Hope's Corner: A Summer's Wine

Today I am bottling wine. No, I do not drink wine. My favorite drink of indulgence is Dr. Pepper. But I don t know how to make Dr. Pepper. So, I make wine. Many years ago I planted a grape vine, hoping for enough grapes to make jelly. After a year or two, the vine began to produce. Small and seedy and sour grapes. I cooked my grapes to make jelly juice. I strained my grape juice to make jelly that was not seedy. And I ended up with about two cups of sour grape jelly. The next year I decided to make wine. It took less sugar than jelly. It did not have to be cooked. And I could take out a lot of frustrations by pounding on the grapes before adding the sugar and yeast necessary for fermentation. That was a long time ago, before designer small-batch wineries. Before scientific methods of wine-making. Before I had any clue about making wine. I put the grapes in a crock. I squashed them. I added sugar and yeast. I stirred. And I waited. The grape concoction bubbled and sq