What’s your 5 yr winemaking plan??

[Ajmassa]

Are you still progressing and scaling up your winemaking? Scaling down? Are you comfortable where you are currently?
Whether kits, country fruit wine, seasonal grapes, your own vineyard’s grapes- what are your goals with this hobby and where are you at now in relation?

 

[Ajmassa]

From stomping as a kid to my 1st juice bucket I always knew what I wanted. Life and family just slowed it down somewhat lol.
But my whole end goal in this game is to make 1 large single varietal routine grape batch a year. Not constantly figuring numbers. And make it a family effort- From my father to my young nephews<—-Hoping it ‘takes’ on one of em. I’d love a young apprentice when I’m older.
Perfect world - 100L VCT with 2’full size barrels always filled- retiring and replacing on a routine basis. keeping a portion in bulk to have blending parties every couple yrs. I think that goal is more than achievable in time. Still cutting my teeth now, but intend to have started the large batches in 5 yrs.

 

[Scooter68]

Just winging it. What I make depends on the time and resources I have. I try to use fresh fruit only except for those varieties I don't grow or can't find at the local fruit stand = Black Currant and Tart Cherry. Working on the Tart Cherry with 4 new cherry trees.
Planning for something like this sort of defeats the purpose for me - this is a hobby - one that produces something I can share readily and keep around as well. Other than planting trees or bushes with the hope of a harvest, planning is not something I worry about beyond having bottles in hand when it's time to bottle.
I also do woodworking, garden, and take care of 18 acres of woods and fields. Those who have some burning desire to launch a business etc - fine, but for me this is my fun hobby that anyone who knew me 20 years ago would never see me doing. And since I'm retired - I take everything one day at a time - enjoying life.
I make batches between 1 - three gallons and generally use one variety of fruit in my wine. Other than three cans of grape wine base, I have made only fruit wines since I can purchase any kind of grape wine inexpensively. Not being able to get pure fruit wines I wanted is why I started this hobby.

 

[dralarms]

Making as much as I can n

 

[skyfire322]

Right now, I only have one kit going. Now that I'm moving somewhere that actually has a very large shed with workspace, I plan on ramping it up a bit. Maybe a year or two down the road I'll plant a few vines and source some grapes to start from scratch, but we'll see where things take me

 

[Ajmassa]

Scooter and I couldn’t be more opposite. Lol. It’s my hobby but also a family tradition that would otherwise have died out if not for me. Always had it in my head to bring it back to the scale it was 25 yrs ago- or at least “making as much as I can” too.
And now moved in to a bigger home makes more obtainable.

 

[PandemoniumWines]

I just make whatever, whenever. biggest batch I’ve done is 3 gallons. I just like to constantly make new things, so I do a lot of small batches in case they’re bad. Although lately I seem to be making a lot of 2 gallon batches. Wish they made 2 gallon carboys!

 

[pgentile]

My 5 year or ultimate goal is to eventually have a single 3000 gallon barrel that has dispensing capabilities in each room of my house. And this would get me just about through a year.

Seriously I think I will end up each year going forward, not much different than the last two but bigger batches, making an all grape blend at each harvest, spring and fall. Will continue to make juice buckets to follow up on the skins of the all grape batches as a more general table wine. Will make some single varietals some years when I feel like it. Make a fruit wine or two over the summer for others. And a bucket or two of something white each year. I do like some variety. Oh yeah an elderberry is on my list each year going forward.

This is probably my last year testing the boundaries of what can be fermented, ie garlic, onion, etc.

I do really like having something to work on all year, frozen must is intriguing for the off times in the future.

 

[Jal5]

I’m very new at this but my idea is to do a juice bucket spring and fall plus a fresh fruit wine in the summer and a frozen fruit wine in the winter. That should keep us pretty good at 5g batches each.

 

[sour_grapes]

That's a good question. When I started this ~4.5 years ago, my explicit goal was to get to the point that I was mostly drinking wine that I made. I am not sure why, but that was my goal. I have more or less achieved that, almost entirely on kits (and a few white buckets).

Now, I have a grand total of 1 fermentation from fresh grapes under my belt. Perhaps my new goal is to be mostly drinking wine I made from grapes? Another factor, however, is that I don't expect to be in this house 5 years from now, but downsize instead. So it probably doesn't make sense to have a 500 bottle supply aging in the basement when it comes time to move. Long story short, I don't know my plan!

