How many tries did it take you before success?

[David Engel]

Hi All,

There certainly is a lot to learn from this hobby! I’m in the middle of my 4th year growing grapes and my 3rd year attempting to make wine. I really shouldn’t count the first 2 years as I really didn’t have all the equipment nor grape production to amount to anything more than a bottle’s worth.

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

Dave

 

[cmason1957]

I don't grow grapes, so the learning might have been a bit less. I think it took about 5 or 6 years of making just okay wine before I started making pretty darn good wine from grapes. Good quality kits helped also.

 

[winemaker81]

I'm not a grower either, but from knowing a lot of growers and listening to the growers on this forum, 5 years old seems to be the magic number for vine age.

If I grew grapes, I'd try before 5 years, but I'd have low expectations. Grape growing takes the "patience game" of winemaking to a new length.

 

[distancerunner]

Unfortunately, we made very good wine the first time we tried. The die was cast.

It took another five years to replicate that success. And then, only one of the projects from that vintage produced something that I was proud to give away.

• If you do not have a mentor, find one. If you cannot find a mentor, start reading. A lot.
• Take a class. Local homebrew store is the first place to look. Also look to the agricultural extension office in your county. Sometimes the sponsoring university will have classes.
• Volunteer to help at a local winery during the crush.
• Ask questions here. Someone will have the answer.
• It doesn't matter if you think it's a stupid question. Someone else has the same question and wants the answer, too.
• Stay off of YouTube until you know enough to NOT get sucked in by the know-nothings.

 

[winemaker81]

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

Are you asking this of grape growers regarding their own grapes, or in general?

If generally, I was happy with my first batch. I was actually amazed that it worked! Would I be happy with that batch today? Nope, objectively it wasn't that good. But every succeeding batch got better, and at some point I realized that I sort of knew what I was doing.

 

[mainshipfred]

A couple years prior to making wine my company built a tasting room for an established winery. Talking to the owner and winemaker the about the process intrigued me. Prior to that I knew nothing about wine.

We joined a couple small wineries where the owners and winemakers were very approachable. One of the wineries had a program called Crush Monkey where you paid $100.00 to help work in the processing, mostly just grunt work but experience was rewarding.

My first year was just a few kits to get my feet wet in understanding the process first hand. They were drinkable but even with my unrefined palate they didn't excite me.

The second year changed to juice buckets and a few lugs of grapes along a kit or 2. The wines were better but still nothing to write home about. This year I also took a vintner class one of the wineries offered and started to get the proper equipment.

Then it was all grape with a white juice bucket or two. This while having the opportunity to talk directly with commercial owners and winemakers and joining this forum brought my game to a new leveI.

In my experience the learning process is never ending. With adopting new practices and trail and error experiences the "not the best wines" are becoming fewer and fewer while the number of wines I'm proud of are increasing.

So long story short I believe it took me about 3 years to make better than OK wine, though I did have professional help.

 

[hawkwing]

Ok last year was my first year making all grape wine. It turned out great and now I’m hooked. I have to give a lot of thanks to those on here who answered a lot of questions.

 

[Rice_Guy]

On my part I would say that I made good wine my first time, ,,, BUT looking back over a decade, that concord wine might have had bottles exploding. AND looking from this point I would instantly understand why it was a problem if I saw it in a contest. This is learning curve. ,,, As an ancient way to preserve calories at harvest time it is easy to make healthy wine that won’t cause food poisoning! We in this century are caught up in industrial wine that is filtered and has WONF added and is nitrogen flushed etc.

I would step back and say the first risk is off flavors. Here oxygen is your enemy. My wines improved when I assumed that free SO2 was zero so automatically add 0.2 or 0.3 gram per gallon metabisulphite. Oxygen is also a risk for spoilage organisms. The good news is that if you concentrate on red grape the polyphenols are antioxidants so you can be more sloppy.
My second “ah-ha” was twenty years in. It was having someone in the Milwaukee club taste a wine I wasn’t happy with and put a name on reductive flavor. This changed the way I approach yeast nutrition in white grapes.
Philiepe who runs the states biggest winery will get reflective and say he has only had fifty harvests to work with, ,,,, and he knows there are more things to learn next harvest

 

[ChuckD]

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

I would say my first wines (all fruit wines) were Ok, maybe even “good”, but many of my family and friends thought they were excellent… some even asked if I would sell some! Of course none of them are very sophisticated wine drinkers (nor am I).

I just bottled my first wine from grapes and I think it will be good… perhaps even better. Time will tell. My goal is to make the best wines I can from home-grown grapes. As the vineyard matures I hope to make several varietals and blends.

ETA. This is my fourth year of wine making.

 

[joeswine]

Hi All,

There certainly is a lot to learn from this hobby! I’m in the middle of my 4th year growing grapes and my 3rd year attempting to make wine. I really shouldn’t count the first 2 years as I really didn’t have all the equipment nor grape production to amount to anything more than a bottle’s worth.

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

Dave

as long as it takes .. if you like this craft

 

[Snafflebit]

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

It took me three years to make good wine.

First time I made great wine, beginner's luck.
Second time, real hooch, prison quality firewater.
Third time, I made wine I am proud of.

 

[Obbnw]

Hi All,

There certainly is a lot to learn from this hobby! I’m in the middle of my 4th year growing grapes and my 3rd year attempting to make wine. I really shouldn’t count the first 2 years as I really didn’t have all the equipment nor grape production to amount to anything more than a bottle’s worth.

How many attempts did it take you before you really made OK wine?

Dave

1

But 2 tries to make bad wine ; )

On my 5th year and haven't surpassed the first year yet, but, except for year 2, they have all been drinkable.

 

[David Engel]

Good Afternoon All,

NICE conversation, thank you all for chiming in! It's a hobby right? We don't quit just because it didn't turn out perfect on the first try. I have two other endeavors that I take very seriously; classical guitar making and playing along with wooden model ship building. I have added wine making to the list, and think I had better become a regular attender and supporter of the forum. I'm not shy... going to ask my fair share of questions. Distancerunner, thank you for your post, I will take your advice to heart! Thank you everyone!

Dave