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Article Table of Contents:
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Introduction
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Process
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Equipment
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Recipes
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Appreciating Wine
Introduction
Wine making can be, like any
hobby, very rewarding. But this hobby can be
costly and one that might need you to have a
great deal of room and materials. Before
choosing to invest time and money in this hobby
it is important to make sure that wine and wine
making is something that you truly have a
lasting interest in. Many people who start off
making wine as a hobby move on to selling their
wine locally, so you can have this as a possible
long term goal in mind.
There are books and websites
that can help you get more information and help
with the wine making process, as well as help
you to locate where to buy all the necessary
tools and materials that you might need to
advance your hobby. Taking a look at these sites
before you start investing into the hobby can
give you an idea of what you are getting into
before the costs begin to add up. It is also
important to note that wine making does not
happen overnight and depending on how long you
leave the wine to ferment, it could be months
before you taste your first batch.
History of Wine
Knowing the history of wine can
truly add to the experience of making and
drinking this historic beverage.
Archaeological evidence suggests
that the earliest production of wine, made by
fermenting grapes, took place in sites in
Georgia and Iran, from as early as 6000 BC.
These locations are all within the natural area
of the European grapevine Vitis vinifera.
A 2003 report
by archaeologists indicates a possibility that
grapes were used together with rice to produce
mixed fermented beverages in China in the early
years of 7000 BC. Pottery jars from the
Neolithic site of Jiahu, Henan were found to
contain traces of tartaric acid and other
organic compounds commonly found in wine.
However, other fruits indigenous to the region,
such as hawthorn, could not be ruled out. If
these beverages, which seem to be the precursors
of rice wine, included grapes rather than other
fruits, these grapes were of any of the several
dozen indigenous wild species of grape in China,
rather than from Vitis vinifera, which were
introduced into China some 6000 years later.
The oldest
known evidence of wine production in Europe is
dated to 4500 BC and comes from archaeological
sites in Greece. The same sites also contain the
world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes. In
Ancient Egypt, six of 36 wine amphoras were
found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun bearing
the name "Kha'y", a royal chief vintner. Five of
these amphoras were designated as from the
King's personal estate with the sixth listed as
from the estate of the royal house of Aten.
Traces of wine have also been found in central
Asian Xinjiang, dating from the second and first
millennia BC.
In medieval
Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was a staunch
supporter of wine since it was necessary for the
celebration of Mass. Monks in France made wine
for years, storing it underground in caves to
age.There is an old English recipe which
survived in various forms until the nineteenth
century for refining white wine using
Bastard—bad or tainted bastardo wine. Wine was
forbidden during the Islamic Golden Age, until
Geber and other Muslim chemists pioneered its
distillation for cosmetic and medical uses
Process
In traditional wine making the
process is as follows:
After the
harvest, the grapes are crushed and allowed to
ferment. Red wine is made from the must (pulp)
of red or black grapes that undergo fermentation
together with the grape skins, while white wine
is usually made by fermenting juice pressed
from white grapes, but can also be made from
must extracted from red grapes with minimal
contact with the grapes' skins. Rosé wines are
made from red grapes where the juice is allowed
to stay in contact with the dark skins long
enough to pick up a pinkish color, but little of
the tannins contained in the skins.
During this
primary fermentation, which often takes between
one and two weeks, yeast converts most of the
sugars in the grape juice into ethanol (alcohol)
and carbon dioxide. After the primary
fermentation, the liquid is transferred to
vessels for the secondary fermentation. Here,
the remaining sugars are slowly converted into
alcohol and the wine becomes clear. Some wines
are then allowed to age in oak barrels before
bottling, which add extra aromas to the wine,
while others are bottled directly. Still others
may be aged in stainless steel tanks or glass
carboys. The time from harvest to drinking can
vary from a few months for Beaujolais nouveau
wines to over twenty years for top wines.
However, only about 10% of all red and 5% of
white wine will taste better after five years
than it will after just one year. Depending on
the quality of grape and the target wine style,
some of these steps may be combined or omitted
to achieve the particular goals of the
winemaker. Many wines of comparable quality are
produced using similar but distinctly different
approaches to their production; quality is
dictated by the attributes of the starting
material and not necessarily the steps taken
during vinification.
Variations on
the above procedure exist. With sparkling wines
such as Champagne, an additional fermentation
takes place inside the bottle, trapping carbon
dioxide and creating the characteristic bubbles.
