Wine Making
Over five years ago I started making my own wine from kits. My son Tom gave me a kit and the equipment to make 5 gallons of Cabernet Sauvignon. The rest is history as the "cellar" is stocked with about 200 bottles of six varieties and still growing.
Kits are economical., make a very good wine, and allow for some deviation and experimentation. Personalized with a label, it makes a great gift. Kit wines also allows us to drink wine with our meals at an affordable price.
Supplies are readily available from local shops or mail order. There are also some very good mail order places. I've used the Grape & Granary. Mail order is good, but at the neighborhood brew shops, you often get to take a taste of the latest batch from the proprietor.
Many of the kits will make a drinkable wine in four to six weeks. These same kits will make a much smoother wine if allowed to age for a few more weeks to a few more months.
Three ingredients are needed to make a good wine: Grape juice, yeast, patience.
The first kit I made was a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was OK, but I did not brag too much. Like most new things, I wanted to try what I made so after four weeks I did. This was not the smooth wine from commercial wineries. Then I learned about bulk aging and subsequent wines were allowed to age for weeks, months. This makes a huge difference. That first wine is now a year and a half old and has smoothed out considerably. Now I can brag!
Why kits? Making wine can be done with minimal equipment and virtually any fruit can be made into juice and fermented. The best wine makers have control over the process and ingredients, they do a lot of chemistry to balance the acid, the sweetness, and all the other factors that separate fine wine from the rough stuff. (Remember the wine your grandfather made?) Kits take away many of the variables and the need for sophisticated equipment. The acid is balanced, the proper amount of yeast, sorbates to keep it from going bad, clarifiers to make it clear are all included in the proper amounts. Everything you need is included and the instructions are simple.
It is very gratifying to hold up a glass of your own wine and admire the lights reflecting in the wine like rubies. I've sample my wines during the process using everything from foam cups to juice glasses, but I like to serve wine in good wine glasses. I'm not sure how many we have, but at least ten sets of four. Could you describe a nice glass of wine as Liquid Art?
A Chardonnay made six months ago is as good as any commercial product in the $10 a bottle range. It costs $1.85 and some time.
Wine has health benefits also. A glass of wine a day is good for the heart. Recently, there was some information that two or three may not be too good, a glass a day is ideal. I just went out and bought bigger glasses.
There are label printing programs especially made for the home vintner or brewer. Pre-printed labels with artwork are available and can be customized on your printer. A shrink seal on the top and a gift bottle looks better than the expensive stuff from the stores. There is plenty of room to use your creativity in this hobby.
What is going on now in the Wine Cellar?
Most everything I have right now can be bottled. A little more aging though, is not a problem and may even help the mellowing of the wine before bottling. Right now, I have a White Burgundy and a Chianti aging, They will be bottled in a couple of months.
A White Zinfandel was just bottled, a Lambrusco is just well underway. The Lambrusco is aging for drinking in 2005. It is now ready for bottling. Another Chianti is right behind it
The white wine will be aged about two months before bottling. This is where the patience part of the ingredient list comes in. I do have a method though, of tasting the wine as we go. The kit makes 23 liters. When it comes time to age, I rack the wine to a 19 liter carboy for the final aging. This allows me to bottle the remainder and try it along the way. You can see the progression and improvement if you drink each bottle about six weeks apart.
Using Fruit Juices
Wine can also be made from fruit juices right from the supermarket. I made my first batch just recently by buying five gallons of apple juice on sale. It does not get much easier or cheaper than this. I made this to be a summer sipping wine, but I'll have to make more as the first batch will be gone by the time summer gets here.
Ingredients: 5 gallons apple juice, 5 pounds of sugar, one packet of wine yeast.
Dissolve the sugar into a half gallon or more of the juice. Add this and the rest of the juice into a carboy. Pitch the yeast. Close with an airlock. In six weeks, rack to a clean carboy. In another six weeks, add some metabisulphite and rack to some smaller bottles.
While you can bottle in the traditional manner, this was intended for consumption now. If you want your wine a bit sweeter, add one or more cans of apple juice concentrate to the batch. This also fortifies the apple flavor and enhances the overall quality. The first batch was OK, but the second batch was far superior. Wine conditioner (inverted sugar) from the Grape and Granary made a big difference. It smoothed out the rough edges and just added a touch of sweetness.
Equipment
Ready to get started? You can get all of the equipment you need to start a batch for about $50. This includes a primary fermenter, a carboy, bottling bucket, tubing, filler, and more. As the hobby grows, so will your equipment, but nothing too fancy is needed. I just added a new floor corker. This is great, but you don't need one starting out. They may be available to rent at your local brew shop also.
Bottles can be bought at any wine supply store, but ask your friends to save you theirs. I also get some from a local restaurant that would be putting them into the recycling bin. Just soak them in a bleach solution and then you can easily remove the labels. Bleach is a good sanitizing solution. You will need about 30 bottles for the batch.
One tip for good wine from concentrates (or any good beverage with water) is to use a charcoal filter on your water tap for your drinking water. Chlorine and any bad taste will be taken out and the final result will be much better. Our town water can be terrible at time, but the filter makes it as good as any.