Make wine from grapes at home. Homemade grape wine

If you have ordinary grapes growing at home and you don’t even know what this variety is called, congratulations! From this simple variety you can make excellent grape wine at home, the main thing is to follow the recipe and not violate the technology.

When the grapes are ripe, and only you will know about this, because the varieties are all different and the ripening period is different for everyone, collect them. Two large buckets of grapes will yield approximately 10 liters of wine.

Sort through, remove debris and leaves, but under no circumstances wash them because the skin of the fruit contains beneficial wild yeast that causes alcoholic fermentation.

If you leave the twigs, the drink will acquire the aroma inherent to this variety; we make grape wine at home, following all the rules. I never remove twigs!!

The bunches should be carefully crushed. They do this in different ways. Using special devices or by hand (if there are few grapes). We prefer to push with our feet, the old fashioned way. This is my grandson’s favorite pastime from a very young age; winemaking also brings the whole family together.

Place the crushed berries (pulp) into a container, filling it about two-thirds. In wood, glass, enameled or food-grade plastic. Now such containers are sold in any size. Everything related to wine, we must forget about metal. It is very important to stir all this with a wooden spatula, simply smash it several times a day. This is in order to extract useful substances from the skin.

On the fourth day, it is necessary to drain the fermented juice (wort). If it is already late autumn and the room is cool, you can drain it on the 5th day. But if you didn’t drain it on the fifth day, on the sixth you can safely pour it down the drain, or make wine vinegar.

On the day you drain, there is no need to stir the wort. Let the hat rise to the top. Remove it and press it through a press. If there is no press, use your hands. When there are few grapes, you can separate the must from the pulp using improvised means: gauze, colander. But if you have a large amount of grapes, it is better to purchase a press.

It is necessary to immediately measure the exact amount of wort squeezed out. I add 200 grams of sugar per 1 liter of liquid. I put it on the fire and heat it to 45 - 48 degrees, stirring constantly so that the sugar does not remain undissolved. The future grape wine immediately comes to life and begins to play.

Pour into bottles, close with a lid with a water seal and write the date directly on the container. It's more reliable! Our wort sits and gurgles for 21 days. More is possible, less is by no means.

At the right time, the liquid must be drained through the tube. There will be a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Everything is already a young wine, but we still have to work on it.

Close tightly with lids and place in a cool place for forty days. But, as practice has shown, for the first forty days, do not close tightly with lids, but rather with lids with a water seal. Because it can blow off the lid, the remaining yeast is still being fermented. Then carefully drain. There will be soft sediment at the bottom, but not much.

We set it again for 40 days, during which time a solid sediment forms at the bottom of the bottle (almost a stone that is deposited in the kidneys if you drink bad wine). Carefully drain and close for the third time and forget about it for another 40 days. Three times for 40 days.

Now we are pouring out a wonderful drink; grape wine made at home can last for decades and only improve every year, acquiring a noble color and a unique aroma (remember, I said not to cut off the branches). To the wine I make, I always add one cap from a 0.5 liter bottle of Jodis - a concentrate that preserves it from all sorts of wine diseases.

I have a bottle of wine from the 2000 vintage - Millennium. I will open it when my grandson turns 18. The wine will be 15 years old! This is my signature homemade wine recipe. And I will never give it up.

PS. I am writing the answer to the reader’s question for everyone. The first time I add 200 or 250 grams of sugar, when I have separated the pulp from the wort. I pour all the wine into a large container, put it on the fire and mix the sugar with my hand. I set it for 21 days, under a water seal. After 21 days, or a little more (you can’t do less), I remove it from the yeast, that is, drain it from the sediment and try it. If there is not enough sugar, I add another 100 or 50 grams per liter of wine. Calculate how many liters you have. Take the required amount of sugar. In a separate container, mix a little wine and also dissolve the sugar over the fire. Then pour the wine with dissolved sugar into a common container and place under a water seal for 40 days. Then drain and let it stand a second time for 40 days, then a third time for 40 days. Read the article carefully again. Now you will understand and remember more, because you already have practice and experience. Yes, I want to say that in 2013 wine does not require a lot of sugar.(

Wine has long been considered a sacred, healthy drink, the secrets of which were passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays, there are also a huge number of connoisseurs of the variety of its aromas. And home-made grape wine is a completely natural, exquisite creation, largely dependent on hard work and maintaining the standards of the technological process of its production.

