Wine making in your home is a complicated process that requires a lot of time and
patience to acquire a fine wine with a good taste and heavy body. A series of methods
have to be done in order to make a wine and can take up to several years if you
want a very fine wine. For a normal table wine the process can take up to several months.
Growing and harvesting: grapes can be grown all year round in out door vineyards.
By rule grapes are classed by quality and only the grapes with a very high level
of sugars are used for wine making. It is recommended to harvest your grapes in
a dry season as the rain tends to remove a lot of quality from the grapes by
eliminating a lot of their natural sugars. When harvested in the dry season the
grapes hold a lot more sugar and because of this make a much better juice that
can be used for fermentation.
Grape juice process: there are two ways of achieving grape juice, the first
being the traditional method of placing all of the grapes into a large barrel and
stomping on them with bare feet, this process can take a lot longer as the stalks
have to be removed by hand. The other method is juicing the grapes using a special
machine that removes the stalks automatically and is a lot faster to complete the
juicing process.
Fermentation: when beginning the process of fermentation you must first mix the
grape juice with yeast and store in a container at the appropriate temperature.
Once the process has begun the yeast will turn the sugar in the grape juice into
the alcohol needed. The wine should be fermented in the more traditional wooden
barrel or in more modern stainless steel vessels. Depending on the wine you are
making, the fermentation process can last for a shorter or longer amount of time.
Racking and aging: raking consists of keeping the wine completely still until
the yeast has settled. After this the wine is filtered and placed into barrels to
begin the aging process, again depending on the wine you want to make, the aging
process can last from several months up to several years. Although no air should
enter the barrels during this process, it is normal to mix the contents of barrels
to achieve the taste wanted in your wine.
Once completing all of the stated processes, your wine will be ready. If you choose
to age your wine for a longer amount of time or try different ages for different
bottles, you can place your wine in a damp cellar where it will continue to age.
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