Grape wine is the oldest and noblest drink. Properly prepared and consumed in certain doses, it performs medicinal functions, heals our body, rejuvenates, fills with strength and energy, removes free radicals and toxins. Wine helps with bronchitis and pneumonia, tuberculosis and many other serious ailments. Therefore, it is not only possible to drink it, but it is necessary - in this, the conclusion of doctors is unambiguous.

Homemade wine

Naturally, it's easier than ever to go to the store and buy your favorite bottle of red, pink or white. However, the best drink is considered to be prepared with your own hands. So we will tell you how to do it. Where does the process begin, what stages does it go through? What are the best varieties to use for the production of the drink? How to make it, what container to take for fermentation and how to store the finished product? In short, you will learn in sufficient detail how to do it. The main thing is to follow the recommendations exactly, and everything will turn out great for you!

Choosing grapes

We note right away: there are no special restrictions in the selection of varieties of berries for the production of a drink. This means that what kind of vine grows with you, from such it and harvest it. But if you follow the advice of professionals on how to make wine from grapes, then juice from Isabella, Kapshun, Muscat, Lydia, Aligote, Buzoika, Moldova and other southern varieties is better suited. The main thing is that the grapes are well ripe, ripe and sweet. Collect the bunches before frost and rain, so that they are dry, and the berries do not gain excess moisture and do not lose their sweetness. In addition, wasps and birds can spoil them. Here are some simple starting tips on how to make wine from grapes!

Recipe number 1 (for a small amount of grapes)

There are several technologies for preparing a drink. Much depends on the amount of raw material and its grade. Usually it is recommended to do it with additional sugar and natural yeast sourdough. The process should begin with the preparation of the grapes. Sort the brushes carefully, remove debris, leaves, remove damaged elements, etc.

Ideally, all berries are best removed from the bunches. But, of course, this process is laborious and painstaking. Especially if you have more than a dozen kilograms of grapes. If you use a special crusher-press, pass the selected berries through it. Alternatively, grind with a mashed potato pusher. Or you can use the famous method of the hero of the movie "The Taming of the Shrew" with Celentano in the title role and suppress it with your feet, but to the music.

When the berries have turned into a puree, you can start making homemade wine from the grapes. Recipes advise to transfer the mass to glass or enamel dishes and heat to 60 degrees (use a thermometer so as not to overheat, otherwise the taste of the wine will not be the same). Then let the puree cool, squeeze thoroughly through cheesecloth to get pure juice. If it seems sour, pour in the sugar syrup (100 grams of sugar in half a liter of water), stir and add the leaven. How to make wine from grapes further: put the container with juice in a warm place to ferment the product for about 2 months. Try again, add sugar, if necessary, stir to dissolve completely. Pour carefully so that the sediment remains at the bottom, the finished wine into bottles, store it in a cool place. How to make wine from grapes according to the second recipe - read on.

Homemade grape wine - recipe number 2

Sort the harvested crop, separate the berries from the branches. Place them in a deep bowl. Using a wooden or porcelain pestle, crush the fruits into a homogeneous mass. You don't have to choose the bones. How to make wine from grapes based on berry puree: sprinkle it with sugar and put it in a dark and cool place for a week to ferment. Cover the container with a linen cloth. After the specified time, strain the wine through several layers of gauze, pack it in bottles and store in the cellar. Serve it with meat dishes. According to this recipe, it is good to make homemade wine from dark grapes.

Along the way, take note of one more tip. In the room intended for the production of wine, there should be no pungent, extraneous odors: they are actively absorbed by the future drink. In general, the ideal container for making and storing wine is oak barrels, enameled pots and buckets, glass bottles.

Sharing secrets

The first secret: why wine made from grapes (making at home) turns out to be more tasty if you separate the berries from the branches? Firstly, in this way you can carefully sort out the raw materials, remove blooming, overripe, spoiled berries. This means that you get a preliminary guarantee that the final product - a noble drink - will not spoil either.

Secondly, if the berries are crushed together with the twigs, then the wine will be bitter and too tart. Those. is nowhere near the high quality you expect. Thirdly, how to prepare wine from grapes so that it turns out to be excellent? Prepared berries should be immediately used for juice. After all, the fermentation process begins in the plucked fruits quickly enough. And it is impossible for him to find the grapes whole. This should be done either with a press or manually. You can also use a juicer, but this is not the best option. For 4-5 days, let the juice stand in a warm place along with the pomace, so that it "plays out", infused. Then filter, bottle and ferment. This completes the first stage of making wine.

