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gummed labels when I can get them, and stick onname tags or computer labels when I can’t. My wine labels frequently look like this:
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HELLO MY NAME IS
    High Pitched Wines
    FREEZER ROSÉ
    12%
Made Aug 93
Bottled Feb 94
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    Now that I have a laser printer, I think I’ll try to make them look better. Many people use labels they buy in the wine supply store, or they make their own, sometimes using rubber stamps for elegant or silly effects. If you have access to a computer with a drawing program or graphics, you’re in business.
    On the label you want the name, the date bottled, and later, when you know it, the percent of alcohol. I have also come up with a code for the cork end, because these bottles will be joining others on their sides and reading the labels is not always easy. I use a ballpoint pen and ink to write, for example, A1 94, which stands for Apple—batch #1, 1994. It isn’t foolproof because you run out of letters, but it saves quite a bit of trouble and shifting of bottles, anyway. (I keep thinking AP 93 is apple, but it’s the apple peach I made—nothing’s perfect.)
    Lay your wine in a dark, cool place for a few months, and let your friend time do its work.
    Chill the leftover wine and drink it with lunch or supper. If you are bottling two or more gallons, you can bottle the leftover stuff together and thus do your first blending. Sometimes these can be quite good. I remember that one bottle of Potato-Mint…well, I’ll tell you about that later.
    It’s amazing how much better the wine is after even just a month in a bottle (six months is preferred). It is also amazing (though not preferred) to come down to the cellar and find a cork blown out and the floor sticky with wine.
    With my first batch, you see, it hadn’t quite finished fermenting when I bottled, and we had a warm spell. I should have waited longer, or stopped the fermentation with some stabilizer from the wine supply place. Or bottled it as champagne with the properbottles and plastic champagne caps. But I didn’t know any of this. You, however, can benefit from my experience .
    Later on you will learn how to use more or less sugar, and to use a hydrometer for accuracy, and real fruit, and all that.
    After a month, get the bottle and put it in the fridge to chill. Remove the cork, decant, if necessary, and get out some nice glasses. Carefully pour, trying to avoid disturbing any sediment at the bottom. There usually isn’t much.
    So, what does it taste like when you are done? Sort of like a strong apple cider: dry and crisp. Nothing like Annie Green Springs, thank-you very much. With this recipe you get 7-9 percent alcohol, which will keep a year or two. It’s best drunk young.
     
    All of this exposition for such a simple procedure! After you have done this once or twice, you can explore the process a bit more. You don’t have to wait till the first batch is done. You can use grape juice or other frozen juices and move on up to real fruit, acid blend, yeast energizer, and tannin, all of which I will explain later. You’ll also be using the proper equipment. You can use the many wine concentrates available in the wine supply stores. Most of them are quite acceptable, although you’ll have to use five one-gallon jugs or a five-gallon carboy to make them. (The five-gallon carboy works better.)
    TIME
    This first, simple wine can take as little as two months to ferment out, or as long as six. But remember, time is on your side. Don’t try to rush it.
    SERVING
    Serve your wine in nice wine glasses. Your wine deserves a chance to look its best. Inexpensive, clear wine glasses are easy to obtain. Only use colored glasses when the color of the wine isn’t quite what you’d hoped, or when the relative who gave them to you is visiting.
    French-style bistro glasses are also nice for casual sipping or social wines.
    Try to avoid mason jars unless you’re having some kind oftheme party. Don’t use plastic with wine. It gives the wine an