The secrets of making wine have been passed down from generation to generation since ancient times. Now everyone can try their hand at making wine at home.

Wine has long been considered a sacred, healthy drink, the secrets of which were passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays, there are also a huge number of connoisseurs of the variety of its aromas. And home-made grape wine is a completely natural, exquisite creation, largely dependent on hard work and maintaining the standards of the technological process of its production. Anyone can easily master the art of creating their revered drink. To do this, you just need to carefully study the recommendations for carrying out sequential actions in creating a wine product.

Preparation for processing

Grapes are considered to be the most ideal berry for making wine. To make high-quality wine at home, you need to use only well-ripened fruits, collected in dry weather, and never after rain. This is necessary so that natural wild yeast remains on the fruit in the form of a whitish coating, which is indispensable for the fermentation process. The berries should not be rotten or frozen. Also, you should not use crumbled fruits to avoid an unpleasant aftertaste. Cut grapes must be processed within 2 days. Harvesting is best done no earlier than the second half of September.

You should know that not all grape varieties are suitable for producing delicious homemade grape wine. Muscat varieties that contain large amounts of sugar are ideal for creating sweet wines. Table varieties are best made from not quite ripe berries, using Isabella, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, etc. varieties.

Grape wine with the addition of water has a subtle taste and becomes less cloying. You can complement the aroma of the drink by adding a little vanilla or almond powder.

The process of selecting berries is quite labor-intensive, but necessary to achieve the result of producing high-quality grape wine with a pleasant aftertaste and aroma.

To avoid contamination of raw materials with pathogenic microorganisms, it is necessary to properly prepare containers, as well as all accessories used. They need to be dry and completely clean. It would be a good idea to disinfect with boiling water, after which the surfaces should be wiped dry with a clean cloth.

Recycling

Prepared fruits must be carefully crushed with your hands or with a wooden rolling pin to avoid crushing the seeds, which makes the product bitter. The resulting pulp is sent to the prepared container, filling about 3/4 of its total volume. It is allowed to use glass, enamel, wood and plastic containers, but not metal.

It is recommended to cover the container with pulp with gauze or cloth, thus avoiding flies and other insects from getting into it, and put it away for three days in a warm place out of direct sunlight. After a short period of time, fermentation of the grape juice will begin, creating a foamy cap formed from the skin of the fruit on the surface. It must be broken twice or thrice a day, while gently mixing the pulp with your hands or with a wooden pestle to avoid peroxidation.

After three days, the juice in the pulp will lighten and a slight hiss will be heard. This will be a signal that it is time to move on to the next stage of preparing grape wine.

Transfusion and installation of the valve

So, we remove the pulp and peel that has accumulated in the outer layer into another container, while squeezing the juice out of it. Next, you need to filter all the freshly squeezed juice 2-3 times using gauze cloth. At the same time, the process of transfusion fills it with oxygen, launching the action of wine yeast.

If a recipe for making grape wine with the addition of water is used, then at this stage of production it must be added to the juice in an amount of 30% of the total volume of liquid.

Place the resulting amount of prepared juice in glass containers, approximately 70% of the total volume of the bottle, for further fermentation. To avoid peroxidation of wine, it is necessary to prevent oxygen from entering it, while at the same time allowing carbon dioxide to escape. To do this, you will need to install any of the water seal devices on the container. This can be a water seal consisting of a lid, tube and jar, which is usually used for large-volume bottles, or a fairly common method using a medical glove, puncturing a hole with a needle at the location of any of the fingers.

