Thinking of Home Winemaking

[Bassman]

I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, nor the last, but I did search and did not find the question asked.

How good can my wine be? I have made some excellent beers at home in my kitchen, both all grain and extract brews. So can I make a wine from top quality juice that will be as good as a $15 wine I get from a wine shop? I realize that a lot depends on how good I am as a wine maker, sanitation, attention to detail, etc. Because I live in an apartment I cannot crush grapes.

So can I make a wine from juice that competes with a $10 to $15 bottle of wine? Can I do the same with a kit wine? How good can it be without crushing?

I know these may be stupid questions but I figured I should ask before I start wine making.

Thanks!

 

[Runningwolf]

Bassman welcome to the forum. Not a stupid question at all. You're already successfully brewing be so wine will be a breeze for you. Of course the bigger kits that come with more juice will give you a higher quality wine. Good luck and let us know what kind of wines you like and we'll see if we can steer you in the right direction.

 

[xanxer82]

Welcome aboard. To answer your question, some of the kit wines are really good. When you buy a kit look for a larger juice quantity. For example, buy the 16 liter kit of at 10-12 liter. They bothe make 6 gallons US but are concentrated in two different amounts. Also look into getting grape packs with the kits. It's a sealed packed of precrushed grapes that add loads of flavor.
As for fresh juice check out the juice that comes in pails. You can even get frozen grapes in pails. Good luck!

 

[Minnesotamaker]

I dunno about the rest of you, but I find that anything hand made by yourself or a family member gets an edge. If they would be judged similar by an unbiased judge, I would then rate the home made version higher.

Example1: You can get some pretty good bread at the grocery store. It's evenly cut, perfectly mixed, soft, uniform, not crumby, and tastey. But put it up against grandma's loaf of bread fresh out of the oven and I'd be feeding that grocery loaf to the hogs.

Example2: If you have kids or grandkids, they're pretty special to you. Would you prefer them over a "professionally raised" child? You bet, they're yours!

My wines are a little bit like my children. When they're young, there are times they smell bad and make a mess. They will test your patience. They'll do things they're not supposed to. They change as they age.

I think when love is put into anything, it has a flavor that can be detected by those who know it.

 

[Bassman]

In terms of what I would want to make, I generally like dry red wines, medium to full body. I also like lighter body dry reds. Once in a while I have white wine but that would be if I went out for dinner and started with a white. So my table wine is generally a chianti, cabernet or a pinot noir.

I think I can start with juice rather than a kit. I'm very comfortable with testing and all that and sanitation. I bought Gene Spaziani's book The Home Winemaker's Companion.

I appreciate the joy of making it myself, which is part of what attracted me to home brewing. My concern about how good homemade wine could be is probably based on the wine snobs who say you can't make a good ( or even great ) wine in a 5 gal. container. The funny thing is that beer snobs know you can make a great beer at home!

Thanks for the replies and any advice is appreciated!

 

[mxsteve625]

Those wine snobs are probably not use to home made wines. YOU CAN AND WILL make wines much better than the commercial versions. As you do with beer you can adjust your ABV and sugar levels. Try a good kit first, follow the directions and when it's finished let one of the snobs taste it before letting them know you are the wine maker. As Lon says each wine is YOURS and this says alot.

Go for it Dude and if done right friends, family and neighbors will want more.

 

[tonyt]

Lon said it all.

 

[Luc]

So can I make a wine from top quality juice that will be as good as a $15 wine I get from a wine shop?

Please never make the mistake again by judging the quality of a wine by its price.

Price is just marketing and nothing else. It is what someone else thinks you might want to pay for it. It's not about real value.

Wine is about taste, flavor and emotion.
Considering that and considering the amount of time you can put into a bottle of wine which commercial wineries often can't (it has to be rushed into the bottle because it needs to be sold) your wines can be MUCH better as any commercial wine.

