Old Tymer wine

[Old Tymer]

Hello Everyone,
Now I know that today wine is made by adding yeast and extreme sanitation to say in the simplest form, but when I talk to all of the old time Italians, and from what I remember when I was a kid, the wine they made contained no added yeast but instead tons of sugar. Now these guys have been making wine for 20 years in this process and have not had any bad batches. Now I am going to ask them for this recipe but they keep telling me its all about the grapes. Is there anyone out there who knows how to make wine this way that can explain it to me and how it actually works?
Thanks in advance!

 

[cpfan]

There is probably wild yeast on the grapes or in the environment. An extreme amount of sugar may lead to a high alcohol sweet wine.

BTW have you tasted ALL of these batches? When I had a store, I heard lots of tales about the wines made by old Italians. One of my customers said that his Italian neighbour had NEVER made a good batch. Of course, everyone has their own tastes.

Steve

 

[Old Tymer]

My Grandfather has wine this in our basement from 1998 and every bottle i have had so far has been excellent. Like you had said, Its a very sweet wine that is very alcoholic. It kind of has a sangria ish flavor. I just wish i could replicate this wine exactly, because honestly its the best wine that I have ever had. Unfortunately the recipe died with him.

 

[Benjo's Mom]

Wish I could help. I had a couple of old relatives who used to brew all manner of wine from different fruits, but most of us were just happy not to have gone blind drinking the stuff, so I never asked for a recipe

 

[winemaker81]

Yeast grows on the skins of grapes -- without Pasteurization there no such thing as grape juice for more than about an hour.

While wine was traditionally made by simply crushing the grapes and letting 'em ferment, using a commercial yeast will kill wild yeast and bacteria and help ensure an expected result. I've had wine made the traditional way, sometimes it comes out good ... and sometimes not.