Adding sugar

At this stage, it is necessary to control the amount of sugar in the resulting wort, focusing on sufficient sweetness to taste.

To make good wine without disturbing the normal fermentation process, the addition of sugar must be gradual. This means that every 3 days it is necessary to add it in a dose of 50 g per 1 liter of liquid, having previously dissolved it in a small amount of drained wort. This manipulation should be done about 4 times in the first 2-3 weeks of fermentation.

An important condition for the technology of preparing high-quality wine is further adherence to the temperature regime, which becomes: 22-28 C for red and 16-22 C for white wine varieties. It is not permissible to lower it to a limit of 15 C, since at this temperature the fermentation process will stop.

Initial vigorous fermentation

The duration of the rapid fermentation stage depends on several factors:

• yeast activity;
• quantitative composition of sugar;
• temperature conditions.

The process continues until the yeast has completely processed almost all the sugar. This can be determined by the following signs:

• stopping the release of bubbles by the water seal;
• blowing off a medical glove;
• yeast sediment falls to the bottom.

If fermentation continues 50 days after installing the water seal, in order to avoid a bitter taste, it is recommended to drain the liquid part into another container, leaving the sediment in the same container, and again place it under the water seal for final fermentation.

After this, you need to move on to the next stage of production, namely the first transfusion followed by quiet fermentation.

Pouring and quiet fermentation

Place the container with the drink on a raised surface and carefully pour it into another, filling it right up to the neck using a rubber tube. It is very important not to affect the sediment. Otherwise, the taste of the wine will deteriorate, become bitter, and spoil the overall pleasant aftertaste.

The produced product is not yet transparent enough, since its appearance has not yet been fully formed, and it needs to be further fermented and also lightened.

Quiet fermentation of the intoxicating drink lasts approximately 3-4 months at a temperature of about 10-12 C. If desired, a water seal can be installed on the container due to the slight accumulation of carbon dioxide. During the quiet fermentation stage, the color of the drink will become lighter, leaving sediment at the bottom. Therefore, there is a need for its transfusion once every 30 days. At the same time, the wine will be saturated with oxygen, necessary for its full ripening.

When the process of quiet fermentation ends, there is a need to add sugar from dessert wine varieties. You need to learn how to do this correctly.

Semi-sweet wines are sweetened by adding 50 g of sugar per 1 liter, dessert types - 100-150 g - per 1 liter, liqueur types - from 200 g - per 1 liter.

You can also add alcohol or vodka, thereby obtaining a fortified wine, but making the taste less aromatic and more harsh.

The presented recipe for preparing a wine drink is universal.

Creating a quality wine product is a creative process that requires specific knowledge and certain skills. Proper conditions must also be met to ensure that the correct temperature conditions are maintained.

Maturation

Full-bodied red wines need to be aged for about 1-2 years, light reds - about 1 year, dense aromatic whites - six months, light ones - 3 months at a temperature of 10-15 C in a dark, dry room. The most suitable places for the product to fully mature are wine cellars, where the same air temperature is always maintained.

To obtain the ideal aromatic drink, it is recommended to use wine cryostabilization. The idea is to keep it for a short time at a low temperature, about a couple of weeks. You can use a refrigerator or basement for this purpose in winter. This procedure helps to lighten the product, and also helps to quickly and effectively get rid of crystalline particles and tartar. Exposure to cold also helps to cope with excess acid, making the taste of wine softer and more pleasant.

Wine bottling and storage

Next, we proceed to the next stage of technology for the production of grape wine, which requires very simple steps. Before you start bottling, the wine needs to be filtered. This is done using a soft cloth or special filter paper.

It is better to pour wine into special durable bottles, sealing them with long corks, having previously treated the container with soda solution and then thoroughly rinsed with water.

The container should be filled completely, almost to the level of contact with the stopper, with a small air gap of 1-2 cm.

