Making Wine @ Home (Part 1)

I made my first attempt at winemaking last year on SuperBowl Sunday and decided this year to make it a tradition. It also provides a memorable reference point as the wine ages. This will be the first of a series of posts following this batch of wine from fermentation to the glass.

To me, wine is a more complex topic than beer due to the wide variety of fruits and varietals used.  However, I find the process of making wine to be much simpler than brewing.  Most of the variables that influence the end result are up to mother nature herself rather than in the brewer or malt house or recipe combination.  The primary influences on any wine is the quality and attributes of the fruit it is based on.  The basic concepts of wine and beer making are the same. The most striking difference is that the sugars are extracted from fruit much more easily than grain.   Carbohydrates and starches in grain are broken down using heat to stimulate enzymes which break them down into simple sugars.  Most sugars found in fruit are naturally ready for fermentation.  Introducing heat would modify their structure in a way that would make them more difficult to ferment, so there is no "cooking" when making wine. Bottom line: making wine is far less time consuming but the raw ingredients are more expensive!

The process is quite simple:

1. Sanitize your equipment (fermenter/lid, spoon, hydrometer)
2. Fill fermenter with fruit juice, here forward called "must"
3. Add yeast to kick off fermentation
4. Rack to secondary fermenter (after 1 week)
5. Allow fermentation to complete (another 2-4 weeks)
6. Stabilize (stop fermentation)
7. Degass (remove CO2 from fermentation)
8. Clarify and Filter
9. Bulk age (optional)
10. Bottle

The wine I am starting today is a Chilean Pinot Noir using a Wine Expert’s Selection International kit from my local homebrew shop.  The varietals in this kit come from Chile from the same vinyards as the award winning wines in that region.  I splurged a bit on this kit but my homebrew shop has been recommending it to me since I first showed an interest.  Most wine kits range from $60-$170 and produce up to 30 bottles.  The more expensive kits often include award winning veritals which may require special order months in advance of production.

Next post, we'll open up the kit an complete steps 1-3 (day 1) for making wine at home...

Be sure to check out the other posts in the series

Cheers,

-D

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[Making Wine at Home | Grilland]

[...] post following the progress of a home winemaking kit from fermenter to glass. Please check out part 1 for some additional background on making wine at [...]

[Making Wine @ Home | GrillandB]

[...] third part of a series following a batch of wine from fermenter to glass.  Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 for more details and [...]