Making Wine - Anyone Interested ?

[hoppy2B]

Thanks for the insight on yeast performance. I wouldn't have thought that yeast strain could affect the ultimate colour of the wine to a point that there are obvious differences after fermentation. I'll certainly note ICV-D80 for next year.

Do you allowe fermentation to fully complete prior to pressing or do you press prior to completion and allow fermentation to complete after pressing. I believe this process can result in a fresh and fruitier wine.

How do you store your wine for maturation - barrels, glass or stainless steel containers.

D80 is certainly a good yeast in my opinion. The wine is delicious.
I crush and add yeast straight away and leave it stand for 3 days and then press. It finishes its fermentation in either a stainless keg or more usually a 50 litre demijohn. Won't be using the keg in future because I get a lot of yeast when racking off because of the shape of the keg.
Shouldn't be any oxidation occurring the way I do it.
The Vintners Harvest brochure mentions stuff about colour retention and yeast.
I obtained my D80 through Winequip here in South Australia. If you visit their site and follow the links to the yeast you will also get good descriptions on yeast by clicking the individual yeast and reading up on it. Colour retention is often mentioned when describing wine yeast characteristics.
D80 produces wine with a lovely ruby red colour.

 

[frederic]

D80 is certainly a good yeast in my opinion. The wine is delicious.
I crush and add yeast straight away and leave it stand for 3 days and then press. It finishes its fermentation in either a stainless keg or more usually a 50 litre demijohn. Won't be using the keg in future because I get a lot of yeast when racking off because of the shape of the keg.

Wow, 3 days on skins fermenting. That seems like it's only half way through fermentation. Any reason why you have adopted this approach. I normally allow fermentation on the skins between 5 -7 days depending on the rate of fermentation. Although I am targeting a real dry and full bodied red wine. Maybe I should change my approach.

I also get some supplies from Winequip Melbourne - I'll chat to them about D80 as well.

So what was your Shiraz/Grenache blend - was it 50/50 or something else ?.

I just love Grenache wines, whether 100% or in a blend. About 5 years ago I sampled some excellant wines from Twin Bays at Yankalilla when it was owned by Dr Bruno Giorgio. Adsolutely outstanding. My favourite was the Grenache. Regretably, he could not sell me any as his stocks were just about depleated & he wished to retain the rest for himself. However, I did enjoy the bulk of a bottle over dinner.

You certainly live in a great part of the world, the Fleurieu Peninsula. Makes me want to pack up and visit real soon.

 

[hoppy2B]

So what was your Shiraz/Grenache blend - was it 50/50 or something else ?.


Yeah it would have been about 50/50 but also had maybe 5% Foxtail white wine grapes and maybe 5% large red table grapes and 5% large white table grapes in the mix.

 

[Greg.L]

In small volumes the time on skins can be less because the extraction is better but 4 days would be the minimum. Wineries usually do at least 6 days. I think it is better to press with a little bit of fermentation left to protect against oxidation. Sherry flavour is definitely oxidation, that is how they make sherry.

 

[drsmurto]

Sherry flavour plus brown colour of wine is definitely what you expect for an oxidised wine.

No winemaking for me this year. Thankfully i still have a case left from the 2010 vintage (Sangiovese/Cabernet/Grenache). Had a bottle last night with pizza and it is aging beautifully.

 

[frederic]

As Summer is nearly here the vines are blooming and the gape and wine season will soon be amongst us.

I'm gearing up for the 2014 harvest and stocking up on the essential supplies in preparation.

For anyone keen on becoming a better home winemaker, here's a good contact point for anyone in and around Sydney.The Sydney Amateur Winemakers Club are geared up to tutor anyone interested in making wine from home. For just $20 you get heaps of guidance and support with 10 meetings a year and a bunch of veteran winemakers as well. They evan cover beers and ciders.

Can't go wrong I reckon. Best to learn from those that have done it all before.

Check out the website www.sydneyawc.com

 

[The_Radelaide_Hills]

Missed about 3 grape harvest seasons in a row,
Likely to stick to beer and cider for the moment

You can make wine out of any fruit you can get hold of. I am gonna try blackberry wine next month.

