Introduction — Your First Gallon!

So you are thinking about making your own juice. Making wine is a really fun hobby, and one that helps you learn a lot about the art of wine. The main challenge to the novice is in transforming the raw material into a finished wine. The biochemical steps involved in converting fruit sugars into alcohol and then fine-tuning your mix into the desired wine character, can be complex. This tutorial attempts to demystify making wine by walking you through the fundamental parts of the process in this 4 part series.

Crush the Grapes

I am sure you were excited about the thought of smashing and squishing through all of those juicy grapes. However, you really do not need too; as I would recommend the novice winemaker consider starting with a winemaking kit. This is a great way to get a good introduction to the process, directly expanding your wine knowledge base. Additionally, you will have a much better chance of getting a predictable result.

Kit Selection

You can choose from kits sourced from vineyards in France, Italy, California, and just about every major wine-producing region. Pick one that is all-inclusive and you will have the directions, recipe, and pre-measured ingredients (including additives) ready to go. Using a kit is one way to save the time and money relative to working with fresh grapes.

There are wide varieties of kits available, with pricing related to the purity of the grapes (pure, concentrated, or mixed form). The concentrated products remove the water, which you of course will add back as part of the process. The pure juice versions require no added water and cost a bit more. Just be sure to check carefully the details of necessary ingredients or additives, if any, that are not included.

Traditional Method

Now if you are either more adventurous or just a traditionalist at heart, you may want to skip the kit and get into this even deeper! Of course, there are lots of methods and details to winemaking, but here let us just stick to the core fundamentals. In general, you will be covering the following high-level steps:

Setup and Sanitization
Creating the Must
Starting the Primary Fermentation
Setting up the Secondary Fermentation
Stabilization and Bottling
Aging

However, before we get into each of these tasks, we will review the core winemaking knowledge basics. Next is a review of all the key additives and chemicals used in home based winemaking. That is followed by Part III, which reviews the various hardware and equipment products used during the process. Ok, let us move on to Part II Additives & Chemicals.

Contributor: WineDefintions Staff Writer

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