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Members of Central Virginia Winemakers picking Pinot gris
I know that many readers of this column have only made wines from concentrates or kits. Nothing wrong with that, except now it’s spring, the blossoms are blooming, pollen fills the air, and a winemaker’s thoughts are turning to….REAL GRAPES!
Have you considered trying to make wine from grapes, rather than from kits? Just once, perhaps??? Well that’s a decision best made now, in the springtime, so you place an order and make certain you have access to the supplies and equipment you will need. Here’s some information to help you make the decision.
While there are now well over 100 vineyards in Virginia—and many vineyards in adjacent areas of North Carolina and Maryland—it’s still not easy to find good wine grapes here. There are some vineyards that routinely sell to amateurs, and there are others that will…if conditions are right. That means if they have enough grapes to meet winery needs, they may sell extras to you.
The best way to find grapes is to let the folks at Weekend Brewers know you’re in the market. Sometimes they post grape availability on a bulletin board in the shop. They’ll also add your name and address to their “wineinfo” email list, and will keep you informed when they hear about opportunities. Yet another approach is to join the Central Virginia Winemakers through their Yahoo Group (see link and address at the end of this column). There are a few folks there—myself included—who know where many of the sources are each year.
Of course, you can also order frozen or refrigerated grapes or must from various sources in California. There are not very many options here for the small-scale home winemaker, and those that exist tend to vary from pricey to VERY pricey. However, you can get some world class grapes if your willing to pay the freight! Yet another approach is to join with others and drive to Philadelphia, New Jersey and other “nearby” areas where there are various distributors who sell California and New York State juice that they receive refrigerated tanker trucks!
Besides the equipment and supplies you need for making kit wines, you will need a few additional items. First of all, you will need a method for crushing the grapes. No biggie. If you’re only thinking of making 5, 10, or 15 gallons or so, you can easily crush them with your hands or feet.
When making white wines, you will press the crushed grapes, stems and all, to expel the juice immediately after crushing. For red wines, however, the grapes will ferment in contact with the crushed skins; however, you need to remove all or most of the stems. Leaving the stems in will make your wine extremely harsh, bitter, and astringent in most cases. If you are making large quantities of red wine, you will need a crusher-destemmer machine. But for small-scale, once-in-a-blue-moon winemaking, just plan on spending a good long time up to your elbows in the must vat, picking out the stems. It’s a very good idea to wear rubber gloves in order to keep your hands from being “tanned” from all the grape tannins.
A wine press is the most efficient way to press the juice out of the must. If you don’t have one available, you can scoop up the solids with a stainless-steel strainer and place them in a large pillowcase or fine-mesh muslin bag. Then just squeeze and wring until you have managed to expel most of the juice. Again, check with your home winemaking suppliers to see if they have equipment you can rent.
When you make wine from kits, you may or may not check your specific gravity with a hydrometer, but such tests are essential when making wine from grapes. Make sure you have a hydrometer available. You will also need an acid testing kit. Understanding “total acidity,” and how to determine what that is using a simple titration procedure, is essential to successful winemaking. While your wine kit comes with the juice/concentrate already adjusted to the proper sugar and acid content, you will almost certainly have to make adjustments to your must made from grapes. Be sure to have plenty of sugar and tartaric acid available the day you crush your grapes.
These are the main things you’ll need that you may not already have. Just as with kit wines, you will also need a supply of potassium metabisulfite (powder or Campden tablets). You may or may not need finings, such as Bentonite or isinglass or chitosan. Fining is a fairly complex subject I’ll take up at another time. Suffice it to say, if you need finings, they are readily available and can be used nearly any time after the wine has completed fermentation. Of course you need to buy an appropriate yeast culture, and you should also plan on purchasing yeast nutrient. If you want your wine to undergo malolactic fermentation (which I don’t recommend for your first wine-from-grapes), you should buy MLF culture and nutrient, as well.
You will not need and potassium sorbate unless you plan to sweeten your wine with sugar before bottling. You will not need any “degassing” gizmos, because with “real wine,” you are not going to be trying to bottle it in four or six weeks. The wine will naturally degas as it ages in the carboy.
Possibly. Probably not. You will generally pay between 50 cents and a dollar per pound of grapes, and you will need about 15 or 16 pounds per gallon of finished wine. I recommend buying 100 pounds and aiming for a 6-gallon batch. That means the grapes will cost you between 50 and 100 bucks. That’s the same general range that kits cost. And then there are the extras.
