What was the first wine you made?

[jswordy]

That's a trick question.

The first MUST that I made was apple juice. I misread the recipe and put too much k meta in it, and it never would ferment through 3 tries. FAIL! Down the toilet.

The first WINE that I made was five gallons of Welch's Concord. I still make an improved recipe of it today, 10 gallons at a time.

I followed that with another apple attempt. This time, it became wine. And so it began...

 

[DirtyDawg10]

The first one I made is an Advintage FC Collection Blanc de St Vincent wine kit. It is a blend of Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. I have it still bulk aging. I plan to bottle it soon though.

 

[teebone673]

WE Selection Johannisberg Riesling. Still one of my favorite kits I've ever made. I love a Dry Riesling.

 

[joebab]

The first wine I made was Concord, about 1964. Turned out fairly well, but through continuous sampling from the 5 gallon carboy there was nothing left to bottle!

 

[In_Vino_Veritas]

It was a "Vino Italiano" 4-week Wine Kit. Cabernet Sauvignon. It cost $45 with free shipping (Prime member) from Amazon.com. It is technically a six gallon kit, but after reading some reviews about it turning out too "weak" I decided to make five gallons. It was drinkable after 4 weeks. I was happy, considering it is such a "cheap" kit. My wife and I drank most of it within 6 months. We saved a couple of bottles to see how aging would affect it. After about a year and a half, we tried the last remaining bottle that a friend had kept. It was EXCELLENT. It tasted like a $50 bottle. We were really sad that we hadn't kept the whole batch on the rack for a year or more. Lesson learned!

 

[canada22]

I made a Sangiovese. I've been making wine with my Grand-father and when he passed with my Dad, and now that I'm on my own. I've made my own batch. Came out as I expected, smooth, black berries, caramel and fruit flavored. Sangiovese is a very delicate grape and can be drowned out by Merlot, or Cabernets. We made this wine as a wedding favors for all who attended!

I don't typically post here, mainly because I know most of what I'm doing. But I'll gladly help others if need be. Usually I'm looking for Demi Johns, a filtration system to help remove the sediment, althought now I believe it to be more 'romantic' attribute of the wine.

 

[xanxer82]

I made a Bergmais (Beaujolais). It was a Wine Expert kit and it came out very nice. I think I may have one bottle left but not sure.

 

[shoebiedoo]

WE Italian Pinot Grigio Turned out to be a pretty good wine

 

[Huntingtag10]

The first wine I ever made was dandelion wine back in the 70's. Steeped the blossoms in boiling water in a crock, added sugar, when it cooled down, floated bread yeast on a piece of bread. Covered the crock with a plate wrapped in a dish towel. Came out sweet with a lot of alcohol in it. Bottled it in 10 oz. pop bottles. one bottle would get you looped!

 

[lsnapoli]

In 2000, it was a riesling from a wine kit. I used a heating pad to get fermentation started, then after fermentation had to put the carboy in a bathroom to protect it from the California heat! Smelled great, tasted just OK, and ended up a little fizzy!

 

[echoloc8]

Made a Vino Del Vida Pinot Noir back in 2005 or so after homebrewing beer for several years. Bought a 5-gal carboy when I should have bought a 6, and it threw the kit's balance off enough that it didn't settle down (was way too acidic) for over a year, and even then it wasn't great.

I have a big enough Better Bottle these days, and my Vino Italiano Merlot currently in primary will be diluted/topped-up appropriately.

-Rich

 

[rniles]

My first wine was a raspberry wine. Just put that into a bottle 9 months later. Then I went and made a Blackberry, Blueberry, Salal, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and a Riesling. Needless to say, I got addicted. Happy to say that soon more fruit will be ripening for another round of fruit and grape wines.

 

[AZ_Sky]

The very first wine I made was two years ago, A Cellar Craft Showcase Cabernet.
Since then I have made five more kit wines from CC, MM, and RJS.

My wines:

 

[memojo]

First Wine

The first wine I made was from WalMart frozen Concord Grape Juice. It was decent, at least for the frist attempt.

 

[GardenGnome]

I like to make things hard on myself so the first wine I made was from grapes (no idea what kind) that I picked from my neighbors back yard here in Northeast PA. It turned out fantastic for my palet! I am just sad that I only made it in a one gallon batch. The following year the next house over had destroyed the grape vine. But later that same year I went in search of new material and found a nice pond that was surrounded by cranberries that I picked by hand from a kayak. That was tricky! That batch was drinkable but not nearly as good as my first ever batch.

 

[beachbum53]

The first was a WE Chocolate Raspberry Port, a friend gave me a bottle he had made and after homebrewing for a couple of years thought we would give it a try. It turned out very well and we are now hooked.

 

[samwisegamgeese]

Back in 1980 or 81 ...I was 11/12.....white wine...Leibfraumich I think from a concentrate.....tasted good but hey at 11 it al tasted good!

 

[btom2004]

Made a Vino Del Vida Pinot Noir back in 2005 or so after homebrewing beer for several years. Bought a 5-gal carboy when I should have bought a 6, and it threw the kit's balance off enough that it didn't settle down (was way too acidic) for over a year, and even then it wasn't great.

I have a big enough Better Bottle these days, and my Vino Italiano Merlot currently in primary will be diluted/topped-up appropriately.

-Rich

I have a Vino Italiano Merlot currently in primary. Will you be adding anything like a sweetener to this or is it best left as is? I like dry wines, but as a first timer not sure how sweet or dry this kit will be.

 

[noclue]

I made a RJS Chardonnay Kit into 6 gallons of something that smelled of "pond water". I ended up pouring it out after 7 months and trying again. Pitched the yeast on it last night.

 

[Slamsmith]

My first batch was a Vino Italiano Muscato from Amazon. I followed the suggestions in the comments and also reduced the batch size by about 1/2 a gallon. A first I was a little concerned about how it would taste, but as it's aged, it's definitely improved. It now tastes really good. I've also made some grapefruit wine and that is excellent. I want to make another batch of that, but this time 6 gallons instead of 3 gallons. I made some 3 gallons of apricot wine from the apricots from my own trees and I don't think that is going to turn out. I'm going to let it age and see if it becomes drinkable in a half a year or so. I also made a 3gallon batch of black cherry and I've got a 3 gallon batch of jalapeno wine bulk aging. (if you can't tell all my carboys are 3 gallons.) I'm debating getting another wine kit from amazon soon or starting the grapefruit wine next.