# WHY did you start making Wine?



## Tom (Dec 1, 2009)

*For ME !!*


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## Wade E (Dec 1, 2009)

I love that 1! I started all because my wife and I went to a wine tasting at a local winery and tasted a Black Currant wine that they made and it was very good. She then started to buy 3 of these 375's a week at $14.50 a pop. I had to put a stop to that. HMMM, I think now it might still be cheaper to just buy hose 3 bottles!


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## arcticsid (Dec 1, 2009)

Well. like Wade, I thought it would be a cheap source of drink. YEAH RIGHT!

I don't particularly like wine, I prefer beer. However, I really am not that interested in brewing my own beer.(this is the Polish confusion in my blood!LOL)

Cooking is a passion for me, and to make my own wine brings me the same satisfaction as presenting a nice meal or dish of food.

Now that I am hooked, my question is, "How do I stop?"

It's all of your fault for encouraging me! I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY!!, I am.

Troy


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## arcticsid (Dec 1, 2009)

Wade, you could of always stayed single, or met a nice Mormon girl. LOL

Sorry Mrs Wade. (I'm heading for trouble now, I just feel it)


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## NSwiner (Dec 1, 2009)

A friend i work with asked if we would be interested in sharing the cost of starting the first kit that way if we didn't like it not to much money wasted . Well that never happened because they had to move and the extra cost involved in that .In the mean time our store was celebrating 15 yrs in business with 1/2 price or free starter depending on the wine you bought ,hubby said we should go check it out , as they say the rest is history .Our only problem is finding the room for everything . We told our 19 yrs old time he moved out so we could take over his bedroom  he suddenly stopped asking when I was going to find room for things .


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## arcticsid (Dec 1, 2009)

NS, wait till he finds out you used his inheritance for a new wine cellar!LOL


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## Tom (Dec 1, 2009)

NAH!
Tell him U R SPENDING his inheritance and DRINKING it !


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## Wade E (Dec 1, 2009)

Have you ever tried homebrew Troy, making beer can be pretty easy and reaching in the fridge and grabbing the tap and pouring your own fresh beer is way better then popping open a Bud!!!!!! I just bought the Tap-A-Draft system for a friend for Christmas cause he loves to brew beer but hates the bottling part(dont we all)! Troy, this is what you need
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=6780A


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## NSwiner (Dec 1, 2009)

Think I better wait til after Christmas to tell him that


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## arcticsid (Dec 1, 2009)

I do want to look into brewing my own beer. I told you a few weeks back about a pretty nice beer my neighbor made. I would definitely go for a keg system. I can drink them quicker than I can wash the bottles.

I don't really like heavy beers, but now that I am hooked on making wine, I think it is inevitable beer is next.

Just not sure what to say when the property owner shows up and I have a copper tubing contraption out back. Guess I could either blame it on all of you, or try to explain to him it is just the "inevitable"
LOL


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## Boozehag (Dec 1, 2009)

I started because I always wanted to supply my own wine with my art on it for an exhibition. It hasnt happened yet but then Ive only been donig this since the begining of the year. 
Im doing a talk on art stuff in the new year whenre I am meant to supply the wine so guess what Ill be supplying hehe!


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## cpfan (Dec 2, 2009)

A long and convoluted story.....

In 1998 we visited some friends in BC Wine Country at Canadian Thanksgiving. We enjoyed the wines from Quails Gate Winery, but couldn't get them back home in Saskatchewan. A year later we were going on another visit. As part of my preparation, I checked Quails Gate's web-site. The Riesling that we had really enjoyed was limited to six per customer. So I called up and ordered six for pickup while we were there. As I stood in line in the store (it was the first weekend of the Wine Festival), I heard somebody ask if they had any Riesling. "No, we've been sold out for about 10 days." When the sales person moved slightly, I saw a box with my name on. SMILES. Yes, I got the last 6 bottles in their store.

Back at home, I pulled up in front of a new pizza joint. There was a wine making supply shop next door. Within a couple of months we had a Riesling on the go. If we can't buy our favourite Riesling, maybe we can make it. And then a Strawberry White Zin, and a Gewurztraminer, and ..... That was about 11 years ago. The rest is history, as they say.