It is recommended to store wine at home in the basement, provided that there is no high humidity and the air temperature does not exceed 10 C. Bottles filled with intoxicating products should only be stored in a lying position, thereby maintaining the tightness of their sealing.

Of course, making wine with your own hands is not so easy. But having gone through all the stages of its production, while observing general recommendations as much as possible, a worthy result of labor is achieved in the form of a most pleasant and not only tasty, but also very healthy drink.

Useful properties of hop products

Grape wine contains a rich chemical complex of valuable substances, indicating its medicinal effect on the human body. This has been proven by scientists who have studied the properties of the intoxicating product. Thus, according to their conclusions, any wine, especially homemade wine, is a valuable healing drink that has a positive effect on the human body to a greater extent than other food products.

The following medicinal qualities of grape wine can be distinguished:

• has a general strengthening effect;
• has an antiseptic and disinfecting effect;
• prevents the development of atherosclerosis;
• is an analgesic and wound healing agent;
• serves as a source of vitamins, various microelements and amino acids;
• helps improve immunity;
• slows down the aging process of the body.

Even in ancient times, some unusual observation was discovered. It consisted in the fact that entire states were dying en masse due to epidemics of various terrible diseases. But in areas where winemaking was widespread, where people made and constantly drank wine, the impact of disease was much lower, and the cure rate was much higher.

Grape wine has strong healing effects in the fight against various viruses and infections, and also helps to quickly and effectively cope with colds. Mulled wine lovers should know that this drink was created by one of the ancient pharmacists to treat tuberculosis, colds and for general health promotion.

Nowadays, obesity has become a rather pressing disease, even in children. Drinking grape wine can contribute to a significant reduction in body weight by restoring metabolic processes in the body, as well as normalizing the process of fat breakdown.

Following a therapeutic dosage, drinking wine significantly improves the normal functioning of the heart muscle, removes excess cholesterol from the blood, treats depression and gives an incredible surge of strength and energy.

You can make applications and small baths from a medicinal drink, which give the skin elasticity, while making it smooth and soft, smoothing out folds and wrinkles, and also help get rid of cellulite.

The healing effects of grape wine prepared according to various recipes are as follows:

• renewal of the body's immune forces;
• disinfectant property;
• strengthening the heart muscle and vascular system;
• normalization of metabolic processes;
• filling with valuable chemical elements;
• rejuvenating effect on the skin.

The provided technology for creating a noble, delicious drink from grapes is suitable for making different types of wine.

You can use all kinds of simple recipes, and more complex ones, using different varieties of grapes. In any case, you will get a unique taste of the wine drink. It is only important to have an idea of ​​how to make homemade wine, and also to put maximum effort into this process.

Grape wine at home

The benefits of wine

Wine is one of the most healthy and ancient drinks. It was prepared and consumed back in Ancient Egypt at every meal.

The fermented drink gained such popularity because it did not spoil in hot climates, unlike juices and compotes. At the same time, in order not to get too drunk, the wine was diluted with a significant amount of water. The grapes themselves have excellent medicinal and taste properties. Vitamins are not only contained in berries, but are also formed during fermentation. It has been scientifically proven that 100 grams of dry wine per day can remove all radionuclides from the body. Of course, homemade drinks are inferior to industrial ones in terms of strength and harmony of bouquet. But grape wine at home is undoubtedly more fragrant and healthy. It keeps your hands warm and is completely natural. At the same time, the cooking process itself is not too labor-intensive and does not require special equipment and units. So, how to make grape wine at home?

Manufacturing technology. Wort preparation

Making grape wine at home requires, first of all, suitable raw materials. It should be ripe, sweet and juicy. The best time for ripening such grapes is the end of September. The berries must be separated from the branches and carefully sorted, removing rotten ones. Otherwise, one spoiled grape can impart an unpleasant aftertaste to the entire finished product. You should not wash the grapes too vigorously under running water, since their skin contains special bacteria that will allow the wine to ferment. To make grape wine at home, you will need a large container - a 20-liter bottle would be optimal. You need to place the berries in the container, after crushing them. You can do this manually. The container should be about 3/4 full to leave room for sugar. The prepared future wine must be placed in a warm place for a couple of days so that the wort rises to the top and begins to play (make bubbles). Then the berries must be squeezed out and, if desired, added sugar. It should be remembered that every 20 grams of sugar per 1 liter of wort increases the strength of the drink by 1 degree. But you should not add more than 1 kilogram of sugar per 10 liters of wine.

