Wine making is by no means a lost art. In huge industrial operations with multi-million
dollar equipment and in homes and garages with simple kits and accessories, more and more
people are making wine. These young wine makers may be following thousand-year-old
traditions, or they may be blazing their own trail.
Making Wine - To Do Or Not To Do?
Making wine. Are you tempted to make your own wine? Did you ever spend an indecent amount of money on
a very pedestrian (or worse) bottle of wine and say to yourself, I could do just as well or better? Well
here are a few articles to help get started. Other articles discuss organic winemaking and the history
of winemaking.
A clickable list of articles on wine making follows immediately.
Then we briefly describe each article, followed by a direct quote to entice you to read it.
While we do not necessarily agree with each author's affirmations, we only present articles that we
feel are of value. We plan to add relevant articles from time to time.
Title: Gardening by the Moon Makes Great Wine
By Ivy Mills
Before you reject these unusual winemaking practices, please note that many of them are used in top-notch French wines
including many world famous White Burgundies.
Mills~
"...In this practice, cow horns are hollowed and filled with cow manure. They are then buried, on the fall equinox, in places
around the property where...
"
This article gives you a quick overview of the wine production process.
Best ~
"The first stage in the wine making processs is to crush the grapes. In days gone by the grapes would be
loaded into a large vat and the wine maker(s) would gently tread on them..."
This article steps you in some detail through the wine making process for red wine. In theory, you can do this at home.
Bruce~
"How long the must (juice and grape solids) is allowed to sit, picking up flavor, color and tannin is up to the wine maker.
Too long and the wine is bitter, too short and..."
This article lists the required equipment and seemingly simple steps for home wine making. Good Luck.
Kaplan ~
"Siphon the wine from one jug to the other in order to keep the wine in a completely sanitized container. Next, fit the jug
with a bung and fermentation lock. This step may..."
Title: Who Made the First Wine Anyway?
Author: Neil Best
Best presents ancient wine making as practised in several different nations. We only wish that we could find some
old wine bottles, or more accurately wine jugs, for a comparison tasting with last year's vintage, assuming that they haven"t turned to vinegar.
Best~
"Although details are understandably sketchy, it is believed that, around XXXX, grapes were being grown and wine
was being made in ..."
