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VINTAGE
Home Wine Making

You can learn and have more fun making one batch at home than connoisseurs will have sniffing "bouquets" all year.

By Erin Shafer

As the daughter of an established grape grower and wine maker, I have some fond memories of the family winery's humble beginnings. My most pleasant childhood memories surround harvests before the winery was built. On warm, Indian-summer afternoons, when the air was scented with falling leaves, my parents would haul buckets of grapes to the back porch and empty them into oak half-barrels. Then the fun would start! My sisters and I would take off our shoes, roll up our pants legs, and jump into the barrels. There was nothing more enjoyable than being knee deep in squishy purple goo and having our parents encourage us to get even messier!

During my father's days as an amateur vintner, he produced delicious, polished wine in the garage with not much more hardware than a few glass jugs, some plastic tubing, and a hydrometer. And making great wine at home is something that anyone can do with success. All that is needed is the right equipment, a few ingredients, and a basic understanding of general winemaking principles.

Most of the equipment listed here can be found around your home. Keep in mind that for all the materials, use only plastic, rubber, glass, nonresinous wood (such as oak or ash), and stainless steel materials. Certain metals, like lead, will poison wine and resinous woods (such as pine or cedar) will impart a nasty flavor. Your equipment must also be free of scuffs and chips where bacteria and wild yeasts can hide.

Equipment

—three-gallon plastic buckets to mash fruit and store pulp
—wooden masher (or your feet!)
—plastic sheeting to cover buckets and twine to securely fasten sheeting
— long-handled wooden spoon
—plastic turkey baster for drawing juice samples
—plastic measuring spoons and cups
—thermometer
—hydrometer to test sugar content of wine. (This is optional but very handy. It will enable you to calculate the precise amount of sugar present and the amount of alcohol it will produce.)
—colander and clean nylon stockings for straining the "must" (pulp)
—cotton muslin to press out any remaining juice from the pulp
—plastic funnel
—one-to-five-gallon glass jugs (Apple cider jugs will do nicely.)
—rubber or wooden stoppers that have been bored through from top to bottom
—fermentation air locks to allow carbon dioxide gas out of jugs without allowing any air in
—plastic or rubber hose to siphon wine off deposit formed during fermentation (This is called racking.) —standard or screw-top wine bottles complete with new, straight-sided corks or screw caps
—long-handled nylon brush for scrubbing bottles and jugs
—wooden paddle to flog corks into bottles or a tabletop-mounted corking device