In my first attempts at winemaking, I followed Metja Roate's book. 40 some years
ago!

She suggested a small patch of cloth over the cork and extending down the sides
an inch or so, held with a string or elastic. Then dipped in wax. It worked.
Quite well, in fact. Her rationale for the cloth - it makes it easy to peel off
the wax, leaving no residue around the bottle top to fall into the glass as the
wine is poured.

I opened the last of the batches this spring, cleaning out bottles for my
current efforts. Some of the corks were quite loose - small, second-hand when I
made the original batches, but 3 of the 4 batches were MAGNIFICENT! The fourth
one (apple) got poured out.....

I can't help but think the wax sealing contributed significantly to the quality.

Jack Wetmore in NB Can.

Casey Wilson wrote:

> I now have eighteen 375 mil and four 185ml bottles of Mojave Spirits (my
> brand) Pomegranate Wine. The final numbers going into the bottles a
> SG:1.011
> pH: 3.67
> TA: 0.7%
> Maybe by the next batch I'll have a kit and know how to measure SO.
> The final product came out just on the sweet side of dry or the dry side
> of sweet depending on your perspective. For those who might not have read
> the first couple of reports I put out, I started with 2.5 gallons of
> unadulterated, i.e. straight pomegranate juice. Unlike the published recipes
> that all seem to want to make "white concord grape" or "Sun Maid Raisin"
> wine flavored with pomegranate juice. I hope that doesn't offend too many
> folks.
> My sweetie-pie said, "I like it." Can't get it better than that for me.
> It finished up with a nice tangy pomegranate flavor.
> Instead of using shrink-on caps, I used red dipping wax I bought from
> Midwest. About half-way through I figure out how to get a nice cap over the
> top. I was hoping for something resembling the wax cap on Maker's Mark but
> the wax wouldn't stick to the glass bottle. Anybody know the secret to that?
> I hope to put it away for at least three months before I open a bottle.
> Thanks for all the help you guys have given me.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Casey Wilson
> Freelance Writer
> and Photographer
>
> [... and now on to the Australian Shiraz.]