How to Make Wine
For those that always wanted to make wine, you should know it is easier than you think. Making wine at home requires very little tools and only some time. While the wine you can make at home will definitely make one a little tipsy, if you are creating wine at home for the taste, your better off sticking to the bottle brands. Home made wine can be a hit or miss (mostly miss), but for those that would like to make wine at home as a hobby, it is extremely fulfilling.
Good Wine Equals Quality Grapes
Wine is made from special grapes called vinifera. These grapes include varieties such as merlot, cabernet and chardonnay. Vinifera grapes grow in cool climates with special soil; this is why certain areas around the world such as the south of France, parts of Italy and parts of California are ideal areas for wine making.
The grapes ripeness is extremely important to creating a high quality wine. Usually the ripeness of a grape is judged by its sweetness. There is a scientific scale called the Brix scale that measures the sweetness of the grape. Once the grapes have reached their desired ripeness, you can pick the grapes from the vine discarding the stems and proceed to crush the grapes releasing the must of the grape. If you prefer white wines, you simply squeeze the juice from the skins.
Fermentation
In order to make wine instead of grape juice, the grapes or grape juice must ferment. However, high quality wines do not allow the fermentation process right after pressing; the grape juice goes through a period called maceration. Maceration is when all the potential flavor compounds from the skins are extracted. This is done by refrigerating the juice over a period of time.
After the maceration period is complete, it is now time to add yeast. Special yeast is used in this process. You should not allow naturally occurring yeast to ferment the juice, as this can result in a poor tasting wine.
For red wine, during the fermentation period the grape skins and seeds will seep to the top. You should remove all materials from the red wine container leaving the juice intact.
Some winemakers make their wines go through maloactic fermentation. This process can be used for red wine and white wines. During this process, maloactic acid is refined into less sharp lactic acid.
Fermentation takes time to complete, however you can gauge the process by measuring the specific gravity of the wine. Once fermentation is complete, many wine makers stop any more fermentation by adding sulfur dioxide to the wine.
Sometimes wine will have lots of solids in them. These solids usually settle over time or can be filtered out. Once the filtering process is complete, you can transfer your newly formed wine into an oak barrel. Commercial wine usually stays in an oak barrel from three months to several years. Generally speaking the longer the wine stays the higher quality it becomes. However, after decades, quality wine if not stored right can deteriorate.
Besides this method of making wine, there are also wine kits that can be used to make wine as well. These kits usually use unpasturized grape juice instead of vinifera grapes. Home wine kits can be purchased at many hobby stores or online and are very affordable. It should be noted that the US Government allows any two-adult household to make up to 200 gallons of wine each year.