So that the juice ferments correctly

If you do not have oak barrels, you can ferment the drink in glass bottles with a volume of 5-10 liters. Fill them about two thirds full. There must be free space in the vessels for the emitted carbon dioxide. When the bottles are full, they must be sealed tightly. And to avoid air ingress, fill the edges of the plugs with sealing wax, cover up with plasticine or dough. Just be sure to make holes in them and insert flexible tubes (for example, from droppers) through which the gas will go out. Dip the free end of the tube into a bowl or cup of water. Another option, how a simple wine is made from grapes, is to put on or ordinary balls on the necks of the bottles. Just remember to pierce them with a thick pin!

When juice turns to wine

The next - the second - stage of the transformation of grape juice into a drink of the gods - fermentation. It takes from one and a half to 2-3 months. Containers with liquid should be placed in a cool place, such as a cellar. The temperature there should be no higher than 5 degrees. You should often observe how actively carbon dioxide comes out of the bottles. Vessels, where the tubes are lowered, periodically wash, change the water. If the gas comes out poorly, check the tightness of the plugs. Otherwise, air will get into the wine, and it will be reborn into vinegar. Usually, in home winemaking, the production of the drink begins in late September - October. Therefore, it will be completely ready for the New Year's celebrations!

The final stage

When the wine in bottles stops playing, it looks clean and transparent, and the sediment settles to the bottom, it can be filtered again, poured into plastic bottles and drunk at the festive table. Its strength is about 5 degrees, according to its taste it corresponds to dry. However, if you like sweeter drinks, the resulting product should be "refined". To do this, pour all or part of the wine (only without sediment) into one container. Then add 150 g of sugar for each liter of liquid (less can be done, depending on your taste). Dissolve it completely, rinse well those bottles in which the wine was before, and again pour, seal and leave to "play out". The process will end in a month, when bubbles stop settling on the walls of the cans. The strength of the drink is 10-13 degrees. Bottle, store cool and drink to your health.

Homemade grape wine has always enjoyed considerable popularity at any table, so every winemaker, even a beginner, is happy to try to create wines according to various recipes, including the classic version - from grapes.

Here is a recipe for an excellent grape wine: step by step and simply at home (with a photo and instructions).

Choosing the right crop for your wine

To make grape wine (and not only homemade wine) really tasty and aromatic, it is necessary to use exclusively high-quality and, most importantly, the right product - wine varieties to create it.

Berries of these varieties are characterized by their small size and density of arrangement on a bunch. Below are some valuable tips from experienced winemakers regarding the selection and preparation of wine materials:

Advice. The grapes harvested for making wine should not be washed, because the white bloom that forms on it is nothing more than wine yeast. It is possible to rinse or even wash the grapes only when a starter culture with high-quality wine yeast is used.

The harvested grapes should be separated from the ridges, sorted out, removing all unsuitable, including dried and moldy berries. After preliminary selection, the berries are poured in small batches into a deep container and crushed. You can use a regular potato crush or meat grinder. The berries should be crushed very carefully so that each of them gives off all its juice.

Wine making process

Making quality wine is a fairly simple process if you strictly follow all stages of the recipe. The following is a step-by-step process for making wine.

Fermentation of the pulp

The finished pulp or crushed berries, previously separated from the combs, are poured into a suitable container and tightly covered with a cotton cloth. Keep in mind that the container should only be 2/3 full of wine material.

The container with the pulp is installed in a room with a strict temperature regime, ranging from 18 to 23 degrees. If the temperature is above the second mark, the mash may ferment too intensely, which will turn it into vinegar as a result. If the temperature is below the first mark, the fermentation process may proceed too slowly or even not start at all.

So, after a few days, the fermentation process will begin and the must (juice, which is, in fact, young grape wine), will begin to separate from the pulp. The pulp and wort should be thoroughly mixed every day, otherwise the first will simply turn sour and the taste of the not yet finished product will be spoiled.

Preparation of grape must

After 5-7 days after the start of fermentation, the pulp should be carefully squeezed out, thus separating the wort from it. The first squeezing is carried out through a colander, the second - through several layers of gauze. The purified wort must be good. To do this, it is poured into a clean container (it should be filled only 3/4) and tightly closed with a stopper with a tube.

Attention! Experienced winemakers believe that separating the mash from the wort is an erroneous action, which will further deprive the finished product of its valuable deep aroma and delicate aftertaste.

If you want to leave the pulp, do not squeeze it out to separate the wort: just pour the entire product into a new container and close it with a lid with a straw. The tube will serve as a kind of protection from oxygen: one end of it must be lowered into a container of water, the other into wine.

