What Do You Need To Make Your Own Wine?

Homemade wine making is fast becoming very popular across the world. There are several reasons for this.

The biggest one is that the cost to transport that yummy nectar from where they grow, harvest, and ferment it is going up right along with the cost of fuel. There’s no two ways around it – we are about to see bottles of wine at the grocery store and wine shops double.

In the last year, there has been a flurry of “How To” guides crop up around the internet. All of the guides are helpful and at least can get a beginner started.

The truth is, you can make high quality wine, award winning wine, at home, in a 5 gallon food bucket.

Some preparation and materials are required. You have to at least have a hydrometer. You need at least the 5 gallon bucket. AND – you need some kind of near air tight secondary fermentation vessel. In the industry we call this a “carbouy”.

There are very inexpensive airlocks and some plastic tubing to round out the equipment.

Some chemicals may be required as well. Yeast is an obvious first one (not really a chemical but a dormant microbe). Citric acid, potassium sorbate, metabisulfate, campden tablets, pectin enzyme and a few others are pretty common.

The biggest secret in home wine making is: get the good stuff to start with.

There are actually vineyards that will sell small quantities of grapes or even crushed grapes and juices, fresh from the vineyard. Although these are hard to locate, they do exist. I have found at least one wine making guide that lists these sources.

Aside from the money savings (you can make wine for about 25 cents a bottle), there is the actual enjoyment of making something that you can drink! If your batch comes out really good, you will be calling all your neighbors and friends to come and give it a try.

Cheers and happy wine making!

Article by Mike Carraway, click on link below for the “Complete Guide To Making Wine”.

The Complete Guide To Wine

What Temperature Is Wine Best Stored And Served At?

You may have heard the old adage “refrigerate white wine and drink red wine at room temperature,” but it is simply not true.

Despite being “aged,” wine is a perishable product. If you store it at 100 degrees, it will lose its flavor. However, if you store it at 3 degrees, just as much damage will be caused.

The trick is to store it at an ideal, stable temperature, and then to serve it at a temperature which best shows off its personal characteristics.

Serve the wine too cold, and all of the flavors will be hidden. Serve it too hot, and all you’ll taste is alcohol.

More than half of the enjoyment of wine is involved in the aroma. The taste has only four aspects; salty, sweet, sour, and acid. Your nose does the rest of the work.

You see, vapors are created as the wine becomes warmer. So, you want your wine to be just a few degrees below the ideal drinking temperature for this to work. Room temperature is rarely, if ever, a good temperature to serve wine at. Being too warm makes white wine taste dull and red wine too alcoholic.

Here are the best general temperatures for drinking wine at. Remember, however, the temperature of the room will be relative to this ‘idea temperature’. If your room is 60°F and you are serving a fine Burgundy, you’ll want to chill the Burgundy to 58°F to allow it a little breathing and warming up in the glass.
Temperatures are in Farenheit:

66  Vintage Port
64  Bordeaux, Shiraz
63  Red Burgundy, Cabernet
61  Rioja, Pinot Noir
59  Chianti, Zinfandel
57  Tawny/NV Port, Madeira
55  Ideal storage for all wines
48  Chardonnay
47  Riesling
45  Champagne
43  Ice Wines
41  Asti Spumanti