We have 2 small vineyards and this year will be a good year for us....would like to get started - any tips out there?

edit: all muscadine grapes.

Have you made wine before? What will you be fermenting in?

There are a lot of important parts, especially fermenting at scale like that. What type of grapes? What yeast are you going to use? Are you going to age it in barrels or use chips?

If you've never fermented at all, I'd recommend doing several smaller batches first.

Get some decent starter equipment. Some good lititure or internet help. Clean and sanitize like a madman. You will have fun if your into this kinda stuff.

sounds like I need to take a course on this as I really have no answers for those questions.

How big of a setup are we talking?  How many gallons of juice do you expect to get?

I'd say5 to 10 gallons to start simple/small.

6 gallons is the most common homebrew batch size.

This is by no means meant to be a step by step guide, but to give you an idea what you're getting into, this is roughly the process:

- Collect grapes and remove non-grapes
- Press
- Add sulfite to kill any wild yeast from the grape skins
- Allow sulfur to evaporate
- Add yeast and optionally yeast nutrient
- Allow to ferment to completion (3+ days of the same gravity reading) - generally around a month
- Optionally degas
- Rack (transfer) the liquid to a secondary fermenter or barrel. Optionally add wood chips.
- Let condition anywhere from a month to a few years
- Degas
- Bottle
- Condition (0 days to years)
- Drink!

Degasing can be done with a large spoon (takes hours, sucks, and doesn't work very well), a wine wand and a drill (works, but can still take up to an hour), or a vacuum pump (probably not for your first few fermentations unless you already have one sitting around). If you don't do this step, your wine will be fizzy (lightly carbonated) and bad.

Sanitation is by far the most important aspects, followed by sanitation, followed by temperature control.

I don't mean to discourage you from trying by any stretch - I would LOVE to be able to make wine from grapes I grew - just know that there are a lot of components and some care and forethought is necessary. Winemaking Talk is the arfcom of wine making. Homebrew Talk is the arfcom of beer making.

Here is the recipe that we recommend to our customers (I work for a homebrew store). Everyone is really pleased with the way this turns out. http://www.barleynvine.com/muwire.html

Couple things to consider.
1) Your fruit will start being ready to pick late August to late October. The longer the fruit can stay on the vine without wrinkling, the better. It stores more sugars in the fruit.

2) You can pick the ripe fruit at different times and freeze until you get the amount of fruit required. In fact. freezing will help with the juice as freezing the fruit and then thawing will rupture the cells inside releasing more juice and flavor.

3) Do not be in a hurry to get your batch done. After the first week, pull your fruit out and squeeze all the remaining juice from the skins. Discard the skins and stir your fermenting must to help degass. Allow to continue to ferment for about another week. All depends on what your hydrometer tells you. This is the only way to tell if fermentation is completed. Allow your wine to finish out dry (hydromerter reading of 0.999-0.990). You can then transfer to a clean and sanitized carboy and allow to bulk age. You will transfer a few times within this time frame to leave all sediment behind.

4) Usually in the early spring time is when we recommend to bottle. This has allowed the wine time to clear and degass naturally. Then you can start drinking it in the summer time.

5) Do yourself a favor and keep back a few bottles and open one or two every year, up to 5 years. You will see this wine continue to improve with age. Muscadine and scuppernog wines really come into themselves at the 4-5 year mark. This come from a veteran winemaker with over 25 years experience (not me, but one of our older customers).

Good luck and let me know if I can help any more.

GlockSpeed31

You can find the info all online if you are dillegent. Just make sure you understand what you are doing and especially have the sanitation side of things locked down. I messed around with this for a while and it took a few batches before I realized that the tiniest of sanitation errors can destroy a whole batch.

Hey Ford Guy --

All of the above are correct.  But I've been making wine at home in small batches for over 25 years, I can probably give you some shorthand.  Feel free to PM me.

I've used all kinds of crude and improvised methods and equipment.  Most work.  Some not so well.

 If you are starting from grapes-off-the-vine then you will need to de-stem them either manually or mechanically and/or crush them with a a 4x4 in a garbage can ~~~ or find access to a crusher-destemmer.  After that it's all downhill.  Find some CLEAN plastic garbage cans for your open ferment phase, some 5 or 6 gal jugs, some tubing and fermentation traps.  You will need a few Campden tables, some sugar, and good wine yeast.   I really like Lalvan KV1116 or EC1118 for general use.  D47 is ok for fruity grapes also.    Avoid Montrachet, Champagne yeast in general.

Both patience and cleanliness are virtues.  But stay away from chlorine as a rinse, in general.

Oh BTW you must taste-test when you rack or test wine…..bring a brick of cheese and a friend!

Cheers,
R
[email protected]

red or white muscadine?