Steve


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## Woodbee (Dec 2, 2009)

We started making wine because of lots of ripe fruit that nobody wanted. Maybe I should have made a great bid dehydrator. We have about 60 gallons under our colective belts. The wife has tasted maybe 4ozs and I have drank maybe a gallon. Most of that was just in tasteing through the processes. I have also taken up baking Maderias which I like better that the original wines.
I find it a fascinating hobby. Like taking chemistry classes all over again.I really like looking at this site at least once a day for all of the interesting goings on. We have friends that also make wines that got me started on it. I like the bull sessions over a small glass of one of our wines. We also really enjoy giving it away. The day before Christmas last year, we loaded up the truck, went to town and gave away most of what we had bottled up at the time. There's 20 gallons on the shelf and 5 in the Estufa that most of it will be ready for gifts this year. The money we spend is now minimal so we will just fermenting. Our first batches are just now comming on their first birthday and I squrilled away a magnum of each. I will have to get someone out here to see if "Time in a bottle" helped.
Brad


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## xanxer82 (Dec 2, 2009)

I go to the MD Wine Festival every year and saw a demonstration of winemaking. I've always wanted to make it but didn't know how simple of a process it could be (for the most part)
Then I found a good deal on a starter kit and the rest is history.


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## MN-winer (Dec 2, 2009)

This is a funny thread. I was at my daughters first communion and a wine maker came in for a demo and talk about the history of wine. I was hooked and went out the next weekend to get my first kit and that was that.


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## smurfe (Dec 2, 2009)

I needed a hobby. Originally wanted to brew beer as I didn't like wine at all when I started. BTW I love it now. The wife didn't want me brewing beer because her grandmother did and she remembered bottles blowing up at random in the closet so wine it was. Anyone sho knows me knows I don't do anything on a small scale so before you knew it I had over 1000 bottles aging in the rack and then I moved to brewing beer.


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## 1st Timer (Dec 2, 2009)

I got started when an old timer that I hunt with got tired of messing with it. We drank his for the past 6 years and he has now handed the reins over to me, along with all his equipment. Now I am the supplier for the hunting camp and numerous "new" friends and family....Funny how that works ain't it? 

Several hundred dollars later, in addition to what was given to me, I am starting to realize that I may have an addiction, I mean new hobby!


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## Zoogie (Dec 2, 2009)

I started doing research for my husband... lol after 2 months of reading bacame VERY intrested made it all sound complicated to him  and he suggested I do it...jumped all over that  this has to be one of the best hobbies I ever took up am hooked and now have 60 gal made ....sigh now I want more room  Zoogie


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## koda_ky (Dec 2, 2009)

I stopped drinking Beer and liked a glass of wine now and then so I thought why not make my own. and now I can't stop help please!!!!


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## Runningwolf (Dec 2, 2009)

I started after I tasted my nephews blackberry wine that had to be about 15%. It was almost like brandy and we were cooking different types of sausage on the grill and drinking this wine. When he told me how easy it was I was curious, now I am addicted!


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## gonzo46307 (Dec 2, 2009)

My hobby's keep me sane...

My Dad used to make wine from the vines growing in our back yard when I was young...I always thought that was cool. I don't know what kind of grapes they were, but it planted the seed.

After doing some research, and realizing that kits were available, I decided to give it a try. I was hooked after my first Merlot kit (I only have 6 bottles left). It's funny, I work for a beer distributor, and I really have no desire to make beer. I just like making wine.

Hopefully someday I will graduate to pressing grapes, but for now, the kits are very satisfying.

Peace,
Bob


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## Old Philosopher (Dec 2, 2009)

Why? Because it's there...and I can!
After vacillating for 2 years about making cider from our 2 apple trees, our Italian Plum tree hemorrhaged about 25 gallons of plums! I was on another site where a guy talked about how easy it was to make wine. I took some of the plums and followed his instructions. Oh, brother.... 
Then I found this site to try to figure out what went wrong. My wife nagged me until I went out to the barn and dug out the box of wine making stuff her late brother had left us. Bonanza! That box contained everything I needed, except knowledge...and the folks here have filled that void. 
So...my (2nd) attempt at plum wine is superb, and is just waiting for the Holidays. (Instant gratification isn't fast enough for me, and I'm not going to be able to wait a year to drink it!) My cider is in its secondary, and clearing nicely.
I don't know if I'm hooked, but I'm already thinking about dandelion wine in the Spring, since SWMBO is more than curious about it. She's even talking about investing in an apple press. <sigh> 
She's also been making noises about starting an apiary. I guess then I could make my own mead.