Sweet wines are made by ensuring that some
residual sugar remains after fermentation is
completed. This can be done by harvesting late
(late harvest wine), freezing the grapes to
concentrate the sugar (ice wine), or adding a
substance to kill the remaining yeast before
fermentation is completed; for example, high
proof brandy is added when making port wine. In
other cases the winemaker may choose to hold
back some of the sweet grape juice and add it to
the wine after the fermentation is done, a
technique known as süssreserve.
The process
produces wastewater, pomace, and lees that
require collection, treatment, and disposal or
beneficial use.
For wine making hobbyists the
process is much the same but on a much smaller
scale. Many hobby wine makers will even purchase
kits or premade juice in order to make their
wine. This saves them the trouble of having to
grow and prepare their own grapes. This is a
good option for beginners because it allows them
to experiment in the wine making process without
having to worry about properly growing the
grapes and juicing them. Many hobbyists do not
have the land nor the ability to properly
harvest, destem and crush the grapes.
But hobbyists do use yeast and
they do ferment the wine twice before ensuring
that the wine is ready to drink. Different
additives can also be put in order to give the
wine different tastes and flavors. There are
plenty of online resources offering great
recipes so that you can make a wine that suits
your personal tastes.
For step by
step instructions on how to make your own wine
at home visit:
http://www.thewinepages.org.uk/begin.htm
Equipment
When you are preparing to set up
your own wine making hobby there are a number of
different tools that will make the process much
easier. There are two main types, the tools that
can be reused and the tools that can only be
used once. Many of these items you will need
multiples of and they can vary in price based on
where you get them from.
1 gallon glass jars, some people
will use larger jars and others will even choose
to use plastic. The decision is yours but be
aware that many people feel that the plastic can
affect the taste of the wine.
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Airlocks, you will need one of these for
each glass jar that you purchase.
Siphon Tube, about six feet.
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Corks and Wine bottles, this one probably
seems pretty obvious but it should not be
overlooked.
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Wine Yeast, this is necessary for fermenting
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A bucket,
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A sieve, or mesh bag, the finer the better.
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A Kettle.
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This is the minimum of what you will need in
order to make wine. But there is a number of
other tools that you may choose to purchase
as you become more involved in the wine
making process.
Recipes
All wines have a
specific recipe that creates their unique and
specific flavor. You can even combine other
flavors with the flavor of the grapes. There are
a number of sites that offer free recipes and
information on how to find and prepare the
ingredients that you need. For example for a
Blackberry wine the recipe includes fresh black
berries and information on how to pick them and
prepare them for use in the wine.
For plenty of
recipes and information visit
http://www.thewinepages.org.uk/home-wine-making-recipes.shtml
Appreciating Wine
Wine making as a hobby can only
be useful if you are aware of how to appreciate
a good wine and enjoy drinking it. Part of the
process of learning to appreciate the different
flavors and styles of wine is to learn how to
truly taste the wine.
Wine tasting is the sensory
examination and evaluation of wine. Wines are
made up of chemical compounds which are similar
or identical to those in fruits, vegetables, and
spices. The sweetness of wine is determined by
the amount of residual sugar in the wine after
fermentation, relative to the acidity present in
the wine. Dry wine, for example, has only a
small amount of residual sugar. Inexperienced
wine drinkers often tend to mistake the taste of
ripe fruit for sweetness when, in fact, the wine
in question is very dry.
Individual
flavors may also be detected, due to the complex
mix of organic molecules such as esters and
terpenes that grape juice and wine can contain.
Tasters often can distinguish between flavors
characteristic of a specific grape (e.g.,
Chianti and sour cherry) and flavors that result
from other factors in wine making, either
intentional or not. The most typical intentional
flavor elements in wine are those that are
imparted by aging in oak casks; chocolate,
vanilla, or coffee almost always come from the
oak and not the grape itself.
Banana flavors
(isoamyl acetate) are the product of yeast
metabolism, as are spoilage aromas such as
sweaty, barnyard, band-aid (4-ethylphenol and
4-ethylguaiacol), and rotten egg (hydrogen
sulfide). Some varietals can also have a mineral
flavor, because some salts are soluble in water
(like limestone), and are absorbed by the wine.
Wine aroma
comes from volatile compounds in the wine that
are released into the air. Vaporization of these
compounds can be sped up by twirling the wine
glass or serving the wine at room temperature.
For red wines that are already highly aromatic,
like Chinon and Beaujolais, many people prefer
them chilled.
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