Making Table Wine at Home - Article Example

13 February Wine making Today, I will break a common misconception that wine has to be bought, because only professional wineries can make it. In reality, it is relatively easy to produce wine, provided that you have the right materials and enough patience. In fact, home winemaking is an American tradition. It has been practiced since this nation was founded until the present (Warrick 6). President Thomas Jefferson himself said: “Good wine is a necessity of life for me” and winemaking continued at homes at limited amounts even during the alcohol prohibition times (Warrick 6). Sometimes, you think that it is always easier to purchase wine than to make it. Think again. If your ancestors made them in their own homes centuries ago, there is no reason why you cannot make it when it is already the twenty-first century. You have the technology to make wine in your own homes without having to stomp on your grapes like ancient winemakers did. My grandmother has been making wines for our families for the past forty years. I recently learned how to do it, and I am happy to say that homemade wine can taste just as good as other high-quality branded wines. I will explain three steps in making wine: preparing all materials, fermenting and racking the wine, and bottling the wine. Let us start with the first step of making wine, which is preparing all materials and ingredients. The first step is to prepare all the materials and ingredients needed. You will need standard and intermediate winemaking equipments and raw materials. The standard winemaking equipments are carboy, iris jaw type floor corker, wine press, and thermometer (Great Homemade Wine). The intermediate materials are corks, empty glass bottles, oak, brush, clamp, tubing, and siphon (Great Homemade Wine). The raw materials or ingredients you need are grapes, wine yeast, and sugar, as well as sulphite tablets. (Wineintro.com). I recommend fresh grapes instead of grape juice, because the former can provide high-quality wine (Cooke 4). I further suggest that you select Cabernet Sauvignon grapes if you have those in your area, because it is the “king among wine grapes” (Warrick 14). Or, you can choose any type of grapes from the species of Vitis vinifera, because they tend to ripen with the right amounts of sugar, acids, and flavor compounds (Warrick 14). For water, spring water is suggested, because it has the right amount of minerals, but no chlorine (Peragine 40). For sugar, you can experiment with any kind of sugars, although you can use invert sugar. For yeast, choose the yeast specifically used for wines, called wine yeast, to produce a better tasting wine (Warrick 14). You also have to sanitize the area and equipments. You have to clean your work area and make sure that there is no clutter that will intervene with your wine making. You also have to wash your equipment. You can use commercial winemaking cleansers that can be bought from many winemaking shops, or you can use bleach or B-brite (Wineintro.com). You should be able to clean your carboys and other equipment as meticulously as possible (Wineintro.com). Part of the preparation is making sure that the grapes are crushed already. You can rent a crusher/destemmer from small wineries or shops, or you can buy one. Before the primary fermentation can start, the grapes have to be crushed to produce the juice, pulp and skins, which are also called must (Great Homemade Wine). After preparing your ingredients and cleaning your materials, it is now time to ferment and rack the wine. Your second step is to ferment and rack the wine (Wineintro.com). There are two ways for fermentation that can be used (Great Homemade Wine). The first way is letting the natural yeast of the grapes to do the fermentation. The second way is to sterilize the grapes by adding a sulphite, or potassium metabisulfite, to exterminate all the wild molds and bacteria that come with the fresh grapes (Great Homemade Wine). You can now start the primary fermentation process. Choose a primary fermentation container where you will put the materials. After transferring the must to the container, you have to loosely cover it with a clean cloth to let the must to air out. After 24 hours, the potassium metabisulfite will purify the juice and then disperse into the air (Great Homemade Wine). You can now add wine yeast to the must in the primary fermentation container. Cover the bottle with clean plastic, but not too taut, to let the gases escape. The fermentation process means that the yeast is converting the natural sugars into alcohol, which takes about 10 days (Great Homemade Wine). The perfect environment for yeast cells to ferment the juice is to maintain the optimum temperature of 22° C (72° F), though anywhere between 21-24° C (70-75° F) range is acceptable too (Great Homemade Wine). If it is warmer, the homemade wine will ferment too quickly, which will result to lost aroma and poor flavor (Great Homemade Wine). If it is cooler, the homemade wine will ferment too gradually, or not at all, because the yeast will stay dormant (Great Homemade Wine). During the fermentation process, the skins and pulp will drift to the top and form a cap (Great Homemade Wine). To make the most of flavor and color extraction, keep the floating cap immersed by pushing it down once or twice every day during fermentation, and this is called “punching down the cap” (Great Homemade Wine). You will now proceed to the secondary fermentation and racking process. This starts with racking the homemade wine and pressing the pulp to take out all of the juice (Great Homemade Wine). Racking is the “process of siphoning your wine from one container to another, leaving sediment that has settled to the bottom of the container behind” (Great Homemade Wine). To press the pulp, use a press that is appropriate to the quantity of homemade wine you are making, like “a table top press for 19 to 57 litres (5 to 15 gal.) or a ratchet press for 38 to 114 litres (10 to 30 gal.) of wine” (Great Homemade Wine). Pour the homemade wine to a carboy and fasten an air lock to the container. Remember to fill the container to within 1 inch of the air lock to reduce the air space that the wine comes into contact with (Great Homemade Wine). Plug the airlock halfway with water, fasten the airlock in the rubber stopper and place the stopper firmly into the mouth of the carboy for an airtight seal (Great Homemade Wine). You can add oak flavors if you like at this stage. You can use oak chips that have different flavors, which can be bought from wine supply stores. Then, you have to rack your homemade wine for a second time. Wait another 6 to 8 weeks to rack your wine again (Great Homemade Wine). For the third racking, after transferring the wine, put in campden tablets at one tablet per 4 liter (1 gallon) (Great Homemade Wine). Campden is a sulphite which is a natural compound that reduces bacteria and performs as an antioxidant (Great Homemade Wine). Wait for your wine to age for 4 to 6 months before bottling (Great Homemade Wine). After racking the wine, it is time to bottle it. You are now ready to bottle your wine. You should use wine bottles made of glass that use a cork seal. Siphon your homemade wine into the bottles and leave a space of no more than an inch between the wine and cork (Great Homemade Wine). Cork the bottle using an iris jaw type floor corker. The iris jaw floor corker cautiously compresses the cork and puts it exactly into the bottle (Great Homemade Wine). Leave your wine upright for at least 24 hours before corking and sampling your first homemade wine (Great Homemade Wine). Now that you know how to make wine, let’s make a recap. Today, I described home winemaking. I told you to prepare materials and ingredients and clean the equipments. I explained the fermenting and racking process. I also described the bottling process. By this moment, you can make any kind of grape wine at home! You can experiment with different sugars, grapes, and sulphites to make the wine that suits your specific tastes. You can also give wine as gifts to your family and friends. Next time you want to buy expensive wine, think about making your own quality wine. It will take a few months of making it, but the rewards will make you dizzy, not from alcohol, but from pride and happiness. Works Cited Cooke, George M. Making Table Wine at Home. California: U of California P, 2004. Print. Great Homemade Wine. How to Make Great Homemade Wine from Grapes! 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. < http://www.greathomemadewine.ca/hw/Grapes.html>. Peragine, John N. The Complete Guide to Making Your Own Wine at Home: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply. Florida: Atlantic, 2010. Print. Warrick, Sheridan F. The Way to Make Wine: How to Craft Superb Table Wines At Home. California: U of California P, 2006. Print. Wineintro.com. Basic Instructions for Home Winemaking. 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. . Read More