Possibly. Possibly MUCH better. But probably not. There are many more reasons that a wine-from-grapes could turn out with some sort of flaw or deficiency. However, once you learn how to manipulate the variables, you are, in my humble opinion, much more likely to make prize-winning wines. Just keep in mind that the kit makers really know what they are doing, and they sometimes have access to better grapes than we do here in Virginia.
That, of course, is the question you have to answer for yourself. For tens of thousands of hobbyist wine-makers, the reward is in the bottle!
Ron wrote:
When making a berry wine like blackberry, can it be made to taste sweeter after it is ready to put in bottles? I made about ten gallon or so, and it seems to me that it needs to be a bit sweeter, and It’s a little strong too. According to my hydrometer, the specific gravity is 0.995. The wine is clear and a deep dark red. It smells like wine, but it just tastes a little strong and not sweet enough. Thanks for any help.
Ron,
A specific gravity reading of 0.995 means that your wine is finished fermenting and is, as you note, dry. When you say it tastes a bit "strong," I assume you are referring to the sensation of alcohol. That can be easily balanced by slightly sweetening your wine. Both acidity and alcohol are balanced by sweetness, and both of these sensations can seem too "strong" in a bone-dry fruit wine.
To do that, simply make a light syrup of sugar boiled in water or a little of the wine and stir it into your wine thoroughly. You may want to rack (siphon) your wine off of any sediment first. Just add a small amount at a time, stir it in very well, and taste it. When it tastes right, you're done.
Now add 1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite dissolved in a little warm water per each five gallons of wine. Also add a dose of potassium sorbate, following the manufacturer's directions on your package. The sorbate can be obtained at any winemaking supply store. The sulfite and sorbate work together to prevent the added sugar from causing a new fermentation. When the wine is completely clear, rack it one more time (if necessary) and bottle it. Good luck.
When I first heard that Winexpert was releasing a Merlot kit based on grapes from Napa Valley’s Stags Leap District, I was both shocked and excited. Hard to believe a kit could contain such expensive grapes. Hard to believe I wouldn’t want to buy LOTS of those kits!!!
Well, Merlot lovers rejoice! Winexpert’s Selection Estate Series Stags Leap Merlot is everything you’re looking for. Velvety soft, very rich, and full of blackberry fruit. This is not a particularly complex wine—Merlot rarely is—but its full body and excellent fruit are what most folks want from a Merlot. For those of you who like to make Bordeaux-style blends, this wine is an excellent place to begin. Add a little Cabernet sauvignon, perhaps some Petit Verdot….Hmmmmmm.
Cab franc is the original Cabernet…the great grand pappy of Cabernet sauvignon. The grape undoubtedly originated in Bordeaux, and it is in Bordeaux that it reaches its finest expression. Since few mere mortals can afford the best Cabernet franc-based wines of Bordeaux, such as Chateau Cheval-blanc, the next best source is in the Loire Valley of northern France. Cab franc is similar to Cab sauvignon, but without so much tannin—and, frankly, that means not much “spine.” It is a very aromatic grape, however, adding aromas of grass, violets, and blackberries to any blend.
Cab franc has proven to be well adapted to growing conditions in Virginia. It is somewhat cold hardy, and more resistant to rot than many red vinifera grape varieties. In years when it is hard to ripen the fruit, Cab franc’s herbaceous qualities can become overwhelming, and, for many, disagreeable. Color is likely to be deficient in these circumstances, as well. In better years it can make a fine, dark red wine. In the Loire Valley’s Anjou District, Cabernet franc makes some of the world’s finest pink wines, as well.
Generally regarded as the world’s foremost red-wine grape, Cab is King (except among the fanatical holdouts who would gladly die defending this title for their revered Pinot noir!). Cab is one of the more predictable vinifera grapes, in that it tastes and smells much the same wherever it is grown—allowing, of course, for huge differences in quality and intensity.
Cabernet comes from Bordeaux, and it is the principle grape in the vast majority of that region’s red wines—from common table wines to the fabulous and rightly famous Premiere Grand Crus chateau wines. Cabernet took California by storm, beginning in the early 1960s, and it accounts for the majority of the best, most costly California wines produced today. Cab is grown the world over, and it generally makes at least acceptable wines wherever it is grown.
This grape originated in north-central Spain, but is better known by it French name, because is one of the three most abundantly planted grapes in the south of France. It is a “hot country” grape that produces high alcohol, lots of color, and spicy, dark-fruit flavors. Home winemakers will rarely encounter it other than as a component in a Southern French blend. It is almost always blended with Grenache and/or Cinsault, but more and more lately, also with Syrah and Mourvedre.
Comments? Questions? Write me at dan.mouer@verizon.net
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2005 L. Daniel Mouer