wine

remontage.

Yesterday I finally started on a home project I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time: WINEMAKING. I have quite a few years of beverage industry experience, but have always been a little hesitant to make my own wine because, let’s face it - it’s complicated. In my experience, beer, kombucha, and other fermented products are pretty difficult to screw up and there is a relatively gentle learning curve. Wine, alternatively, is such a wild horse - you really have to know your chemistry and possess an incredibly informed and nuanced enough palate to guide you along the way. This is my first small batch and I have a ton of reading and experimentation ahead of me, but I feel really lucky and thankful to have this opportunity and hope the result is good enough to share!

I don’t have too many particulars to go into regarding the process. I’ll try to check in from time to time on how the wine is progressing and, if all goes well, I will share the method and results. Also, I know we are all exhausted after another week. If I don’t feel like writing, you probably don’t feel like reading. You are more than welcome to comment if you would like to start a conversation and ask questions, but for now I would like to show a couple pictures I snagged in between steps. My sensorial experiences have been blunted a bit from experiencing the same things day in and day out. The visuals were truly something to behold, and I’d like to give you, dear reader, a glimpse into this unique and sacred experience that humans have been practicing for thousands of years.

Here’s a view of the must before any steps were taken (other than transferring them to the mesh bag and vessel). There they are in all their glory: glowing, sparkling, alluring grapes with seeds, skins, juice, and pulp.

Taking temp - we’re in a good range and don’t have to worry about any conditional controls yet!

Pitching a dry yeast was a nice change! I’ve worked with liquid yeasts and SCOBY cultures for the majority of my fermentation experiences. No goo, no mess - we’re cruising!

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time…cheers!