Wine made from blue grapes at home is an extremely interesting process, which results in an excellent tasting alcoholic beverage. Unlike purchased, self-prepared beverage will not contain preservatives and chemical additives. The raw material is the usual blue grapes, even beginners can easily make a fine wine out of it.
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How to choose the right grape variety for wine
To prepare homemade wine, you do not need to stock up with expensive raw materials, it is enough to have a regular small blue grapes. Typically, summer residents ripen in the fall a rich crop, which is used exclusively for the preparation of juice or wine.
You can take any variety, but its taste and aroma will depend on it. To get a bright and rich wine bouquet - it is better to use blue varieties, they will provide rich taste and pleasant aftertaste.
Popular grape varieties to pay attention to:
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Isabella blue
- Regent
- Pinot noir
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- Isabella blue - the most suitable variety
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- Cabernet Sauvignon
Most unpretentious on leaving - an arbor grade Isabella. You can grow it on the summer cottage of chubukov or purchased seedlings. This grape gives a good harvest. Collection is carried out in late autumn.
Regarding the Regent variety, it makes excellent vintage wines. Experienced growers Pinot Noir is considered extremely sensitive in terms of care and planting conditions. However, it turns out sometimes unpredictable, light, with a rich fruity aroma, drinks.
Features of the vintage
- The best time to collect raw materials is late fallthis applies to late varieties, early ones are harvested as they mature.
- The maximum sugar concentration is reached if the grapes are “touched” by frost. Therefore, many gardeners collect it after the first frost.
- Collect exclusively ripe, uncorrupted raw materialsif there are signs of disease, it will spoil the taste.
- It is not recommended to harvest in the early morning, when there was dew and after rain, as moisture will wash away the wine yeast.
For the rest, there are no special recommendations, collect the clusters in boxes, after which they are engaged in further processing.
How to make homemade wine
Plucked clusters can not wash, water will wash away the bloom from the berries, they will wander worse. Experienced winemakers have this process well established, they have the necessary equipment.
Beginners will be more difficult, but you should not abandon this venture. Remember how our ancestors made wine; they simply stamped on the grapes with their feet, and then sent them for fermentation. The sequence of cooking homemade drink:
- If the harvest is small, it is necessary tear berries off. If there is a lot of grapes, some winemakers let it under the press along with clusters.
- The next step is to squeeze juice out of the berriesYou can do it with your hands, feet or with a special press.
- The resulting mass is poured into barrels (stainless containers) so that the pulp rises. Tara covered, after 5-7 days, the pulp will rise up, you need to disturb it.
- Inside, through the "wine cap", a hose is inserted, through which the formed juice is drained. If desired, pulp can be carefully removed and the juice drained.
- Next juice pour on clean bottles with a capacity of 3, 5 or 10 liters. You can pre-pass it through a sieve or cheesecloth.
- If you want to make a strong red, add sugar at the rate of 3-4 kg per 10 liters of juice. In the dry sugar, you can not add.
- We send the bottles to a warm place for fermentation, cover them with ordinary medical gloves.
- As the glove grows, the glove will rise, as the wine will regain, it will fall off.
- Through the glass bottle it will be seen that a precipitate formed at the bottom, and a clear wine on top. The more sustained the drink, the more prosaic its structure.
- Next drink gently drain, filter and infuse. During this time, it grows stronger, the moment of maturity comes after 3.5-5 months.
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- In the absence of a press, the grapes are crushed with a rolling pin.
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- The pulp can be used to make the second wine.
Cleaning drink
Upon completion of fermentation in the drink remain - particles of grape must, tartar and yeast. Sometimes even filtering does not allow for absolute transparency due to this.
To solve the problem with muddy sediment will help:
- long exposure from 1 to 6 years;
- gelatin cleaning;
- egg white;
- cold brightening.
Undoubtedly the natural method of clarifying the drink - long exposure. However, this process takes a long time and is suitable for the preparation of expensive aged wines.
It is much easier to use swollen gelatin, it is added at the rate of 10-15 g per 100 liters of drink. They are kept for 2-3 weeks, after which they are carefully drained without a precipitate formed.
Experienced winemakers consider purifying a drink with protein quite effective. Take 100 liters of wine, 3 whipped egg whites. Add protein foam. After 20-25 days the sediment will be at the bottom. To lighten the red varieties, it is placed inside the fridge or carried outside.
Air temperature should not be below -2-3 degreesfor fortified drinks to -5 degrees.
After the formation of sediment produce filtering and sent to storage. Best of all, the wine retains its flavor inside wooden barrels, they are corked and kept in a cool place. When stored inside glass containers, the recirculated beverage is capped.
Put in a dark room - it could be a basement. The longer the shutter speed, the stronger the drink and the richer its flavor.
The technology of homemade wine production has been revealed, there are no secrets here, it’s enough to follow the recommendations and maintain the necessary deadlines. The harvest of even the smallest blue grapes is easy to process into a healthy drink.