How much wine do you make annually, and what do you do with it all!!!

[cdevrard]

Hey Everybody,

The more I read on this site the more I ponder this question. How much wine do you make in a year, and what do you do with it all?

Seems like most of you have 2 or 3 (some people 10 and 12!) 5-6 gallon carboys working at any one time. That is conservatively 40-60 bottles a year, up to 200-300 bottles a year.

Now I love my wine, but a bottle a day seems a little excessive! I try to keep it to a bottle a week and it usually creeps to about two bottles Doh! So assuming that most of us cannot sell it, what do you do with it? Drink it all!? Give it to friends? Entertain often?

I'll go first! I have made 10 batches so far. Only 7 turned out okay (learning curve) and I've put up 25 or so bottles over the past 2 years. Not much I know! My wife and I manged to drink all of those

Cheers

 

[dralarms]

I make 199.5 gallons a year, I drink it, give it away, drink it. The more you make the better it gets since you can't drink it all in a year you end up with left overs and after a year or 2 you will find it gets better with age.

 

[LittleBearGameFarm]

I probably made about 75 gallons in the last year (my first year) and have about 200 bottles on racks or in carboys yet. It seems every family function I'll take a 6 pack with me and they get consumed and I'll have a bottle or two a week. Sisters like it so it gets spread around.

 

[Maurice-Famille]

I'll share it most of the time with friends.
I normally make around 35/40 bottles a year.
Every birthday, party etc. is a bad day because I'll lose a bottle of hard work XD.
I'm planning on making more in 2015 (around 60/80 bottles)

Good luck,
- Maurice

 

[FTC Wines]

We do 400-500+ bottles a year. The 2 of us drink 7-9 bottles a week, and give more & more away each year. As friends & family realize how good ur wine is & how cheap it is FOR THEM, they will be wanting more all the time. Roy

 

[697713132]

@ FTC WINES,, ut-ulm, I think we might be kin-folk,
if not then let us be friends,,,lol

 

[697713132]

bty, I've got around 48 bottles worth of blackberry bulk aging and around 26/27 bottles worth elderberry bulk aging, all of which I plan on drinking,,,,

 

[seth8530]

Hmm, I think I most likely make between 25-40 gallons a year. Not counting things like beer.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Well -
In the last several weeks I bottled up at least 175 bottles and I have 12 carboys going as of right now - I got a couple wet so a few may double as the grapes are coming in this weekend.

I like to go to parties and bring a case of wine !! Always a big hit !

 

[tmmii]

This year I should bottle around 210 (7 6 gal batches). I took a couple cases and hid them from myself to see the changes with aging, gave the majority of the rest away to customers and drank the rest.

I have 5 started for next year and will try to get 3 more in the next few weeks. Bug bit hard, and I was able to get a good borrow on 5 more Carboys from a friend.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[francois_du_nord]

Brand new to the hobby.

Somebody else posted up a formula that helps you figure out how much you need to make to stay current. Remember, you need to take the aging into account, so if you want 1 bottle per week, you can't make 52 bottles today for this year. These calcs lead to the size of your cellar.

After you get enough aged to perfection, your production can drop to your consumption rate (Drinking + gifts + sharing). BUT that takes a while. My first batch went into the fermenter ~Jun 1. I now have 5 kits underway, one of which is bottled. But I'm a long time brewer so I've had some ciders and a 1 gallon batch of mead started earlier in the year.

I only have 7 carboys, 2 need to be filled, and I have 4 kits in stock to start. I figure I need a 700 bottle cellar to support 2-3 bottles per week consumption. And then I need to add the girls wedding supplies. Oy Oy! I'll be making wine for a bit.

Best, Fran

 

[calvin]

I started making wine this January. So far I have bottled 79 gallons (just did the math that's 395 bottles). I have a 6 gallon carboy full and my primary is bubbling away nicely. I probably drink too much of it myself but I give lots away. I only have around 150 bottles on hand. Most of which are reds that I'm trying to age and two batches I don't really care for. The skeeter pee and dragon blood goes fast. So most of my effort has shifted to that. If I let my primary take a break I run out pretty quickly.

 

[Rocky]

Senator, I respectfully refuse to answer this question on the grounds that my answer may tend to incriminate me.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm around 75 gallons a year, but I've only been at it 2.5 years and I'm trying to build up a supply. Unfortunately, the more wine I make, the harder that seems to be! I'm the only 'real' drinker in my house. My wife doesn't drink often and when she does, it usually isn't wine. I haven't given much away yet, but am starting to, now that my decent wines are coming of age. I'll usually bring a bottle or two to family functions, but haven't yet gotten as bad as Vacuumpumpman, showing up with a case!

 

[Elmer]

I make anywhere from 30 to 60 gallons a year.
Usually a few kits
A few gallons berry wines
a few gallons of SP
and some random gallons of experimental stuff

I like to make sure I have atleast 60 to 100 bottles (2-3 batches) ageing on the shelf at all times

 

[wineforfun]

I make approx. 20-25 gal. yr. I can hold 144 in my basement wine rack. I give away approx. 1/4 of it and drink 2 bottles a week. Any more drinking than that and I am pretty sure I would be saying, "Hi, my name is D.J.".

Right now my wine rack is at full capacity so I won't be making any for a month or two.

 

[Runningwolf]

First off for many of us this was a hobby that turned into an obsession. It's not about how much or how little we drink but about how much we enjoy the hobby. I have always said the best part of winemaking is giving it away to friends and family who enjoy it. Pre-winemaking we would take a bottle of wine to a friends house for dinner. Today I take 4-6 bottles. My bottled inventory is usually between 1200-1600 bottles. I honestly could not tell you how much I have in carboys and kegs without going down and counting. I never pay attention to that. I stay under the 200 gallon legal limit.

What I did learn early on when making copious quantities is watch out how much white wines and sweet wines you make. These are meant to be drank in 2-3 years. With dry red wines, the more you make the easier it is to let it age for several years.

 

[Charlesthewino]

I've made 70 gallons so far this year and my fruit trees are just coming ripe. So between apples, pears and grapes yet to harvest there is another 30 gallons to come. Not to mention probably another 20 gallons of "play" wine. The play wine are my weird experiments (Banana, Grapefruit, Pineapple, Mango). Stuff I can't grow.

Mostly, I give the wine away as gifts to friends and family. One friend in particular asks me to bring a case every time I come to town. I also gave away several bottles at my job as incentives for hitting sales objectives. Surprisingly, it does motivate some people. So far, the wine has received rave reviews with all so I guess I'm doing something right.


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[richmke]

I'm in the building phase, and I am targeting about 5-6 kits a year (30-40 gallons, or 150-200 bottles).

I would say we drink/give away 100+ bottles a year, so it will take a while to build and let the wine reach its peak.

 

[olusteebus]

Probably 36 - 42 gallons of kits and18 to 24 gallons of fruit and/sp. I am going to ramp up my kits to 9 - 12 and reduce the other next year. I don't have many friends who drink a lot of wine