VINOVINTNER.COM
The ultimate source for the amateur winemaking enthusiast
Welcome to Vinovintner.com
Hello and welcome to Vinovintner.com. My name is Alan Hardy, your host. Vinovintner.com was developed as an educational website dedicated to the amateur and professional winemaking communities.
I began making wine in the late 70's. Winemaking was a natural extension of my love for world class wines. I was encouraged by a friend who had a vineyard, and decided to give it a try. I have been hooked ever since. I gained a wealth of knowledge from the experience. I would like to share this information with those who are interested in making great wine.
It is my intent to connect and interact with individuals who are interested in making professional quality wines in their own homes. Together we can work on challenges that we encounter and try to help one another with helpful insight.
If nothing else, the experience will be fun,exciting, and educatioinal. Experience is the greatest teacher one can have. We will explore ways of improving world class winemaking practices and how we can adapt them to home winemaking. We will explore Old World and New World techniques, along with the pros and cons of each. You will find that the winemaking community is very friendly and helpful.
You will be amazed as you produce wine custom made according to your palate. This is an option that is not available with commercial wines, due to their mass productivity. You don't have to worry about the size of your winery. I have made wine in the kitchen of my apartment with no problems.
I hope you enjoy the site. Comments are always welcome.
In Vino Veritas,
Alan Hardy
Founder and Editor
What is it going to cost me to make my own wine
Once you purchase the equipment listed on the basic equipment page of this website, you will find that you can produce a bottle of high quality wine in the range of $2.95 to a high of $9.00. This includes the cost of the grapes, bottles, corks, and labels.
When you recycle your bottles the price drops even lower. Plus you can customize your wine to fit your pallette. This is something you can not do with commercial wine. Winemaking is very similar to cooking. Once you know the basic ingredients that work you can customize them to create new blends.
Remember, the basic equipment can be used over again. The only thing that you have to do every year is replenish your chemicals and buy fresh yeast. It takes time to make good wine, but the rewards are well worth it. Enjoy your experience.
GETTING STARTED
So you have decided to make some wine. Congratulations, you are about to embark on a very exciting and rewarding experience. Basic winemaking isn't very difficult. You don't have to have a degree in chemistry either. The winemaker just needs to have patience and pay attention to detail. Grapes want to become wine, it is our responsibility as the winemaker to give them the guidance and nurture them to produce the "blood of life". Most importantly we are developing a commoradity. There is nothing more exillerating than to share your passion with others. It is a beautiful thing.
To get started in your hobby I have identified fundamental equipment that is necessary for making wine. Please try to make a minimum of 5 gallons. Smaller volumes tend to have more problems. Five gallons will produce approximately 25 bottles of wine. Do you need a lot of space. Not necessarily, I started making wine in an apartment. The most important thing to remember is to keep the temperature in your "wine cellar" ambiant. Air conditioning will help you achieve the right humidity and temperature.
Winemaking dates back to prebiblical times. It is believed that winemaking originated in the Soviet Georgia region of what is now known as Russia. At that point in time, winemaking was very primitive indeed. Basic winemaking consisted of picking the grapes according to taste. When it was determined that the grapes were ready to be fermented, the grapes were harvested and placed in crude wood containers where the grapes were crushed by stomping the grapes with their feet. Stomping the grapes broke open the grape skins permiting exposure of the juice and pulp to the natural yeast present on the outside of the grape skins called the "bloom".
Once primary fermentation took place, the juice was drained off of the skins and placed in barrels that were buried in the ground to keep the wine at a consistant ambiant temperature. The newly made wine was given at least a year in the barrel before being served
Todays modern winemaking is the result of major scientific breakthroughs which have significantly improved the process of making consistently good wine. In the past little was known about the problems that can develop in the winemaking process and how to deal with them. The scientific community has set new laboratory standards and developed strains of yeast that consistently produce excellent wines. More accurate methods of measuring the ripeness of grapes and how to deal with maladies that can and do occur are now widely known. Mistakes can and do occassionally happen, however it is usually the result of inexperience. So there you have it, winemaking in a nutshell.
