I grew up in a small steel town northwest of Pittsburgh. Most of the Italian families I knew made homemade wine and mine was no different. My Grandfather even grew his own grapes. No matter what the occasion was or which family’s house we were in, there was always wine on the table.
My own making wine story began about 15 years ago. Having moved across the country to California, and although wine was plentiful here, I missed having that glass of homemade with dinner and friends. Quite often the airlines found me transporting gallons of wine back from family visits. This sufficed until my father became a little older, making less wine every year. Not wanting this family tradition to be forgotten, I decided to take my children, Matthew and Cara back to Pennsylvania and let them see how Grandpa made his wine.
My parents, Mario and Rose, showed the kids how to crush the grapes, press the mash, and transfer the wine to the barrels. Start to finish, even sampling the juice at each stage.
It wasn’t all work, especially when Cara asked Grandma how they mashed the grapes in the “olden days”. My mom was glad to oblige her with her own tub of grapes to stomp with her feet! It was fun to see my dad joking with the kids, have them open the mash barrel to take a deep breath just like when I was little.
We have been making wine ever since, and that familiar bottle of homemade wine is at all of our gatherings. My dad has since passed away; my kids are older now and have little time to spend helping me make wine. Their appreciation for what they were able to experience will come with maturity. My children got to experience an integral part of their family heritage that they’ll never forget. Maybe when they move away they too will take some of Dad’s homemade wine after a visit. And someday they too will bring their kids to see how Grandpa makes his wine.
Name: Anthony Ulizio
State: ca
Home Wine Making: Beginning your Next Passion
It was not always like this – staring out the window at the orchard as your memories of the creaking steps fade away into the quiet of the house. With the kids grown up and moved on, you need not focus on a quiet home, reflecting on memories of noises and activity long since past. It’s time to get neck-deep into the creation of new memories, and there’s little better place to begin than just in sight of the house, amongst the grapevines. What may have lain dormant for some years can now be a new source of creative passion.
With the grapes available, as well as more space in the house than in the past, there’s plenty of incentive to get into a new pastime – making your own wine! Plus, there will be less distractions to your concentration on flavors, as the kids won’t be there to demand emergency band-aid applications for their latest playtime wounds.
With your full attention devoted to creating wine with subtle nuances and exquisite natural flavors, it won’t be long before you’re churning out libations that will be the talk of the neighborhood. It’s fine and good to think that you can single-handedly manage to knock Sonoma county off the winemaking map – competition really does make things better for all concerned – but you’ll need help. Becoming an experienced winemaker involves a lot of time and effort. Making mistakes is an inevitable byproduct of the process. To speed your efforts towards making quaffable wines, you’ll do best to learn from some folks who have managed to notch some experience onto their belts. You could go it alone, but by the time you’ve made enough mistakes and learned enough to manage to create some delicious varietals, you might not have time to age them properly and enjoy them!
Skilled assistance is available from practiced winemakers at Adventures in Homebrewing, who know the ins and outs of every step of the process. It’s always nice to have the knowledgeable eye of a master next to you as you delve into any new undertaking. This helps to prevent your learning incorrect things at the outset, thus avoiding mistakes that could set you back more than one season.
And who has time to learn the fine art of winemaking by their lonesome? Adventures in Homebrewing has over 40 years of winemaking experience to assist you as you learn how to make wine, how to grow grapes, and everything else you need to know to improve the vino that you pour at your table! Not convinced that you can create a wine that’s as good as that offered on the shelves of your local wine shop? You might surprise yourself. Try this on for size: every new brand label that’s for sale at the store began with someone, much as yourself, who was convinced that their grapes were ready for public consumption. What pours forth from that realization is merely testament to your dedication and effort.
Do We Need A Grape Crusher Or A Crusher/Destemmer?
Hello,
My friend and I make wine from grapes. A year ago we bought your fruit crusher FP130 and now we are wondering do we instead need the crusher/destemmer? We want to keep grape hulls and juice together for fermentation, does the crusher/destemmer allow the hulls to pass through and not the stems or is it the catch stand that collects everything but the juice?
Thank-you,
Clayton
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Hello Clayton,
As you may already know, the grape crusher that you have is only going to crush the grapes. The stems, pulp and everything else you put in the hopper is going to pass right through the rollers. Nothing is separated. It is only crushed.
With a unit that is both a grape crusher and a grape destemmer, everything still goes through the crushing rollers, grape clusters and all, but after the rollers the stems are removed from the crushed pulp and pushed out the side of the units. The wine juice and the pulp both fall out the bottom just as you would like.