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## bein_bein (Dec 2, 2009)

I have two uncles that have made wine for years and my wife and I had discussed looking into making wine for a couple years. Then my brother got a wine making kit just over two years ago and told us how inexpensive it was to get started. We went out and got our starter kit and it's been downhill from there  and we've enjoyed every minute of it! We're going on year two and I think we just racked our 14th or 15th batch of wine


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## arcticsid (Dec 3, 2009)

This is a great thread you started Tom! Sounds like the next one will be on dealing with a hobby tjat has now become an obsession for all of us, on second thought, scrap that idea. BREW ON!!! LOL

Troy


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## Green Mountains (Dec 3, 2009)

We'd made a small batch of beer just for fun. It turned out pretty good so I researched buying some better equipment. While I poked around the brew shop I stumbled across wine kits.

We can make wine? But, we LOVE wine. Not really big beer drinkers.

We enjoy the process, the labeling and ultimately the consumption and sharing of our wines with friends and family.


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## ziggy13 (Dec 3, 2009)

I started making beer because I was tired of paying $30-$50 for a case of good stuff...which led me into making wine. I just wish it were legal to make whiskey


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## Tom (Dec 3, 2009)

You and every body else .. LOL


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## Racer (Dec 3, 2009)

I got interested in wine in '02. Started making kits shortly there after. Next thing I know I'm growing grapes in my garden (up to around 50 vines now). I've gotten hooked on this hobby so bad that my wife and I now own land in the new Haw River AVA in N.C. we can't wait to retire to so we can grow alot of grapes. I'm also a regional official in the Il. grape growers and vinters assoc. And am taking college classes on grape growing. So don't look to me to talk any of you folks out of this obsession(hobby). Hell I'll just tell you to keep up the good work and go out and taste and buy local crafted wines too!


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## St Allie (Dec 13, 2009)

I paint better when I'm drinking.

Plus 16 years ago I planted an orchard when the kids were young.. thinking that it would be a good contribution to the household when they were grown.. teenagers eat a lot.

Now the teenagers eat junk food and the apples were literally being fed out to the cattle. I thought what about cider and apple wine instead of wasting them?

So here I am..

Allie


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## bryano (Dec 13, 2009)

I planted a peach tree in the backyard that gave us too many peaches. So I googled peach brandy. Found a recipe that made some pretty good tasting stuff and it got you pretty messed up but boy did it ever give you a headache. I called it Bryans bucket juice. So I took a winemaking class at Baders beer and wine supply... that was 2 years ago. I'm taking the beginner beer making class Jan. 6th.


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## Julie (Dec 13, 2009)

My husband started making his own beer. Since I am a wine drinker and not a beer drinker he kept telling me to make wine from the concord grapes we have growing in the back yard. I was not making jelly any more because my kids were no longer kids. So we made wine and then my son was getting married and asked if we would make wine for his wedding. We did that and it hasn't stopped since. This has been about a year and a half. It is amazing how much free fruit you get when people find out you make wine.

Julie


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## Tom (Dec 13, 2009)

COOL !
Where in PA are you located?


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## Julie (Dec 14, 2009)

Tom said:


> COOL !
> Where in PA are you located?



Western side, approx. 30 miles north east of Pittsburgh

Julie


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## Courtney (Dec 16, 2009)

I love drinking wine. So when my fiance started talking about making his own beer. I thought "Hey! I can make my own wine!" 

So now I am into my first kit and hopefully going to get it bottled before Christmas! 
I got another kit for an early Christmas present and I have one of the Limited edition kits on order (Brunello). 

So in my one bedroom I am going to be knee deep in beer and wine very very soon!!!

-Courtney


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## Horkalugi (Dec 16, 2009)

Scottish Canadian........., need I say more?


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## TheTooth (Dec 16, 2009)

My wife likes to cook. No, she loves to cook. It's her hobby/obsession. She has a zillion cookbooks and it seems like she watches every show produced on the food network.

