A Must

Wine-making time is here again;this was somewhat in doubt during the recent Troubles,but here we are.Our house in Safed is blessed with a monster vine- according to knowledgeable Israeli farmers,over 120 years old and still going strong.It's about 80cms around the base [32ins],8 metres high,and gives about 90 kilos of grapes a year.I've made wine every year since we bought the house 25 years ago,breaking in the process almost as many large and expensive glass fermenting vessels as I have thermocouples [see below],but producing large quantities of rather drinkable dry red table-wine [about 60 bottles a year].Sometimes a batch [there are usually 2 or 3] isn't good enough to bottle.but,on the whole,everything gets drunk.Since all the grapes are from a single vine [which I don't spray] I use the natural yeast on the grape-skins [that dusty/furry coating],making a rather unique organic wine with not a drop of sulphur in it [I bottle it when I think the fermentation is finished-sometimes it's a bit petillant,but so was the wine I drank on a school-trip to Gaillac many years ago].Yesterday afternoon,when the heat was off the day,I picked the grapes [it takes a couple of hours solo-usually there is a child or friend to help],sluiced my feet and danced on the grapes in the time-honoured fashion.Helen then helped me to fish out stems and the odd bit of leaf;we covered the two bins [three heaped bins of grapes give 2 of must/mix] with clean nylon,and now it sits for about a week,bubbling gently and filling the house with fermenting smells,getting a daily stir to stop the grape-skin cap from growing mold,until the fermentation has calmed down enough to siphon the juice into its glass vessels with air-locks.I usually aim to be drinking it by Succot- our Succah is in the courtyard next to the vine- in order to validate the verse "Ish ish tachat gafno" -every man beneath his vine.