Fermentation

After completing the procedures, you need to put a glove on the neck of the bottle in order to control the fermentation process, and put the container back in a warm place. If the glove is inflated, the wine ferments. As soon as it wilts, you can pour it into a clean glass container and seal it tightly with lids. Instead of a glove, many experienced winemakers advise using a special lid with a hole. It's easy to buy in a store. A rubber tube is placed over the hole in the lid, the other end of which is immersed in a container of water. It is important that the container is located below the main bottle. In this case, the lid should be thoroughly coated with plasticine. Such tricks are necessary so that the gas released during the fermentation process flows through the tube and comes out in the form of bubbles in a container of water. Grape wine at home is best stored in a dark place: cellar, pantry. Tasting can begin within a few months. It is worth remembering that homemade wine is not stored for long; it must be consumed within a year. However, this does not particularly sadden experienced winemakers.

Grape wine at home

Grape wines

The quality of wine largely depends on the grape varieties. It is desirable that these be technical or table varieties with high sugar content of 18-22% and acidity of 7-8 g/l.

Excellent dessert wines are made from Muscat varieties “Tukay”, “Pearl Sabo”, “White Muscat”; many are attracted to wines from Isabella varieties; good red wines are from “Early Magarach” and “Violet Early”.

Harvesting grapes for wine should be done only in established dry weather. Rotten, moldy and unripe berries are completely unsuitable for winemaking.

The harvested grapes are separated from the ridges by hand, each berry is crushed and loaded into a screw press, under the tray of which a glass bottle or enamel dish is placed. As the press loads, the juice flows out and the pulp settles, and the press is replenished with a new portion of grapes. After the juice stops separating by gravity, begin squeezing it mechanically, gradually increasing the pressing pressure. The squeezed pulp is removed from the press into an enamel bowl, mixed with the next squeezed portions and pressed again. Juice can be extracted using an electric juicer.

In the absence of a juicer or press, the pulp is squeezed out under pressure or by hand, placed in a canvas or nylon bag, but losses of up to 20% are inevitable.

Dry white grape wine

Table (dry) wine is wine that does not contain sugar. During fermentation, all grape sugar is “dry” (hence the name “dry wine”) turns into wine alcohol and carbon dioxide. Table wines, depending on the sugar content in the grapes, have a strength from 9 to 14 degrees.

White wine is made from white grape varieties. The squeezed juice (wort) settles for 24 hours at a temperature of +15-20°C. After settling, the wort is carefully removed from the sediment using a rubber or vinyl chloride tube, pouring into bottles where fermentation will take place. The bottles are filled to no more than 2 volumes so that the wort does not escape from the bottle during rapid fermentation.

Fermentation of the must occurs on the grape's own yeast, which develops on the surface of the berries at the time of their ripening. That is why it is very important to harvest grapes in established dry weather. Rains can wash away the yeast culture from the berries and active fermentation of the grape must in this case may not work. It is most reliable to use a pure yeast culture for fermentation. But acquiring them nowadays is quite difficult. They are not available in retail trade, and they only go to wine production. But you can prepare “wine starter” yourself. A few days before the grape harvest, ripe berries of early grape varieties are collected for wine. Two glasses of unwashed berries are crushed, placed in a bottle, a glass of water and half a glass of sugar are added. Then shake everything until the sugar is completely dissolved, close the bottle with a cotton swab and place it in a dark place where the temperature should be +22-24°C. After 3-4 days, the starter begins to ferment, it is filtered through cheesecloth and used to activate the fermentation process, adding 2% of the total amount of wort. Sourdough cannot be stored for more than 10 days. Bottles with wort for fermentation are placed in a room with a temperature not lower than +18°C and not higher than +24°C and closed with a water seal (see Fig. 1). At temperatures above or below optimum, malnutrition may occur.

