Hi there! I'm really glad I found your website. Its great! My mom and dad have been making wine the exact, exact, exact same way as you've detailed, right down to the types of grapes you use. Now that its time for me to make wine, everyone else tells me I have to add yeast. They tell me if I don't add yeast the alcohol level will be really low. I've never tasted my parents wine but I'm quite sure its sufficiently fortified! What's your take on adding yeast? Have you tested the alcohol level of your wine?
Answer from the Vintner
I have never used yeast or any additive or preservative. Ours is the old fashioned way of making wine from grapes without yeast. "Everyone else" has had a million ideas on how I should make our wine. However, I am very happy with the flavor of the wine and that is most important. As for alcohol content, the buzz from a bottle of the zinfandel or zinfandel/alecante blend is just fine. If "everyone else" is drinking for effect they are missing the point of making your own wine from scratch. It tastes great and it has nothing but natural ingredients in it.
We have a 3X12 fruit cellar in our condo with two vent holes but seems to have a bit of a cement smell to it. Will this taint the wine over time? Should I paint the walls? I am going to install a fan to run on 6 hrs and off 6 hrs. through one of the vent holes.
After about 2 weeks of preparation and hard work we are at harvest day. This video compacts about 8 hours work into just over 4 minutes of video. Take a look and then let us know what you enjoyed and what you want to see more of. We have another batch cooking so we can add to the pictures and videos we have in inventory and show you whatever you want to know about our process for making wine from grapes.
Within a day or two of being crushed into the barrel the grapes will start to ferment. However, it is not like baking a cake where you sit and wait while the oven cooks the food. You must keep the grapes moist so that they do not dry out or turn sour and ruin the batch of wine. Watch how this is done.
We have gone to buy the grapes and have brought home 11 cases of Sangiovese grapes. We will now crush them into the barrel. This breaks the grape open so that the pulp inside will ferment with all of the other bits of the grapes to produce the wine.
It is mid-September 2011 and wine making season has started a little late for the California grapes. It was a very wet and late spring and that delayed the crop this year. In preparation for our way of making wine from grapes we need to prepare our fermenting barrel. There is not a lot of information here but because it is step 1, it is very important information. If you do not prepare the barrel correctly you can ruin your wine making for the season.
In this video the wine vintner will teach you how to decant wine using a wine decanter. Decanting you wine will help to improve the flavor and remove sediment which may have formed during aging.
The goal of decanting is to get air to the wine. You want to expose as many molecules of the wine to the air as possible. You may ask "Why do this?" The answer is for the result.
The result is multi faceted.
First it releases any gasses left over from fermentation that have been trapped in the wine through bottling.
Second, it has the same effect as aging the wine. It takes the harsh flavors from the wine. When you are drinking young wines that are made in the way that we make them, this can change the flavor from very fruity and "green tasting" to a mellow flavor that is more appealing to your taste buds and olfactory sense.
Lisa asked the question "how long will wine keep after it is opened?"
How long your wine will keep depends on a couple of factors:
Temperature...If your wine is kept at room temperature or outside temperature in the summer it turns to vinegar faster than if it is kept in a cellar, wine cooler or even your fridge.
If your wine is a natural wine with no preservatives (sulphites) in it, it will turn faster than those with preservatives.
Depending on how your wine is made and how you store your opened wine will vary the amount of time you have to drink it from a few hours to days or months.
On an added note, even if your wine doesn't keep it turns into vinegar that you can use in your cooking. Sometimes it is a very flavorful addition to your ingredients inventory.
With this kit, you'll learn how to taste wine like you have never done before and have a great time doing it.
Have you ever been to a wine tasting party where the whole experience was fun, but left you somewhat unsatisfied?
That was my experience with the first few parties I attended while I was learning about wine.
Even though the hosts had tasting sheets and were fairly organized, it still left me wanting more.
I had high hopes for the parties because I was interested in learning more about wine and discovering what I did and didn't like. And what better way to learn than in a fun atmosphere among friends.
While the social aspect of the parties was great, I don't think my wine knowledge or appreciation benefited.
In setting out to determine what would have made the tastings more beneficial I discovered the key mistake that most hosts do that make it almost impossible to really benefit your wine skills.
Ron Smithers from Alberta Canada who asked "What are the different types of red and white wines and where are they grown in Canada?"
Types of Red Wine (Grape Varieties)
Pinot Noir - Quality Pinot Noir wine grapes have been grown in Ontario for some time in the Niagara Peninsula and especially the Short Hills Bench wine region, as well as in Prince Edward County and on the north shore of Lake Erie. It has also been grown recently in the Okanagan, Lower Mainland, and Vancouver Island wine regions of British Columbia and the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia
Merlot - It grows in many regions that also grow Cabernet Sauvignon but tends to be cultivated in the cooler portions of those areas. In areas that are too warm, Merlot will ripen too early
Lisa asked the question "how long will wine keep after it is opened?"