 

[Doug’s wines]

For me this is a hobby and I find that when I put too much structure and long term planning into a hobby, it becomes work and I lose interest. My hobby time horizons tend to be annual or shorter. Right now I’m trying to make some wine to drink now, while I also craft a set of wines that when my wine snob friends drink them they say “D@mN that’s good”. So far I’ve made good wine, but mostly young and still too fruit forward or one dimensional. I’m looking to craft that multideminsional complex Bourdeaux, Brunello, Pinot, or <insert your favorite red>. So the five year plan, open a couple of the reds I begin to bulk age this year! In the meantime, I hope I am making and tasting (read: drinking) a lot of “good” young wine!

 

[balatonwine]

I have finally gotten tired of all the pruning, mowing, tilling, spraying in the vineyards.

So I decided to scale down the vineyards. All the way to bonsai vineyards. On my window sill. One bonsai vine per variety will be the new vineyards. I already started this morning:



But, with careful management, I think I may actually get more grapes with my new vineyards. So I plan to scale up my wine processing setup. I even went out and purchased a new, larger press:




Yes, big changes happening here. Quite excited about this new plan!

But can't write more. Don't have time! I have three more vineyards to plant today (and by "vineyards" I of course mean "individual pots"), and am running out of time to do planting!. Yes, Spring is already past marching on (pun intended), and time is moving so fast it is already the first day of a new month!

 

[Kraffty]

That's a good question. When I started this ~4.5 years ago, my explicit goal was to get to the point that I was mostly drinking wine that I made. I am not sure why, but that was my goal. I have more or less achieved that, almost entirely on kits (and a few white buckets).

Now, I have a grand total of 1 fermentation from fresh grapes under my belt. Perhaps my new goal is to be mostly drinking wine I made from grapes? Another factor, however, is that I don't expect to be in this house 5 years from now, but downsize instead. So it probably doesn't make sense to have a 500 bottle supply aging in the basement when it comes time to move. Long story short, I don't know my plan!

Sounds like we're in the exact same place, only different. We plan on retiring / moving in the next 4 or 5 years but are looking for a much bigger home, lot and bigger wine making building. We're up to about 1000lbs of grapes but that's shared by two families so I'd expect that to cut by half when we move. All in all I hope to stay pretty consistent from then on.
Mike

 

[NorCal]

I need to dial things back. I enjoy making wine and have been doing it in quantities that exceed me, my friends and family’s ability to consume. I did two 150 gallon back to back years. This year I’m targeting 80 gallons, (red, rose, sparkling) but grapes have a way of finding me.

 

[meadmaker1]

Beside my daugter moving out freeing up over 300sq. Ft. Of 2 room apartment that will serve very well as wine making kitchen and honey extraction area, with sitting and storage room.
I hope by then to have accumulated a few varieties. To hold tasting parties with finished aged wines.

 

[mainshipfred]

Great thread! Like Sour_Grapes I don't know what my plan is. Too new to decide and my palette has a way to go so I'm not even sure I know exactly what I like. In my short time of making wine though I find the more grapes I use the better I think the wine is although it could be in my head. For shorter term goals I just want to make wine that is more then drinkable and I'm not embarassed to give away. Longer goal for now is to make continually superior wine. For variety I think I will continue to make smaller batches and keep it around 60 - 70 gallons a year.

 

[NorCal]

Great topic, got me thinking. Besides lower quantities, over the next 5 years I’d really like to make some varietals that I haven’t made in the past. Some French white blends, Pinot Noir, Classic Italian.

I would like to try new things to improve the quality of the wine, starting with different pruning of the vines. Maybe get brave with a natural ferment, figure out how to cold soak 1,000 lbs of grapes at a time, do some field blending, add some white varieties in there as well.

 

[sdelli]

Because I have this bad habit of blowing up my businesses and hobbies to the nine... I am in the process of getting my commercial license. Then, tasting parties and website to make purchases. Not because I need the income. Just need to set a path to make some wine go away so I can keep making more!

 

[sdelli]

Because I have this bad habit of blowing up my businesses and hobbies to the nine... I am in the process of getting my commercial license. Then, tasting parties and website to make purchases. Not because I need the income. Just need to set a path to make some wine go away so I can keep making more!

 

[Kraffty]

View attachment 47769
View attachment 47770

Needs a "Likes A lot!!!" button!