Luc

 

[Wade E]

I know exactly what Luc is saying but sometimes its very hard to generalize without doing so. Some of these kits can blow the doors in of wines in the $15 dollar price range. That being said and going with what Luc said Ive had $15 bottles of wine that tasted like they should have been priced in the $30 range and have a had some $80 wines (I didnt buy these as I refuse to pay anywhere near that for wine with the exception of 1 bottle of Amarone to try it) that were nasty.

Depending on what you have available to you as far as products I like the RJ Spagnols Winery Series kits which have grape skin packs. Remember that red wine kits can need 1-3 years of aging to really show what they are all about as do wine from juice buckets or from grapes. The better the product for red wines the more aging they need. White wines typically come around a lot faster but even some of those can need 1 year or more but most will be ready to drink in 3-6 months. Dont believe what you read on the manufacturers box about ready to drink in 6 weeks as that just means you can, it by any means doesnt mean its ready and will taste good! Believe you me that I wouldnt have gone so far in this hobby? (yeah right) if these wines were just ehhh! I know make wine from kits and from grapes as if you know what your doing grapes are superior but you just cant get all types of grapes to make some of these wines.

 

[ibglowin]

You can easily get a $15 bottle of wine from a kit. It just takes a high end kit and a 2 year wait!

 

[docanddeb]

I am not normally a "big red" drinker... but during a wine swap... I got some, and it blew me away!!
The balance was amazing... I truly fell in love with that lowly, single, bottle of wine...
I won't buy one though... I don't like them.

Remember...
When YOU make wine... YOU make it the way YOU like it... THAT is why it's soooo good.
If you like lots of oak.. put it in.
If you like a light, toasty oak... put it in..
If you like high acid... put it in..

Once you make a batch... and let it PROPERLY age... you'll be tweaking it for the next run... to make it .... JUST RIGHT!

Debbie

 

[Sirs]

also I'd like to add even though you may be in an apartment big or small you can crush your own grapes if you can get them. All you need is time and patience I've crushed a ton of grapes sitting in my kitchen doing it a bucket at a time by hand, it takes a little longer but it is so cool to know you did it all yourself. There's alot of different ways to do this obsession all of them fun some messy,even messy can be fun nothing funnier than seeing your wife or girlfriend with a face full of must cause they slung something on you. You can make awesome wines really easy only thing you need is time and patience

 

[docanddeb]

I would agree with that!
You don't need a floor corker to do 100 bottles...
You don't need the crusher...
You don't need fancy testing equipment...

You need willingness and patience!

And, have some fun doing it too!!

Debbie

 

[Sirs]

I think having fun doing it the major reason to do this well other than reaping the benefits of what you've made. A hydrometer is very helpful that I've found since I started coming here but I'd say you got that already

 

[JasonH]

I prefer most well-crafted homemade wines to what you can find at the liquor store. I just had a bottle of a friend's wine made from scratch and it was excellent. Except for a few favorites, I would choose it over anything I can pick up at the store. The surprising thing is it was only his second batch ever made. A little patience and research can go a long way. You will also save a TON of money drinking your own wine compared to buying it, especially with the juice buckets.

 

[Runningwolf]

My wife won't buy wines in the wine stores anymore since I started making it.

 

[docanddeb]

Unless we visit a winery... we don't buy wine anymore either!
I'll never finish what I have in the basement... good thing the girls are old enough to drink... well the youngest will be LEGAL in a month!

Debbie

 

[djrockinsteve]

I was paroozing the wine cellar yesterday and though "Where is all the new wine going to go when I bottle? Sure hope Doug's party comes soon....I need room.

We buy wine here and there but only odd ones and just for research. Like the jalapeno.

 

[docanddeb]

I remember when we realized that no matter what we were in the mood to drink...

we could find it downstairs!!

THAT is when you have enough wine... and need to keep it that way!

Debbie

 

[Luc]

also I'd like to add even though you may be in an apartment big or small you can crush your own grapes if you can get them.

Iwas not going into that.........

But as you insist look here:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2007/07/soms-lopen-de-dingen-in-het-leven.html

Just scroll down and look at the picture at the end of the story: my open kitchen !!!

Oh, this one is even better
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2010/08/kersensap-cherryjuice.html

Luc