Being more into science than food, I found the only cooking show I enjoyed watching with her was Good Eats. So one day we're watching an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown (host of the show) is making beer! I'm watching this and say to my wife (girlfriend at the time), "Hey, I'm pretty sure I can do that without blowing up your kitchen!" She likes the idea that I have a food hobby that doesn't intrude on her cooking every meal, so she buys me a homebrewing kit from a local shop for my birthday. It all went downhill from there.

Once I made a bunch of extract beer batches and moved on to all-grain, I figured I wanted to try other fermented beverages. I made ciders first... pretty easy to make a good hard apple cider from juice. Then, I bought a bunch of honey and started making meads.

We enjoy taking spend 2 or 3 weekends a year in Paso Robles wine country, driving from winery to winery trying and buying wines. The wine kits were the last foray into the hobby because both my wife and I were skeptical that we'd get anything out of a bag of grape juice that could compare with a well-crafted bottle of wine. It's easy to make beer better than Budweiser, especially when you can source the same (or better) ingredients... but it seemed like wine required fruit from proper growing conditions, barrel aging, etc... Despite our reservations, it seemed like a cheap experiment to make a batch and see. Also, I was just too curious to avoid it. LOL

So we started with a cheap white for my wife to use as cooking wine. At worst, we lose $60... at best, she gets 30 bottles of cooking wine for $2/bottle instead of $5 at the store. Well, it turned out that first cheap kit made cooking wine comparable to what she bought. So, I made a couple upscale white kits next. After a few months of aging, they turned out to be pretty good wines and I think they are every bit as good as most of the whites I'd buy for quite a bit more.

After that, I bought a chocolate raspberry port kit. I totally mangled that kit when my wife tried to help. She insisted on downloading the "newest instructions" from the website in case they changed. What neither of us noticed in time was that she downloaded instructions for a normal 6 gallon wine kit. So I'm starting to add water when I realize the port is only supposed to be 3 gallons and there already seems to be about that much juice in the pale. I stop, but I've already added about a gallon. I tried to fix it with some sugar and such. It ended up too sweet, but I fortified it with some brandy to counter that a bit and called it a day. Anyway... despite my horrid botching of the kit, the port still turned out pretty good. Other people tried it when they came over and enjoyed it. I wound up giving it away to friends because they asked for it. LOL

I'm not a big white drinker. Big meaty reds are my thing. So, I've made an Outback Shiraz that is aging now. I can't wait to try it. I have another kit I bought at the same time that I need to get going. The jury is still out on those, but if they turn out like the port I'll probably be pretty happy.

After my current kits are finished (among other mead/cider/beer batches on the horizon), I want to try making a wine from fruit.


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## TheTooth (Dec 16, 2009)

Sweet tapdancing jesus... I didn't realize how long my post was getting when I was typing it. Sorry for the book. LOL


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## Green Mountains (Dec 16, 2009)

Hey, don't apologize. It was an interesting read.


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## VineRipe (Dec 18, 2009)

Well, I got the werm farm up and running, the riding lawn mower will now do zero to 50 in 4.2 seconds, the homemade $11.00 ea. storm windows are up in place of the store bought $200.00 ea. ones, my bike has WAY more chrome than any Sports/Tourer was EVER supposed to have, my dawgs both get better haircuts from me than they did from the $35.00 a visit groomer's, my solar oven in boring now that it's working and all you do is put your food in it and leave it to be ready at supper time, the six bin scrounged computers are now two working networked computers, my eyes get tired after only a bit of quilting, my garden only grows *something* twelve months out of the year, and oh, yeah... the beer kits haven't arrived yet! lol


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## VineRipe (Dec 18, 2009)

ziggy13 said:


> I started making beer because I was tired of paying $30-$50 for a case of good stuff...which led me into making wine. I just wish it were legal to make whiskey



Pssst... hey, Ziggy... you did know that if you own more than five acres, you can get a permit from the BATFE to produce ethanol alcohol in your own still for use in your farm equipment as fuel, don't you? All you have to have is a building for the still that is located away from any other main structure.

Now, my question is if you own more than five acres, and no tractor, but hand plow your plot, are YOU then considered a piece of "farm equipment"?

Nah, prolly not. Dangit.


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