At this stage, it is important to control the strength and sweetness of the wine, which depend, first of all, on the fructose content in the product. You can adjust this indicator by adding a certain amount of sugar. In our area, mainly varieties with a low fructose content grow, respectively, if sugar is not added during the preparation of wine, it will turn out to be dry.

The dosage of sugar is usually taken as follows: about 1 tbsp. for 1 liter of semi-finished product. Sugar is added as follows: it is necessary to pour out a little wort, heat it up and pour sugar into it, stirring the mass until the latter dissolves completely. After that, pour the resulting sweet composition back into the container with wine.

Semi-finished wine plugging

At this stage, you should separate all the sediment from the finished wort (for this you just need to drain the wine through a straw, carefully lowering the container with water below the container with wine). Be sure to check the product for the amount of sugar: if you like dry grape wine, then sugar is not needed. Otherwise, be sure to add it to the wine and stir thoroughly.

All that remains is to pour the grape wine into a dark glass bottle and seal it loosely (this is necessary in order for the remaining carbon dioxide contained in the wine to find a "way out").

Sterilization of the product

This is the last but not the least important step in making homemade wine. Some winemakers believe that this process should proceed in a natural way: the wine must be left in a dark, cool place for several months (2-3) before the fermentation process stops, having previously installed a water seal on each bottle. During this period, the wine should be drained at least several times, removing the sediment.

There is another way to sterilize wine - compulsory. It is necessary to loosely close the wine bottles, wrap them with a cloth and place them in a container filled with water. A thermometer should be placed in one of the bottles and the product should be sterilized until its temperature rises to 60 degrees. After that, all yeast will die and the fermentation process will completely stop. Remnants of carbon dioxide will also leave through a loosely closed plug.

After that, you can tightly seal the bottles and send them to a cool dry place. A product that has gone through all the preparatory stages correctly will be able to gain all that wonderful aroma and depth of taste for which many people love grape wine so much. Good luck!

Connoisseurs rightfully call this drink “the nectar of the Gods”. It is impossible not to fall in love with its heady aroma, rich flavor bouquet and delicious aftertaste! Of course, we are talking about wine.

Delicate table, sweet Muscat, intoxicating fortified and even homemade blue grape wine is always and everywhere considered the most popular drink. Not a single feast, be it a romantic dinner or a luxurious wedding, is complete without this delicious alcoholic product.

We offer you to plunge into the world of wine, and at the same time learn how to make wine from blue grapes at home.

Secret and blessed

The history of the emergence of wine is shrouded in unsolved mysteries. Nobody knows for certain where the first wine was made and how long ago it happened. Around this topic, heated debates continue to this day.

Scientists claim that many thousands of years before our era, our distant ancestors drank grape juice fermented in the sun.

Theologians, however, assure that the first wine was made from grapes that God gave to Noah. There are many references to this drink in the Bible. According to the Holy Scriptures, Jesus Christ loved wine, so the Christian ban on drinking alcoholic beverages does not apply to wine. The clergy use the famous church wine "Cahors" for communion, weddings and baptisms and claim that this is for the good.

Be that as it may, wine is loved and drunk in all ages. Even during the adoption of Prohibition in the era of the USSR, craftsmen did it with their own hands and used it both for their home holidays and for clandestine sale.

Impressive variety

Making grape wine is a very lucrative business. Wine is perhaps the only alcoholic beverage available in a wide variety of flavors and recipes. Its taste changes depending on the aging method and how much sugar the producers added to the grape wine. Even the material from which the container for fermenting grape juice is made affects the aroma and taste.

Curious facts about wine

True connoisseurs and collectors of wine can spend hours with maniacal enthusiasm telling stories about this drink. There is even the science of oenology, which is studying this product.

Wine by strength is: dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet, dessert, liqueur, fortified. By taste, it can be: table, vintage, collection. The color of the wine also pleases with its variety and can be: white, amber, pink, red, ruby \u200b\u200band even black.

Separately, it is worth noting homemade grape wine. How do I make it? Read on!

Home winemaking

In order to taste delicious wine, it is not at all necessary to run for it to the supermarket and spend hours studying the labels on the bottles - you can make grape wine with your own hands, taking into account individual taste preferences.

Do not be afraid to try yourself as a winemaker! Making grape wine is not a very difficult and exciting process, which has great chances to turn into a hobby.

The first thing to do is make a list of the ingredients and tools you need. The second stage is to decide what kind of drink you want to get. Beginners are advised to start making wine from blue grapes - this is the most successful option at home.

All About Blue Wine Grapes

The simplest, but nevertheless amazingly tasty and aromatic wine made from blue grapes. At home, it is prepared most often due to the availability and cheapness of this variety of berries.

