Home Winemaking....

[Martin Fisher]

A cursory search didn't reveal a thread specifically devoted to home winemaking.

Invision's search tool leaves a lot to be desired.

And I do use Google Advanced Search (or just search operators) as needed.

 

I've made a lot of wine over the years—some good, some not so great—but all were drinkable. LOL

I've made a lot of grape wine from kits and some from fresh juice (home grown years ago) or what's available, in season, at some suppliers (vineyards) a bit north of me up along the lakes.

I've also made the relatively inexpensive 'apfelwein' from readily available apple juice. Adding a little natural organic apple extract at the end to get the flavor I prefer.

Lots of wine from wild grapes, elderberry, dandelion, raisins, etc. years ago.

 

The very best non-grape homemade wine that I've ever had was wild blueberry wine made by the late Mary B.

She was a wonderful lady and an excellent cook and baker. She'd lived through some very tough times being a Romanian Holocaust survivor so she knew how to bring out the most and best in everything! Nose to tail! Without fail!

She made great blueberry wine, OMG, that stuff was good! 

 

I plan to start a couple batches of dry Riesling soon.

 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Norm Matthews]

It has been almost 40 years since I lived on the Smokey Hill River where there was clay for me to use at my pottery and wild grapes enough to make around 10 gallons of wine a year.  I made some from cherries that was good and I have tasted some well made wine from elderberries, which is not to my taste.  I found with local fruit, I needed to test the acid and sugar content and correct them both to get decent results. I had a cool basement that helped with the secondary fermentation and with making beer but the beer was not as successful.  Dry Riesling is one of my favorite wines but I have never made wine from vitis vinifera  grapes

[liuzhou]

I gave it a go (kits) about the same 40 years ago, but decided the French and Italians do it so much better than I do.

[Smithy]

My neighbor down the road makes decent - that is, pleasantly drinkable - stuff from kits and juices, but I've never tried making it myself.  I'm too fond of the good stuff that can be purchased for not too much money around here. France and Italy, yes, but also California, Spain, Argentina, Chile and occasionally South Africa contribute to our shops' stock.

 

All that said, I'd love to see documentation of the process when you get going, @DiggingDogFarm - or anyone else who's making wine at home.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

France and Italy, yes, but also California, Spain, Argentina, Chile and occasionally South Africa contribute to our shops' stock.

 

Yes, but 40 years ago non-European wines were difficult to find in England and Spanish wine was considered to be undrinkable.

[Lisa Shock]

I made some good red raspberry wine as a teenager. I am working on sprucing up my yard a bit. Because AZ is so dry, I am thinking about growing my vines like THIS. (but maybe using tempranillo)

[Norm Matthews]

French wine ( claret) vs Spanish (port) re: Scottish verse from the time of Charles II

 

Firm and erect the Highland chieftain stood

Old was his mutton and his claret good

'Thou shall drink Port' the English statesman cried.

He drank the poison--and his spirit died.

[lindag]

My dear friend and former nexrdoor neighbor made all kinds of wine and loved to give me tastings while I was out doing yard work.

After a small glass or three I'd end up having to go inside for a nap.

[Shelby]

We did a kit years ago. 

 

H O R R I D

 

I don't know what we did wrong.

 

It tastes worse than Robitussin cough syrup.  And for those that haven't had the pleasure of that...it tastes awful.

 

We still have bottles of it downstairs.

 

I suppose we keep them in case liquor is outlawed.

 

Even then I don't know if I could choke a swallow down and that's saying  a lot for me.

[HungryChris]

I made strawberry wine many years ago. After 3 months, it was pretty bad and I pretty much forgot about it. Then I rediscovered it about 2 years later and it was absolutely wonderful. We had about 3 gallons and made it last about a year. I have not even tried to make it since.

HC

[Norm Matthews]

@Shelby It might be that your wine got over exposed to air before it was bottled and oxidized.  It could have happened during the secondary fermentation if your air lock got compromised somehow. 

[IndyRob]

I planted some grapevines a few years ago and I was looking forward to our first harvest this year.  After fighting off Japanese beetles for two months, things were looking good.  Then the birds helped themselves to the entire crop.

[ClarenceGilbert]

Actually, my aunt is also facing the same issue. How did you deal with the birds?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

22 minutes ago, ClarenceGilbert said:

Actually, my aunt is also facing the same issue. How did you deal with the birds?

 

http://amzn.com/B007ID1WKE

 

That and frost protection cloth.

 

[Okanagancook]

Pretty well every vineyard here in the Okanagan puts nets on their vines to prevent the birds from eating the grapes.  A friend was a little late netting and a humongous flock of starlings ate about five acres of Chardonnay in an afternoon.  $$$$$$

Edited November 25, 2018 by Okanagancook (log)

[nickrey]

You think birds are a problem.

 

My cousin has a vineyard. He put up nets to stop the kangaroos getting in and eating the grapes. For efficiency, he decided to sew the nets together making it one cover over the whole crop.

 

One ingenious kangaroo got under the net.

 

You can guess what happened next.

[Martin Fisher]

Okay, this is a weird one!!!

The homebrew/winemaking shop is dangerously close to my house!

Just 273 steps away! LOL 

I stopped in the other day for some wide mouth gallon jars for vinegar making.

I started a conversation about cooking wine with the very nice young lady who was working there.

After discussing dry reds and whites (in general)―she said "Onion wine is the best cooking wine I've ever tried."  Huh?!?!? 

Well, I'm going to keep a very open mind and give it a try.

She didn't suggest a particular recipe, and I haven't found one that looks good to me, yet—so I'll probably just 'wing-it.'

 

We''ll see! 

[Martin Fisher]

On 8/28/2017 at 9:01 PM, Smithy said:

All that said, I'd love to see documentation of the process when you get going, @DiggingDogFarm - or anyone else who's making wine at home.

 

I will try to do this. 

[Martin Fisher]

I've been doing some work on my homemade 'wines for cooking' labels and here's some of what I have so far.

With a few wine names.

It's far from finished.

I wanted this to have the 'rubber stamp' look.

The drawing needs a lot of work.

I do need to have text follow a path for the name, at least!

The pig image will be much smaller on the label.

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

ETA: I think I'll bottle it in 12 ounce brown beer bottles with a crown cap.

That's a good size for cooking.

The labels will have a rustic look. And I may use PVC shrink wraps over the tops—as is done with wine.

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by DiggingDogFarm (log)