sjjan
Senior Member
Hi there. I have just started up my amateur winery in the basement.
I did some home study and then bought about 1000 pounds of grapes from a local winery that produces the grapes but discontinued the winemaking part. We picked the grapes ourselves, which were of three different varieties typical for the northern part of Europe: Johanniter (white), Merzling (white) and Regent (red). Picking moments were decided based on Brix, pH and TA values (in Europe we use Oechsle instead of Brix, but the idea is the same), its general appearance and taste and the weather forecast for coming days.
I bought a destemmer and destemmed them grapes and after about a 12 hour contact period with the skins have started making some wine (fermentation started) in the wine cellar. So far, so good! I am able to ask questions to a commercial winemaker that lives just 3 miles from my home and he responds really within minutes or even drives up to my house to check the juice himself.
I tried to post some pictures of my first winemaking adventure but did not succeed. I tried to embed an image from my iPad taken with my iPhone but that was too large to upload seemingly. So, I have added the pictures to a video that shows you how a bit about my first time winemaking here in Europe. The video can be found on YouTube here.
We are based in an historical small city called Doesburg with roots going back to the Middle Ages. Our region is not a typical winegrowers region as we are situated in the northern part of Europe, so we depend on specific varieties that do well in this area.
Looking forward to hear from you all and to learn and contribute.
SJ
I did some home study and then bought about 1000 pounds of grapes from a local winery that produces the grapes but discontinued the winemaking part. We picked the grapes ourselves, which were of three different varieties typical for the northern part of Europe: Johanniter (white), Merzling (white) and Regent (red). Picking moments were decided based on Brix, pH and TA values (in Europe we use Oechsle instead of Brix, but the idea is the same), its general appearance and taste and the weather forecast for coming days.
I bought a destemmer and destemmed them grapes and after about a 12 hour contact period with the skins have started making some wine (fermentation started) in the wine cellar. So far, so good! I am able to ask questions to a commercial winemaker that lives just 3 miles from my home and he responds really within minutes or even drives up to my house to check the juice himself.
I tried to post some pictures of my first winemaking adventure but did not succeed. I tried to embed an image from my iPad taken with my iPhone but that was too large to upload seemingly. So, I have added the pictures to a video that shows you how a bit about my first time winemaking here in Europe. The video can be found on YouTube here.
We are based in an historical small city called Doesburg with roots going back to the Middle Ages. Our region is not a typical winegrowers region as we are situated in the northern part of Europe, so we depend on specific varieties that do well in this area.
Looking forward to hear from you all and to learn and contribute.
SJ
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