Simple secrets for the perfect bottling, between science and beliefs

Only until the last century, our grandparents bottled the wine directly from the demijohns, where it rested throughout the whole winter. With the arrival of spring and the first warm temperatures, it spontaneously refermented in the bottle: we relied completely on the rhythms of Nature, and often, we even looked at the Moon.

Since it is so far away, mysterious, and seemingly disconnected from everything, it is difficult to think that it can somehow affect life on Earth. Even so, the beliefs about her are many and have always existed, since man can remember.
As it happens with tides and all the liquids, the wine is affected by the attractive force of the Moon too. Bottling during the first quarter moon would seem to facilitate the deposit of the yeast present in the base wine, as well as the development of the bubbles. As per tradition, in Valdobbiadene, the one who faithfully observes the Moon, takes as reference the week of Easter (from Palm Sunday to Easter Monday) as the ideal time to obtain a sparkling wine.

Regardless of whether you believe in the magic of the Moon, there are some fundamental rules that everyone wishing to experiment this practise should follow: oxygenation and temperature are the keys for a good wine bottled.
In case you do not want to proceed immediately, once you have brought home your demijohn, leave it in a cold place with a temperature below 15°C, so that to avoid any kind of unwanted fermentation. The only forethought you must have when you take back the carboy, will be to give back the oxygen necessary to the yeast to start fermenting; you only need to shake the demijohn a little, so that to move them after having been deposited on the bottom for a long time.
The simplest thing would be to bottle the wine after its purchase and store the bottles in a place sheltered from light, at about 15-20°C in order to start the fermentation process in the shortest possible time. You can also wait a couple of days, the important thing is to check if bubbles have formed on the neck of the carboy: that’s the sign the fermentation is starting and it is time to bottle your wine. Doing so, in less than a month it will be ready!

The final taste will remain as the original one, either you prefer to bottle it immediately or to wait a little bit. It’ll be the environment where you leave the demijohn (and maybe also the position of the Moon!) to slightly change the olfactory nuances, cleaner and fruity, where fermentation takes place faster.

So it’s time for you to try now, we wish you good work!