Make Your Own Red Wine
Taste in wine is obviously a personal thing. My favorite is red. There are more than one type of red available, but most are made using the same methods. Red wine is made from black grapes and it’s color comes from the skins of the grapes.
During the early stages of making your own red wine, the grapes will be put into a crusher. During the crushing process the stalks will either be used or picked out and discarded. The type of wine being made and the amount of tannin required will determine this. After this the grape mixture (skins included)is put into fermentation vats. This process will last for several weeks. If the temperature is higher more tannin and color will be extracted from the grapes.
If you are making a softer wine, the whole grapes are put into sealed vats to ferment. The carbon dioxide trapped inside of the sealed vat ferments the grapes. The longer this process takes, the more flavor and color your wine will have.
The remaining grapes will be run through a press. They will be crushed to make a tannic wine. You may want to consider adding some of this to the free run red wine to add structure to the wine. Both the press and vat wine are then mixed and transferred to either tanks or barrels for a second fermentation. The second fermentation will take the longest, but it brings out the quality and taste from the wine.
Now is the time that you will find out what patience is. All types of red wine that you make will spend a minimum of one year in the barrels. Certain types of red wine could spend several years in the barrels. Red wine can be fine tuned with egg whites, which will suspend the yeast and other solids found in the wine downwards, before the wine is racked, filtered, and eventually bottled. Now your wine is ready to enjoy, but remember that the longer it sits, the better it will be. So you would be wise to make more than you actually plan on drinking.
The time that your wine spends in the bottle is important for some types of wines. The more complex and expensive wines will benefit the most from the extra time in the bottle. The simpler wines can be enjoyed right away.
Are you ready to make your own red wine! Just remeber that patience is a virtue. And the time that you spend planning and waiting will have great rewards!