Fermentation has two phases:

The first is rapid fermentation, lasts 5-8 days, during this period up to 90% of sugar is fermented;

The second is quiet fermentation, lasting 3-4 weeks.

To preserve the aroma and prevent possible oxidation, the bottle of fermenting wine is topped up with the same wine. To do this, the wort must be fermented in two bottles. After the end of vigorous fermentation, one bottle is topped up from the second, closed again with a stopper with a siphon lowered into a glass of water. In the filled bottle there is a quiet fermentation, which can be judged by the release of bubbles from the siphon (Fig).

The end of fermentation is determined by the cessation of bubbles and the clarification of the wine with a clear interface between the wine and the yeast sediment. The wine is separated from the sediment. To do this, place a bottle of wine on the table and an empty one on the floor. The overflow tube is immersed in the wine so that its end is slightly above the yeast sediment. Wine is sucked out from the other end of the tube and, when it begins to flow, this end is lowered into a bottle standing on the floor. The remaining yeast sediment is poured into a smaller container, allowed to settle again and the settled wine is poured out again. The grounds are filtered through a cloth filter. Fill the bottle with filtered wine to half the neck. The bottle is tightly closed with a cork or wooden dowel and placed in a cold room with a temperature not exceeding +15°C for repeated sedimentation. After a month, the wine is again removed from the sediment and can be bottled up to half the height of the neck. The bottles are capped and placed lying down.

Note. During long-term storage of wine, cork corks are filled with resin or sealing wax.

Red dry grape wine

Red wines are prepared from grape varieties with black, purple or dark red berries. Red wines are prepared at home with some differences from white wine technology. After crushing the berries, the pulp is not separated from the must, but is placed all together in an enamel container of 2 volumes, and sourdough is added there (2% of the loaded grapes). During vigorous fermentation, the cap of pulp rising above the wort is stirred several times a day. You can press down the cap of pulp for the entire period of vigorous fermentation with light pressure so that it does not float up. This is done to prevent the wine material from oxidizing and turning into vinegar.

After the end of vigorous fermentation, the wine must be separated from the pulp. To do this, the entire wine mass is filtered through a sieve or colander, and the pulp is pressed or passed through a juicer. The wort separated from the pulp is poured onto? volume in the bottle is closed with a water seal and the process continues using white wine technology.

Dessert wines made from grapes

Dessert wine has a high content of free sugar (up to 15%). It should be well-colored, transparent, aromatic, thick, and low in acidity. At home, dessert wine can be prepared by adding concentrated grape juice or sugar to dry wine.

Before fermentation begins, 50g of sugar is added to the grape must for each liter. The rest of the process is carried out using dry wine technology. After fermentation is complete, the wine should be dry, since the sugar in it has completely fermented. The wine is allowed to settle and, when it clears (this happens after about two months), it is removed from the sediment. To add sweetness to clear wine, add 100-150 g of sugar or about 200 g of concentrated grape juice for each liter. Sugar is pre-dissolved in a small amount of the same wine with light heating in a water bath and constant stirring and then poured into the total volume of wine. After adding sugar, the wine in the bottle is shaken (stirred) and settled again until completely clarified. The finished wine is bottled, corked and stored as dry wine.

The best temperature for dry wine is no higher than +10°C, and for dessert wine no more than +15°C.

Do not store wine in the light. During storage, sediment (tartar) may appear in bottles. Don't let this worry you, it doesn't mean the wine has gone bad. Just pour the wine into new bottles or try not to get this sediment into your glasses.

For your health!

L. I. Slepko , 659315, Biysk, Altai Territory, st. Socialist, 100, apt. 4