We have two different models that both act as a grape crusher and a grape destemmer. One is motorized. That’s the one pictured above. Then we have a manual version. One is just as fast as the other. It just needs to be hand-cranked.
Happy Wine Making,
Customer Service
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
Bob's Wine
I make red, and rarely white wines and Champagne in a simple way. Once, I noticed that if you use a little late ripened grapes you get a full body, quite sweeter wine, but lower in quantity because as the grapes ripen they loose moisture or water content. However, after storing this wines for a few years they tend to taste like something between sherry and brandy, and if you have oak mellowed them they taste like port+brandy+bread. But, the wines are very, very smooth and you can always taste grapes in them (sort of currant^ish). Once I added a little black peppers to my glass and it felt delicious and warm. It sounds funny, but it is very true.
Now the question is: I feel terrible to make people taste because they always call it in one shot “sweeter” or “light,” while in fact, they are very heavy and could be consumed half to two third of a glass over two cubes of ice and give you a slight alcohol feeling if you drink empty stomach.
Name: Bobby Mistry
State: New Jersey
Bruenello Wine
Four yearsvago, we made a kit of Bruenello. We just opened it over the holidays it was wonderful and full of earthy qualities.
Waiting finally paid off.
Name: Cathy Macdonald
State: Ohio
My Wine Making Start
I was introduced to wine-making while we were RV’ing in Nova Scotia. We were fortunate enough to meet a gentleman by the name of Doug Copp. He and I learned that we had many things of life in common and had a fantastic visit. At the end of the evening we learned that he made his own wine, offered my wife and myself a couple glasses and they were terrific. Thereafter, he gifted us with a few different varieties of his home-made wine. So good that I endeavored to begin making wine myself. Upon arrival home I immediately ventured into this new task and I have been making several different wines ever since. At each party, at every dinner, and on a continual basis I take orders from friends and family and now for specialty blends. Fortunately or unfortunately for me I have not had the misfortune to have a “bad” batch of wine. Naturally some batches are better than others, but this is a lasting hobby that has developed.
Name: Bill Wynn
State: Fl
And The Winner Is…
We just did the $100 drawing for the winner of the Share Your Wine Making Story contest. The drawing was comprised of participants who submitted their wine making stories between January 18th and January 26th on the Adventures in Homebrewing Wine Making Blog.
It was a random drawing, so if you didn’t win, don’t think we didn’t like your story. If fact, we saw a lot of stories that were very interesting and enjoyable to read. Not only did we raise a glass to many of them, but we received lots of comments from fellow wine makers who enjoyed them as well. With that in mind…
A Very Special Thanks Goes Out To Everyone Who Participated!
The Winner of the Share Your Wine Making Story contest is Dennis Freitas of California. His story included a couple of pictures of the San Pedro Wine Club, a 10 member wine club in West Sacramento. Dennis will receive a $100 Virtual Gift Certificate good for products purchased at E. C. Kraus Wine & Beer Making Supplies.
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Do You Have A Wine Story To Share?
Even though the contest is over you can still share your story with us. We’ve had such a wonderful turnout that we would like to keep this avenue of stories coming in for all to read. All approved stories will be featured on our Wine Making Blog and on our Facebook Wall.
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
Richard
Make approx 500 bottles a year, make a blended wine with merlot grapes and alligante grapes.
Name: richard landry
State: massachusetts
Very Successful Racking
About a year ago I was making my first batch of wine using the Adventures in Homebrewing wine making kit. Following the steps in the instructions I RACKED my wine after 10 days. The wine had reached it’s max alcohol content in just 10 days!!!! Thank you so much. I enjoyed the heck out of that batch!!
Name: David R Sinclair Sr
State: South Carolina
The Birth Of A Great Hobby
Christmas is also my birthday, so for the holidays and my birthday, in year 2000 I received a gift of some cash. I exchanged it for a wine start up kit, and a great hobby was born. My first wines were usually drinkable, but I had lots of questions and no one to share them with, so in 2003 I put up some posters around my town, Sun Prairie, WI. inviting interested parties to join a home wine making club. That first meeting there were 2 people and myself. Now out club, Prairie Home Vintners, has over 80 members. We meet monthly, have an annual club competition, have picnics in the summer and do a winery tour in the fall. I had no idea our club would grow to the size it is now. Meeting people with a similar passion has been the most rewarding.
Name: Rod Kazmerzak
State: Wisconsin
