Wine making can be a fulfilling hobby if you pursue it passionately. You get the satisfaction of making something using ingredients straight from nature. Mother Nature provides all the ingredients for wine as well as the fermentation process. If you follow the classic route of making wine, you will create something all natural and refreshing. Don't be too hasty when it comes to your wine, though. Well-aged wine will taste the best, so don't drain your supply the moment it ferments.
Instructions
Preparing the Grapes
1. Harvest the ripe and juicy grapes from your supply. Handle them with care as you haul them home so you do not bruise or squeeze the delicate fruit. Rough handling can squeeze out the juices in the fruit that will constitute your wine.
2. Wash the grapes to remove debris such as spider webs, leaves and pests. The debris can severely alter the taste of your wine if you do not take the time to clean the grapes.
3. Place the grapes into a large bin with a nozzle on the side. Spread the grapes over the bottom of the container evenly.
Creating the Must
4. Change into a pair of shorts. Wash your legs and feet with hot water and soap. Rinse away the soap and wash your feet again if necessary.
5. Stomp the grapes to crush out the sweet juices (the result is "must"). Walk around the container to stomp as many of the grapes as possible.
6. Place a container under the nozzle. Drain the must out of the bin and into the container. Some grape skins and stems may fall into the container, but that should not concern you. Leave the nozzle open until the juice no longer falls.
Creating White Wine
7. Strain out the stems and the skins of the grapes immediately. The red coloring in wine comes from the skins and the stems, so leaving them in there for longer than necessary will ruin your pristine white wine.
8. Move the white wine to a fermentation vat (it can either be metal or wood depending on your preference) in a cool area that maintains a 60-degrees F temperature. Leave it in the vat for three to four weeks while the natural yeast in the air helps it ferment, turning it from regular grape juice into wine. Pull out of the fermentation vat a little sooner if you would like a sweeter tasting wine.
9. Move the white wine to a wooden barrel and set it in a room that reaches almost freezing temperature.
10. Age the wine for a year to get the best flavor in the least amount of time. Do not remove the wine from the barrel or you may interrupt the aging process.
Creating Red Wine
11. Move the red wine to the fermentation vat with the stems and grape skins still in the juice. These will give the wine a robust flavor as well as the red color you crave in your red wine. Let the wine ferment on the natural yeast in the air for three to four weeks.
12. Transfer the red wine to an aging barrel once it finishes fermenting. Filter the wine as you transfer it to remove the solid debris from the liquid.
13. Age the red wine in the barrel for as long as you desire. The wine will already have a strong taste, but the aging process will refine it until it has a more complex flavor.
Tags: your wine, wine fermentation, , aging process, four weeks, grape skins, into container