 

[GalBrew]

Well I'm not sure if anyone is paying attention to this thread anymore, but I am getting my delivery of Heathcote shiraz grapes on the 27th (hopefully). I will attempt to make a small batch of some drinkable (again hopefully) table wine. I will try and document the process as best I can and post it here (......hopefully). :icon_cheers:

 

[yankinoz]

Heretic! Seriously, good luck with it, but aren't there Aussie winemaking forums?

 

[TimT]

Personally 'brewing' for me is a term that encompasses winemaking as well.

 

[TimT]

We've only done one classic wine - purple grapes crushed in the press, juice to about five L. I did it as I recall on the ol' standard champagne yeast. The grapes were a bit overripe and I'm not entirely sure what happened in the fermentation as the wine is now oddly yellow-brown rather than a satisfying deep purple-red - maybe a result of oxidisation(?) Or something else? (They were apparently Grenache grapes).

Anyway I've still got one bottle of this. The wine has its good days and bad days - really hot days in summer the phenols are just overwhelmingly unpleasant; other days it tastes quite nice but still a wee bit too sharp. I think basically we drank it far too early and it would have matured and got more pleasant and consistent as it got older.

I want more winemaking threads! More! More! More! It's a huge part of brewing and it would really benefit the beer and mead and cider brewers hereabouts to have feedback on it.

 

[GalBrew]

Heretic! Seriously, good luck with it, but aren't there Aussie winemaking forums?

Well you have to do it at least once right? On the topic of Aussie winemaking forums I have not been able to find anything of any value. If anyone has any hot tips I'd like to know. I found a lot of good info in the American forums but no useful local content, which is a shame as I am sure that there is a lot of local knowledge.

 

[GalBrew]

I want more winemaking threads! More! More! More! It's a huge part of brewing and it would really benefit the beer and mead and cider brewers hereabouts to have feedback on it.

Agreed!!

 

[Bribie G]

Fruity Lexia ... mmmmmmmmm

 

[jewwie]

TimT, I'm with you - we need more "other" brewing forums here in Australia. I've found heaps (as I'm sure you have) USA based forums on the interweb but it's difficult to find any like minded people closer to home.

I've been beer brewing for around 20 years and now in the last year been experimenting with mead. I keep bees and had never heard of mead prior, now I'm hooked.

I've got a pyment nearing the end of primary in the brewing fridge - grapes (actually juice) were sauvignon blanc and were sourced from a mates vineyard in Ballendean. I'm very keen to see how this turns out - I have not found any reference to pyment anywhere in australia.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

 

[jewwie]

Sorry, Galbrew, I meant to mention you also. Have you got anything on the go?

 

[TimT]

Re: finding wine specific forums. You might try on Facebook - I'm a member of a few brewing forums on there, none wine specific (though I'm on a few that focus on cider and mead). And of course nothing stopping you just starting one up, it's very easy on FB. Maybe a lot of the wine brewers are a bit old fogeyish and still don't bother much with the interwebs!

 

[seehuusen]

Great read and thread dig

My wife is about to start making her first fruit wine, and looks to me for advice because i brew beer. I'm finding it a little hard to get a concrete grasp on the general steps to do, e.g. with beer - mash, boil, cool, ferment, dry hop addition, crash chill, bottle...

For wine i have found the methods less clear, would any of you be able to steer me in the right direction please?

Cheers,
Martin

 

[TimT]

Well it's really like brewing only much simpler.

No mash.

No hopping.

Usually no boil.

You just have to get the juice out of the fruit, how exactly depends on each fruit.

With grapes, crush it out. Then ferment.

With berries, probably crush, though I reckon you could probably just chuck them into the fermenter with water and sugar and the juice and character would leach out over time.

Many fruit will give you plenty of flavour and juice but the gravity may not be too high, so you will have to adjust accordingly with a sugar solution. In this case you're making a country wine. In country wines you dissolve a shitload of sugar in water and then add the fruit after.

If most of the sugar/sweet comes from additions of honey, then you are making a mead and should treat accordingly. Fruit meads (melomels) seem to develop rather well, I think because the yeast gets nutrient from the fruit.

Once your wine has fermented, age. Age improves us all (hopefully!)

 

[GalBrew]

Sorry, Galbrew, I meant to mention you also. Have you got anything on the go?

I will be crushing my shiraz grapes on Sunday.