Thread: Wine making

How old are you again Funky.Pickled chook would not be nice.

there are plenty of books on this. go to the library.

Originally Posted by AUSSIE

How old are you again Funky.Pickled chook would not be nice.

Originally Posted by AUSSIE

How old are you again Funky.Pickled chook would not be nice.

A grape growing in your yard would be a table grape probably, as opposed to a grape cultured for making plonk. (wine). This does not mean it will not make wine though.

To make plonk, throw the grapes into the air, and watch them come down plonk.


Sorry, Australian Old Timer Humour.

Oh how droll buzza . However, and to perhaps give a little more practical advice to a novice by a novice. While Buzza may be correct re your grapevine, the best way to check is to see if it actually produces any grapes. If it does that is the first thing. Size and the taste of any grapes produced is the second. If by any chance that you have a wine grapevine then apart from reading books or googling it, other sources of info include doing say a Adult ed course and or consulting your local home brew shop. You could also try visiting a vineyard and have a talk to the people there as they may be able to give you some practical pointers.

To give you some practical insight, I planted a vine at home some 18 years ago and while over the years it has produced some grapes they have never been anything special in terms of quantity. Last winter I properly pruned the vine, trellised it along the back fence and then in spring and over summer fed it a little plus watered it regularly. I was rewarded with the best crop of grapes I have ever seen and so thought why not give it a go and try to make some wine.

I had no idea of the grape variety, the sugar level or how to make wine. I talked this through with a mate at work who used to work in vineyards and my local homebrew shop. It turned out I had a Sauvignon blanc grape. The leaf shape and taste of the grapes established this. The sugar content was around 20 (whatever) and so I picked them before the birds ate them all. I ended up picking from one vine about 1.5kg.

To start the process, using a potato masher, sterilised in boiling water and a stainless steel bowl, also sterilised I mashed all the picked grapes,seeds, skins etc but no stems. I then added to this about 5 mg of Sauvignon Blanc yeast (which I had put into 100ml of water at a temp of 40 degrees C for 15 mins). I added the yeast mix to the mashed grapes and put this in a fermenter jar with an airlock. I have a hydrometer and took a reading of the initial grape juice (cant recall the reading) but have now left this for about a week to ferment. You need to convert all the sugars into alcohol first. Once the next hydrometer reading shows I have converted the sugars, I will rack (filter) the "wine" and bottle and leave for a period of time (no idea how long), to settle. I will then re-rack (filter) and rebottle and allow to mature for about a year and hopefully I might have my first vintage.

I have no illusions that it will be anything special, it is simply an experiment. I have a country property and at some stage in the future intend putting in grapes and olives and will be more systematic about it. This experiement was purely for fun , as there is plenty to learn even if you wish to make home brew wine. Dave

d'ya wanna make wine or spirits fc?

they all start with grapes --- or fruit --- or sugar

Vino

1. Put the grapes in an open wooden tub or half a barrel
2. Take yer boots and socks off
3. ........

Hey funky
read natural wine 2 threads down its dead easy,i make wine this way no problem

Don't forget to sterilise your feet, up to about three inches above the knee caps.

I can remember my Sicilian neighbours wife grape stomping back in the mid fifties. Us Aussie kids thought it was fun watching her, until the a few days later when the smell would permeate the morning air. REEEECCHHH. They diid three hogsheads annually for themselves back then.

apricots make a beautiful sweet wine

Made 12 litres of moorepark apricot wine this year , used the fruit of the tree in the yard. It's now 4 months old and nearly settled out in the demijohn. Realy nice apricot flavour and colour.
Have also made this season 12 to 50 litre batches of Red currant wine, stella cherry wine + 2 cab savs, merlot, shiraz and chardonay. All seem ok except the chardonay has a slight off smell- Hope it will go away with time.
Wine making is great fun and tasting your own wines maturing over years has obvious benefits.
My personal taste is to not use any wood at all as the fruit flavour tastes better without it. There should be more commercial non wooded red wines available. It seems odd that there isnt.

Apricot wine eh? Do tell. How's it made?