Joy of Home Wine Making (52 page)

I’d like to thank all the other writers of winemaking and home-brewing books for all the work they have done over the years. I hope that I will have helped future winemakers and writers in my own peculiar way.

Most especially, I’d like to thank Charlie Papazian, whom I have never met, for his superb books, which gave me the courage to make my own beer, and which expanded my knowledge and horizons. No, I didn’t worry, and yes, I had a home brew! Thank you, sir!

I will now give you all a gentle shove and launch you out into the home winemaking world. Keep growing, keep fermenting, keep bubbling, read everything you can get your hands on about winemaking, and teach someone else how to make wine. Knowledge is a wonderful thing.

Like my grandmother said: Do the best you can and don’t worry.

Cheers, prost, salud, l’chaim, and here’s how!

APPENDIX A

WINEMAKING GUIDELINES AND CHEAT SHEETS

The quick references are for your convenience AFTER YOU’VE READ THE TEXT!! Don’t think that these are a substitute for knowing what you’re doing. It’s always a good idea to go back and reread once in a while.

QUICK REFERENCE: SANITIZING EQUIPMENT AND BOTTLES

• Use a proprietary sanitizer according to the manufacturer’s directions.
  
• OR use a solution of 12 mashed Campden tablets (sodium metabisulphite) dissolved in a quart of water.
  
• OR use a solution of 4 ozs. sodium metabisulphite crystals in 1 quart of water
  
• OR use 1½ teaspoons of household bleach in 5 gallons of water.
  

Remember:

• Heat destroys the above sanitizers.
  
• ALWAYS rinse anything soaked in bleach solution with hot water to remove the chlorine.
  
• It is OK to leave Campden tablets or sodium metabisulphite solutions unrinsed in equipment or bottles if you pour out the solution before using the equipment or bottles—
  unless you are sensitive to the chemical
  .
  
• NEVER mix sanitizers.
  

QUICK REFERENCE: WINEMAKING

• Gather your equipment.
  
• Sanitize your equipment.
  
• Prepare the ingredients and put them in the primary fermenter.
  
• Add the water and sugar or honey.
  
• Cover and fit with an air lock.
  
• Cool the must to tepid.
  
• Add chemicals. If you are using sodium metabisulphite (Campden tablet), wait 12 hours before adding the pectic enzyme, and another 24 hours before adding the yeast.
  
• Check the PA.
  
• Add the year, cover, and add an air lock.
  
• Stir daily.
  
• Check the PA in 5 to 7 days (remove fruit at some point).
  
• Rack into a sanitized secondary container and add an air lock.
  
• Rack once or twice in the following 2 to 8 months until fermentation is finished and wine is clear.
  
• Stabilize and sweeten if you like.
  
• Bottle or store in bunged jug or cask.
  

QUICK REFERENCE: RACKING

• Clean and sanitize all equipment.
  
• Check PA.
  
• Rack.
  
• Check all other air locks for good luck.
  
• Re-sanitize all equipment.
  
• Make notes about dates, conditions, ingredients, etc.
  

QUICK REFERENCE: BOTTLING

• Choose wines to bottle, checking PA and clarity.
  
• Clear area of any dust, cats, dogs, birds, children.
  
• Clean and sanitize all equipment and bottles.
  
• Stabilize and sweeten any wines that you want to.
  
• Lay down paper or plastic on surfaces.
  
• Drain bottles and line them up.
  
• Rack wine into bottles.
  
• Cork.
  
• Rinse outsides of bottles.
  
• Dry and label.
  
• Sanitize and clean all equipment.
  
• Store wine and equipment.
  

APPENDIX B

TROUBLESHOOTING: WHEN GOOD WINES GO BAD

Bad things can happen to wines. Most of the time, they don’t, but you’d better know the worst that can happen, I suppose.

Acetification:
This means vinegar! Acetification can happen for several reasons, but mostly it happens because you didn’t keep the vessel topped up and the air lock full. People used to blame this on the “vinegar” fly, which was probably a fruit fly. If you notice a faint vinegar smell, you might be able to head it off at the pass by adding a Campden tablet per gallon and checking it again in a day or so. Usually, however, the wine is doomed. Dump it or let it go and use it for salad vinegar. Don’t use it for canning unless you know for sure that it is 5 percent acid.

Insipid wine:
Insipidity is usually due to a lack of tannin. Add a small amount (
¹
/
₈
to ¼ teaspoon per gallon) and see if that helps.

Too much sweetness:
Easy to do at first. Too much sweetness comes from not measuring how much sugar you are adding, and not testing for PA in the first place. Use your hydrometer and keep track of what you add. You reduce sweetness by blending a too-sweet wine with one that is dry, of a similar or complementary ingredient. Be sure that the wine has stopped fermenting—you could have a stuck ferment (see below).

Funny smell:
A funny smell can be caused by inferior ingredients or by some kind of contamination of equipment, such as not rinsing the soap away completely. Sometimes you can get rid of a smell by fining or filtering (Fining and Filtering), sometimes not. If it smells really nasty send it down the drain.

Ropey wine:
Ropey wine looks as if egg whites got mixed into it. It is caused by a harmless lactic bacteria. Sometimes you can get rid of it by beating the wine, adding a couple of crushed Campden tablets, and filtering. Personally, I’ve never seen the stuff.

Flowers of wine:
Flowers of wine are little flecks of a yeast that will ruin the wine. Again, I’ve only heard of this, never seen it. Various sources suggest sulphiting and filtering.

