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When it comes down to homemade wine making, common knowledge plays a big part in the process. If you combine the basic elements of how to make your own wine with your innate instinct and taste, the result should, surely, be a positive one. 

Crushing and Pressing In general, about 50 pounds of grape will yield five gallons of wine. Once your grapes are harvested, they must be placed in a plastic vat (available at you local wine supply shop) and crushed. While the age-old method of smashing grapes by foot is proved to be the most efficient “even compared to modern technologies ” smaller batches of grapes can be crushed using your hands or a potato masher. In order to ensure homogeneous crushing of the grapes, make sure the vat is not more than 2/3 full before you begin smashing them. After crushing the grapes, add the recommended amount of Campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite) into the mixture “now called must- in order to prevent any unwanted yeast growth. Cover with a cloth and let it sit for 24 hours. 

Fermentation After the mixture has rested for a day, its time to add 1 packet of wine yeast (not to be confused with bread yeast). The most common types of wine fermenting yeasts are Montrachet and Prix de Mousse. To stir in the yeast, use your hands so as to elevate the temperature of the must and activate the yeast. Using your fingers, comb through the mixture and remove the stems, crushing any fruits that were left attached to them. Cover with a cloth, and let it sit again. Within 48 hours, the must should begin to fizz and it will look like its boiling by the third day of fermentation. When a week passes, the fizzing will stop and the wine will be ready to be filtered of seeds, pulp and any leftover grape skin. 

Filtering To filter it, the wine can strained using a cheese cloth or mesh bag. Make sure to squeeze the must thoroughly to remove all juices. The resulting liquid is to be stored in a glass carboy or into an empty wine barrel (also available at your local wine supply store). From this point on, oxidization of the wine must be prevented at all costs by eliminating all contact with air. Many wine makers choose to use an airlock to keep oxygen out, but allow gases produced during fermentation to escape. 

Racking At this stage, it will only take 2-3 weeks for the fizzing to stop. Once the fizzing stops, its time to rack the wine. Racking will remove what is called the lees from the wine. Lees is the used up yeast and grape pieces that remain, unconsumed, at the bottom of the barrel of carboy. A common way of doing this, is siphoning the wine out of the container to clean the bottom. Once the bottom of the lees has been removed, the wine is to be poured back into the container. A second racking will be required 2-3 months after the first, with a third and final racking 3-4 months after that. 

The wine can then be aged in a pitch-black dark, cool place until its ready to be drank. Even though the wine can be tasted at this point, the longer you leave it to age, the fuller the flavour will be.

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