The best varieties of such grapes are Livadian Black and Dove. These are unpretentious, low-maintenance species that can be found in almost every summer cottage. Wine grapes ripen in early autumn, and then the fences of neighboring household plots and stalls in the markets are simply bursting with the abundance of these berries.

Blue grapes contain a huge amount of vitamins and other nutrients. Each berry contains 50-80% juice saturated with pectin, natural sugar, vitamins A, C, E, PP, H, B, as well as macro- and microelements such as magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, chlorine, phosphorus, iron, zinc, chromium, copper, manganese, iodine, molybdenum, fluorine, silicon, boron and others.

Interestingly, homemade blue grape wine does not detract from all its useful properties and can be not only an alcoholic drink, but to some extent a vitamin cocktail.

Getting started with winemaking

Before you start making blue grape wine at home, you need to make sure you have everything you need:

• blue grapes - 10 kg;
• granulated sugar - 3 kg;
• stainless container for 30 liters;
• a pair of glass bottles, 20 l each;
• medical gloves;
• gauze;
• colander;
• a tube 2 m long and 1 cm in diameter;

Stage one, preparatory

So, we begin to make wine from blue grapes, the recipe for which
described in below and for convenience is divided into several stages.

1. The first step is to collect ripe grapes. You need to collect it directly from the branches, without tearing the berries themselves. Then we separate them from the bunches and put them in a stainless container. It is impossible to wash the grapes, because it is in the skin of the berries that the substance is located, thanks to which the fermentation process takes place.
2. After that, you need to crush the berries with your hands until a large amount of juice is released. It is recommended to immediately wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, as the juice can stain the skin and cause a burning sensation and itching.
3. Then carefully cover the container with the transferred berries with gauze and leave to ferment in a warm room for 5 days.

Stage two, the most important

After 5 days, if everything was done correctly, the pulp should rise in the container. This is what is left of the berries after squeezing the juice.

1. Everything needs to be filtered through a colander, then the pulp should be thrown onto cheesecloth and squeezed out of the remaining juice.
2. The purified grape juice must be carefully poured into bottles and added equal portions of sugar. It is important to stir it very thoroughly.

Stage three, final

It should be borne in mind that sugar does not dissolve too quickly, so be patient.

Most likely, guests will appreciate your homemade grape wine. How to make it and what is needed for this - a newly-made winemaker will gladly tell them.

Variations on the theme of wine

In addition to the traditional method of preparation, it exists with water, which is slightly different from the usual one, but the wine turns out to be just as tasty. To make such a drink, you need to calculate the measures of water and sugar in relation to the grape juice. For 1 kg of berries you need 1.5 liters of water and 0.7 kg of sugar.

1. After squeezing the grapes into the mixture of juice and pulp, add the required amount of water and sugar and mix well.
2. Leave to ferment for a week, stirring 3-4 times daily to prevent mold.
3. Then the juice should be filtered and poured into bottles. A medical glove with punctures on the fingers is put on the neck of the bottle, and then everything is the same as in the traditional recipe for making wine.

Home Winemaking Secrets

In order for the wine to turn out the first time, the process does not become tedious, and the result does not bring disappointment, it is worth familiarizing yourself with some secrets that will be very useful for a novice winemaker.

• Juice can be obtained not only by squeezing by hand, but also using a juicer.
• Instead of bottles, you can use ordinary three-liter cans.
• In the absence of a medical glove, a condom will do.
• The sweetness and strength of the wine depends on the amount of sugar, so less sugar is needed for dry wine, and more for fortified wine.
• To keep the wine longer, it is best to fill it in glass bottles rather than plastic ones.
• The best place to go is a basement or cellar.
• To make the wine crystal clear, before pouring it into bottles, it is recommended to dip specially prepared bentonite into the container.

Most likely, the first wine production will be followed by the second, and the third, and the fourth. Gradually, this process will become a kind of annual sacrament. A few years later, a lot of homemade wines will be invented. In addition to blue grapes, varieties such as Lydia, Isabella, Nastya, Kesha can be used for production.

Besides, wine can be made not only from grapes! A unique alcoholic drink can be obtained from aromatic raspberries, sweet blackberries, ripe apples, juicy currants, tender plums. The scope for imagination and experimentation is huge.

Homemade wine is so tasty and healthy that once you have tasted it, you will never again want to buy a similar one in the store. Naturalness, a huge amount of useful substances, divine aroma and taste will fall in love with you once and for all ...

The assortment of wine products is quite rich. But special attention of its consumers deserves a wine made from white grapes - a light drink with a pleasant smell and delicate taste. Depending on the amount of added sugar, the product turns out to be dry, semi-dry or dessert.