Too much or too little acid:
Sometimes you can tell if a wine has too much or too little acid by the taste, other times you need to buy a test kit at the wine supply store to find out. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to test the wine. For too much acid, you can dilute the wine. For too little acid, you just add some.

Wine won’t clear:
Give it more time. Some wines take a long time to settle out, sometimes much longer than the actual fermentation. Rack a little more often. If the wine still refuses to clear, you can try adding pectic enzyme and keeping the wine warm for a few days (not above 85°). If this doesn’t work, and the wine smells good, you can try fining it with a fining agent (such as bentonite) and filtering it. This is a very rare occurrence; I would be very suspicious of the wine and get rid of it.

Stuck ferment:
A ferment gets stuck when the wine stops fermenting but still has a lot of sugar in it. Check the temperature of the area—it might be too cold for the yeast. If this is not the case, try adding some more yeast nutrient and stirring the wine very gently. Occasionally a nitrogen deficiency is the cause. One to two tablets of diammonium phosphate will help; so will a quarter teaspoon of Marmite. If nothing helps, you should discard the wine and start over again.

APPENDIX C

GLOSSARY

Acetic acid:
The acid that makes vinegar taste sour. You don’t want any of it in your wine!

Acid blend:
Generic name for a combination of acids used in winemaking—usually citric, tartaric, and malic acids. (No ’60s jokes, please.)

Acidity:
The amount of acid that is present in a wine or a fruit.

Aerobic fermentation:
Fermentation in the presence of air, usually called the primary fermentation. It has nothing to do with Jane Fonda.

Age:
After the fermentations are done, the wine is put aside in bulk or in bottles to age. During this time, chemical changes occur that, up to a point, improve the wine.

Air lock:
A.k.a. fermentation lock, a device that lets gases out of the fermenter but does not allow air or anything else back in.

Amelioration:
Adding water, sugar, and chemicals to the must in order to make a better wine. Commercially, this is very strictly regulated.

Anaerobic fermentation:
Secondary fermentation, or fermentation without the presence of air (or very little).

Aperitif:
A wine made for perking up the appetite or for enjoying at times other than meals.

Aroma:
The fragrance that arises from the fruit or herbs used in a wine.

Astringency:
The slight “dry tongue” feeling that tannin gives a wine, creating a dry sensation on the tongue and palate.

Balling:
A scale to show how much sugar is present in must. Interchangeable with Brix.

Bentonite:
An inorganic fining or clarifying agent made from diatomaceous earth.

Blending:
Putting two or more wines together to achieve a more balanced wine.

Body:
Thickness of the liquid wine in the mouth.

Bouquet:
The scent of the wine when you open the bottle. Bouquet of roses and vanilla is OK; bouquet of cat box is not.

Brix:
See Balling.

Calcium carbonate:
Food-grade chalk used to counter over-acid wines. Two teaspoons per gallon will reduce the acidity by 0.1 percent-0.15 percent. Use no more than six teaspoons per gallon.

Campden tablets:
Metabisulphite in half-gram tablet form, invented by the Campden foundation in England.

Capsules:
Plastic or metal coverings to put over the upper part of the bottle after it has been corked.

Carbon dioxide (CO
₂
):
The gas produced as a by-product of fermentation. You want it to go away.

Carboy:
A glass jug, anywhere from one to fourteen gallons, but most commonly five gallons, used as a secondary fermenter.

Cellar:
Wherever you decide to put your finished wine (besides your stomach), but traditionally a cool underground chamber, usually under a house.

Chateau bottled:
Bottled at the house or place where the wine was made. Most of your wine will be chateau bottled. Chapeau bottled would be bottled in a hat, very different.

Citric acid:
The acid most commonly present in citrus fruits, used to acidify and help preserve wines.

Clarify:
The process of letting the wine “settle,” or clear itself of minute bits of dead yeast, etc.

Concentrate:
Grape or fruit juice that has had much of the water removed so it doesn’t take up so much space.

Country wines:
A term used by some people to mean wines that are not made of grape juice. It is one of the more polite terms.

Cuvée:
A blend of old and new wines for champagne production. Pronounced .

Decant:
Remove the wine from the sediment in the bottle into a clean container for presentation at table.

Dessert wine:
A sweet wine served for or with dessert.

Diammonium phosphate:
A source of nitrogen for stuck ferments.

Disgorging:
The process of removing the sediment from a bottle of champagne before it is charged with the dosage. With small children and cats this word has a very different meaning.

Dry:
A wine that has fermented out, meaning the sugar has been completely used up to make alcohol.

Fermentation:
The process by which yeast changes the must or juice into wine. Sugar, oxygen, and yeast create alcohol, carbon dioxide, and energy in the form of heat. Wine is fermented, beer is brewed.

Fermentation lock:
See Air lock.

Fermenter:
Vessel in which fermentation takes place, preferably one in which you meant it to happen.

Filtration:
Filtering a finished wine to remove finings and/or impurities. A process that helps stabilize the wine as well as clarify it further.

Fining:
The addition of fine particles of organic or inorganic matter to help clarify the wine. The finings attract impurities and sink to the bottom of the fermenter. The wine is then racked off the finings.

Fortification:
Adding alcohol to a wine to make it stronger in alcohol and to stop the possibility of more fermentation. Sherries, Madeira, and ports are fortified wines.

Glycerin:
A substance used to give body and some sweetness to a wine.

Hydrometer:
A simple device that is made of glass and floats in a must or wine to measure the density, or specific gravity, or potential alcohol in a wine.

Lees:
The small dead bodies of the noble yeasts that have worked so hard to produce your wine. They form a sediment on the bottom of the fermenting vessel (and under a microscope can be shown to have smiles on their faces).