Do you know what today is?

It's the opening day of wine season! Enough of our order came in to make it worth driving up to Red Deer, and with perfect weather I can't say no.

This is just the start. There are 7 more kits arriving over the next couple of months. Today I started the Brunello. Can't run out of that.

Next will be the Reisling, then the two Meglioli kits, a Moscato and a Nebbiolo. I even bought a fourth carboy so I can have 3 kits on the go at once. At 6 to 8 weeks per kit, with only 2 on the go, I'd still be making wine at Christmas. With 3 on the go it's down to 6 months. If I get another carboy, it's down to under 5 months. Hmmm.

I have not solved the wine storage problem yet. There are a few possibilities. I'm pretty sure that 3 inch ABS pipe will fit a wine bottle, but it's a pretty snug fit, and I'd want to take a bottle to the plumbing store just to be sure before I bought any. From there it can be sliced into 8 or 9 inch lengths and stacked up as high as I like. The question is just where in the basement.

There was a 72 bottle storage rack at Canadian Tire that looked possible, but I'd like to see it assembled. I haven't counted recently, but I think I'm going to need storage for about 200 more bottles. There will have to be an inventory soon so I know exactly how much storage to get. I'll probably have to buy more bottle glass too, must remember to inventory that.

I have been amazed and appalled at some of the storage that I've seen. I run it all down to the price per bottle stored. The IKEA racks we got for the IVAR were $8, and I suppose you have to count the IVAR itself, but we already had it. I've seen racks that were at least dozens of $ per bottle.  They'd be the nicest thing in our house, and while my wine is good, it isn't THAT good. Besides, the rack is going in the basement.

So I'm open for ideas here. Any winemakers reading this? What do you use for mass storage? No offense, I'm not interested in a cutesy-poo countertop rack for a dozen bottles.