People who are far from professional winemaking think that white wine can only be made from grapes with light-skinned berries. However, it is not. Varieties with dark and pink fruits are also suitable for the production of white wine. The main conditions for raw materials are its juiciness, moderate acidity and sufficient sugar content. The juice squeezed out of colored grapes should be light.

White wine differs from its red "congeners" by the production technology: it ferments in its own juice and is not saturated with natural dyes. Coloring substances are contained in the skins of berries and do not color the juice.

You can make white wine from fresh grape juice. It should not be diluted with water and sweetened with sugar. We will master several recipes for wine from white grape varieties, the preparation of which is available at home.

How to make grape juice for white wine

White grapes are harvested overripe. Such raw materials impart a soft taste, pleasant aroma and strength of real alcohol to the drink. But residents of hot regions must harvest in a slightly unripe form in order for the berries to provide the product with the listed qualities. Bunches are plucked in sunny weather or a few days after rain. The moisture washes away the wild yeast, so it is necessary to wait for the emergence of new strains that start the fermentation process.

The juice for white grape wine is obtained as follows:

• The fruits are removed from the brushes and sorted, throwing out the rotten and spoiled by insects raw materials.
• Unwashed, the berries are pounded with a wide wooden rolling pin.
• The bones are not removed or crushed.

The resulting juice is a wort. 1 kg of grapes gives about 650 - 750 ml of juice (the amount depends on the quality of the berries and the variety of the plant). If the owner wishes to add sugar to it, the amount of sweetness should not exceed 27% of the total wort volume.

White grape wine on juice

This wine recipe is considered a classic. It does not require additional ingredients. The main raw material will be Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Aligote or other technical grapes. Strong-smelling nutmegs are not suitable for the production of table wines.

It is generally accepted that exquisite white grape wine at home is obtained only from the juice that has expired on its own without human intervention. It is better not to squeeze the pulp, since it makes a good secondary wine. Fresh juice must be kept in a glass or enamel container for 6 - 12 hours so that a suspension of the smallest particles precipitates. The settled liquid is drained using a siphon or a thin hose. Fill a clean fermentation bottle 2/3 full.

To improve the quality of the drink and protect against diseases, sulfur dioxide is added to the wort. The proportion is 0.5 - 1 g of substance per 10 liters of juice. Sulfitation is carried out at will, because at home the volume of alcohol production is often insignificant.

Fermentation of white grape wine should take place at room temperature without changing conditions. The container is closed with a water seal and the fermentation process is monitored. If the wort does not ferment, it is important to prevent it from souring. To do this, throw a little raisins into the bottle or add a special leaven.

Natural sugar wild yeast is processed in 1.5 - 2 months and gives initially dry house wine. If you need a white semi-sweet drink, fermentation is interrupted forcibly by raising / lowering the temperature of the wort or carrying out sulfitation.

Young wine is removed from the yeast and taken to a cool room with an air temperature of 5 - 10 ° C. The remaining yeast will settle in 1 to 2 weeks. The product is again removed from the sediment and poured into another container. When stored in a dark, cool cellar, the wine will become lighter due to the accumulation of sediment. During the year, it must be periodically drained from the thickets. Troubled, but the wine will turn out transparent, aromatic and flawlessly tasty.

With sugar

Let's look at the steps involved in making white grape wine with added sugar. There will be no other ingredients in the drink. If you need a large batch of alcohol, start from the initial proportion of 5 kg of berries to 1.5 kg of granulated sugar.

Recipe for making wine from white grapes and sugar:

Ice white grape wine

Recently, the Eiswein dessert wine, which ordinary people call "ice", has been in great demand. The drink differs from other white wines in its rich aroma and soft light taste. The technology of its preparation does not coincide with the classic recipes, but it is quite possible to make a fashionable ice wine with your own hands.

Ingredients:

Winemaking begins with freezing berries in a freezer, where they lie for 1 day. Under the influence of low temperatures, raw materials acquire other qualities that make the future wine unique.

On the second day, the fruits are laid out in a bowl, kneaded and squeezed out. Further, the general principles of winemaking are observed. Sugar is added to wine at the final stage of production, when the drink is filtered and ready to be bottled for storage.

White grape wines are stored in dark, cold rooms with high air humidity and good ventilation. In such conditions, the corks do not dry out and do not oxidize from contact with alcohol.

It is advisable to drink dry wine in the first two months after maturation. Experts advise strong white wines to mature for up to 12 - 15 years. An important condition for the preservation of the qualities of the hop is the horizontal arrangement of the bottles.