Hi - although I am the granddaughter of a California winemaker, he died when I was very young and my Mom never made wine. I have an excellent harvest of Concord grapes this year, and I want to make wine organically. I am looking for good sites on-line, recommendations of what to use (or not), and other general advice. I look forward to learning from y'all and hopefully sharing what I learn. Thanks!!
New Organic Winemaker
- Thread starter RHGibson
- Start date
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Welcome to WMT! (I cannot help you on your particular request.)
Welcome, you can find all you need on this site. One site that is good is winemaking magazine they have a lot of free info and you can also buy their online magazine. They offer very basic wine making articles as well recipes for different varieties as well as technical articles.
Thank you! I found them this morning when I looked for suggestions for yeast for Concords. Looks like a great resource. BTW, I am in southern Wisconsin.
Do you have any specific questions? When you say “organic” are you referring to farming practices, or using organic additives? Or do you mean something more akin to natural winemaking?
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Both. I have been gardening & farming organically since the 70s, even created an organic houseplant fertilizer back then. I prefer not to use synthetic additives of any sort, or cleaning & sanitizing agents. We use hydrogen peroxide for sanitizing sprouting trays & pots in our herb & veggie gardening & plant propagating endeavors. So I guess I am interested in learning about both "natural" and "organic" methods.
It sounds like you have the organic farming down. I know there are some organic additives out there for winemaking, I’m sure if you just search for “organic” on morewinemaking.com you’ll find them.
I make minimal intervention wine, with the goal of ending up with a product that is nothing but grapes (no additives, no filtration, no fining, etc). The ability to do this heavily relies on getting high quality grapes that aren’t in dire need of correcting. Grapes picked at the right time, with a good YAN, PH, etc. Tbh this is way easier said than done.
Since you’re not spraying with chemicals in the vineyard, you probably have a healthy yeast going on the grapes and wouldn’t need to inoculate. Just don’t add sulfur at the beginning of the process and the ferment should kick off on its own. As far as other additives, it just depends on what the grapes themselves are like. If they have good acid and are fermenting without off odors, you’re probably fine. If trying to avoid the use of sulfur, be sure to be extra careful about oxygen contact. I actually use CO2 at multiple points during the process to keep oxygen away.
mid you have more specific questions I’ll do my best to help.
Thank you, Adam! I did find the More Winemaking site a few days ago, not specifically when searching for info on making wine organically, but on acidity, pH, etc. I'll spend some more time on the site when I have a free moment.
I much appreciate your information & offer of further assistance.
I much appreciate your information & offer of further assistance.
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