equipment includes; Electric Crusher-Destemmer, Press, Enolmatic Bottle Filler, Pedestal Corker, Pump & Filter.
Call our Reservoir store on 9460 2777 or Clayton store on 9574 8222 to secure your booking.
- Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival 2014 -
We are very pleased to be a major sponsor again at the 2014 Darebin Homemade Food and Wine Festival. The festival is a local community celebration of traditional and sustainable foods. It's a week long festival commencing on the 12th May, 2014, that draws to an end on Saturday 17th May, 2014, with the Awards Presentation for the best homemade wine, homemade passata, homebrew, olives and avjar. There will be live music, food, wine & beer tastings, demonstrations and workshops to awaken your taste buds and quench your thirst. Home Make It will be doing several workshops during the Festival, including the Brew in a Bag Workshop on the 17th May, 2014, Salami Making Demonstration, Mozzarella Making Demonstration and an Introduction to Winemaking and Wine Appreciation workshops.
More details including the 2014 Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival official program will be released soon. Stay tuned! There's something for everyone :)
Home Make It's very own Frank Bovezza will be joining James Mele and Marcel Mandanici from The Meat Room at the 2014 Rural Lifestyle Expo on the 5th April at the Ballarat Showgrounds, for a nose to tail "breakdown of a pig", followed by a homemade sausage making demonstration. We'll also be firing up one of our own PEVA Wood Fire Ovens for the event. You'll find Frank and the guys in the Food & Wine Hall.
There will be exhibitions and demonstrations in everything rural, including construction, farm animals, organic gardens, farm machinery, plants/seeds, food and wine.
- Moonee Valley Mediterranean Fiesta -
You can also catch Celeste and I at the Moonee Valley Mediterranean Fiesta on Sunday 23rd March, 2014 between 12.00pm and 4.00pm at Centreway, East Keilor. This is a free commuunity celebration of Moonee Valley's history of migrations from mediterranean countries. There will be live music, food, a pesto competition, dancing, cooking demonstrations, kids activities and much more.
We will be doing a homemade tomato sauce/passata demonstration in the mobile kitchen from 1.00pm until 1.45pm.
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You can keep up to date with daily news, recipes, banter and events on our Facebook page and Twitter. And don't forget to check out our current specials by clicking on the SALE banner below...
Have a great week :)
