BOOKS & WINE: Make Your Own Craft Wine

Did you know you can make wine at home? Regarding this post, I will tell you all you need to know to make your own craft red wine. The process takes between three and four weeks, but it could take a little longer if you`re thinking on aging. So sure, it takes a while but it´s fun and you may learn a little more about wine during the process.

Grape Selection:

This is the first step and it is very important that you choose the right type of grape, trust me it makes all the difference. The species of grape you want are called, “Vitis vinífera” (or wine grape) and there are thousands of types such as; Merlot, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, etc.

What`s the difference between these fancy grapes and the regular table ones? Well wine grapes are smaller and that means they have less water and less water means the flavor is richer, and richer flavor means more sugar, and more sugar means more alcohol, and more alcohol means a better fermentation process. But if you can`t find any wine grapes don`t panic you can use regular ones instead, but make sure you get the smallest and richer flavor ones, or you can always add sugar.

What you will need:

Once you get your grapes there are certain steps you need to follow.

You will use approx. 2k of grapes (4.4 lbs.) per bottle I’m making 3 bottles so I`m using 6k (13.22 lbs.)
Use the smallest and sweetest grapes
Avoid using damaged grapes
Don´t wash your grapes (it helps in the fermentation process)
Keep your grapes in a temperature of 20ºC (68ºF) (if you are using regular table grapes you can dry them a little in the sun to get some extra flavor.
If you are making 3 bottles, like me, you will need two damajuana bottles and 4 regular wine bottles(750ml) (you can clean and reuse any glass bottle that you have).
You will need Sulfite (it helps the fermentation and conservation)
Make sure all of your equipment is clean and sterilized.
De-stemmed

Why is this important?

The stems can release bitter and herbaceous flavors into the wine. Stems also release water and potassium and absorb color and alcohol, so to prevent all this you need to de-stemmed before crushing.

CRUSHING

- When you crush the grapes, you need to be careful not to crush the seeds because it may release oils that can alter the flavor of the must that’s why I prefer to crush them by hand.
- Crush your grapes until you get a homogeneous puree, this puree is called must.
- Formerly the grapes used to be crush by foot.
- Nowadays pneumatic presses that doesn´t harm the seeds are used.
Now that you have your must you need to weigh it so that you can add the right amount of sulfite. (2g/HL)

Bottling:

With a funnel bring the must into the damajuana bottle.
Fill in ¾ of the bottle. (it needs to be oxygen in the bottle so that the yeast can breathe)
Use cotton or gauze as a wine stopper (don`t use cork or the bottle may explode)

}

Fermentation:

For a good color extraction, the wine skin must remain submerged. Flip the bottle upside down a minimum of two times per day to keep the wine skin wet (it also helps the fermentation)
It lasts from 7 to 14 days (until all the sugar turns into alcohol)
The temperature required for the fermentation is from 23° to 30° C (73º - 86º F)

My experience:

First week:

•I warm up the bottles with scarfs and blankets and I also put the bottles hot water baths.

•I even sleep with my bottle……

This is how the must looks like the last days of the first week. You can barely see bubbles when you flip down the bottle.

The bubbles have started!

•This is how the must looks like the first days of the second week.

Pressing:

• I decided to do the pressing before clarification and also before the fermentation processes were over.

• After the pressing process, I mixed the “free-run” juice with the pressed one (The pressed juice has better color, body and aroma characteristics so it´s usually separated for barrel aging)

Clarification

This is the process in which solids as dead yeast cells, tannins and proteins are removed.

• When you do the first clarification there should be a visible thick white line at the bottom of the bottle.

• For the filtration process you will need a syphon tube pipe hose special for winemaking, the pipe will absorb all the liquid and leave the solids in the bottom (you can purchase it on eBay or Amazon).

• If you can get a syphon tube pipe hose, it´s ok, you can empty the bottle slowly being really careful not to pass the solids or you can always use a coffee filter.

•This is how the dead yeast and other solids look like, as you can see the color and thickness is very different to the wine and it also smells and tastes horrible.

•If the fermentation isn´t over you need to put your filter wine in a damajuana bottle again leaving space for the air and using cotton or gauze to close the bottle. (you will know the fermentation is over if you no longer taste sugar in the wine)

• I did the second fermentation a week later and I use a coffee filter.

•In this second fermentation, the solids in the bottom of the bottle are quite less than the first time.

The fermentation is over now so you need to full completely regular wine bottles to avoid the oxygen because when the yeast is alive it prevents other microorganisms to get in but when the fermentation is over and the yeast is dead you need to avoid oxygen because oxygen will aloud microorganisms getting in and turning your wine in vinegar. You also need to put your bottles in the refrigerator for a week (that will help all the left solids in the bottle to settle in the bottle)

• In my third filtration there were almost no solids in the bottom of the bottle and when the process was finishing the wine was crystal clear so I knew there will be no need for a fourth filtration.

• The number of filtrations may vary.

• At the end, I got three and a half bottles of 750ml