What is the best recipe for making wine?
Like any other food or drink, wine also has a host of recipes to choose from. Deciding which recipe to choose for your winemaking endeavor will depend entirely on your personal preferences.
If your palette leans more towards very dry and full-bodied wines, you should probably look for a recipe that combines Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or a Syrah grape variety.
A freshly resurrected grape, which has a very pleasant and full-bodied flavor, is the Carmenere. This variety of grape makes it a very dry wine, perfect to pair with rich red meats and other fatty foods. This grape is one that you will want to save for the Christmas season to accompany the many traditional and heavy meals served during this time of year. If this variety of grape is of interest to you, the largest selection of Carmenera producers is in Chile.
Red wines are not to everyone’s liking. If this is the case for you, there are many great white wine recipes to choose from. Whether sweet or dry, there is a variety of grapes to satisfy even the most particular pallet. While Chardonnay is probably the best known and most consumed white wine in North America, there are many others that are less well known, but much more interesting.
For example, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the oh so sweet and so perfect to drink on a warm summer afternoon, Gewurtzraminer. Hailing from Alsace, the French province currently best known for being thrown between the French and German border during the 2 great wars, this wine is never bought cheaply, but it is worth the price. So making your own will pay off exponentially.
However, winemaking is not just limited to choosing between white or green grapes, everything from apples, peaches, black berries, raspberries, strawberries, honey, and even sweet potatoes can be used to make wine. So once you’ve decided which flavors you prefer, getting started can be as easy as buying a winemaking kit online or at a craft store.
The kit will consist of a thermometer, a hydrometer to measure static gravity, a primary fermenter, and a secondary fermenter, also called a carafe. A glass carafe is recommended for a better quality product, but a five-gallon water bottle can be used. You will need yeast specially designed for brewing, called brewer’s yeast. The wrong amount of yeast could cause your fermenter to explode and you definitely don’t want that to happen.
If you have a starter pack, mix it in your main fermenter. Otherwise, mix about 5 pounds of sugar with the finely chopped fruit or pulp. Mix all this well. Do not add yeast at this time. Add water until you have a full five gallons, cover with cheesecloth, and let it sit for about twenty-four hours. After that, you will sprinkle the yeast on top. Do not mix it. Cover with gauze one more time and let it sit for seven days. The fermentation process should begin within twenty-four hours, after seven days it will divert the wine mixture into the secondary cylinder. Leave as much sediment as possible. Fill the container to the five gallon mark; Let ferment for four to six weeks, until the wine clears. Aspirate the wine again leaving all sediment behind.
You can use a coffee filter to strain the wine. Your wine is now ready to be bottled and corked. Always make sure that both your bottles and your winemaking equipment are completely clean. This is very important for a quality product. Put your bottles in a cool, dark place and let them sit for a few weeks. In most cases, the longer it stays, the better the product.