Part I
By Carlos Rabassa

New York, NY - July 16, 2001

1. get the best possible ingredients
2. get the best possible tools.

Today we will only address the subject of ingredients. Let's imagine first that you are some independantly wealth wine lover who has, decided to start a commercial winery. Imagine also that you have plenty of time in your hands.

What would you have to do to make wine from scratch, like the real vineyards and wineries?


Quick Summary:

Get someone who knows how to grow grapes.

Buy suitable land, with the right soil, the right weather, the right combination of hills.

Buy the best grape vines you can find, making sure they are a good match for the land you just acquired.

Plant them and tend to them with loving care for a few years until they bear suitable grapes.

Build a modern winery.

Be ready for the day when the grapes are ripe to harvest. Mother Nature will not give you an exact date; you have to be ready, watching the grapes daily, measuring their sugar content and dealing with the birds and other creatures that may eat your ripe grapes.

When the day comes, have enough labor at hand to pick the grapes in the minimum time and bring them to the winery before they spoil.

Your winery has to be ready to crush the grapes and receive the juice. If you planted more than one variety you probably want to keep them separate. And, by the way, those huge stainless steel tanks you saw when visiting a winery are very expensive.

Most likely you need a second expert. The first one will help you with the vineyard, and the second one for the winery.

Finally, you ferment the juice, then wait and wait, keeping an eye on the many factors that affect the end result. You bottle it and sell it. If you are really lucky, you may be able to charge enough to cover your costs and possibly make a small profit.

Now, after hearing all that, you still want to make wine at home?

OK, the first obvious step is to skip the first part and buy the grapes from a vineyard. Your neighborhood grape supplier is not the best but, what else can you do; you will have to compromise. Each time you compromise, the quality of your wine will go down.

Even if you live in a large city, like we do, where refrigerated trucks come from California and upstate New York with shipments of grapes, you'll still have some compromises. Theses grapes were collected, at best, a few days ago, not when they were at their prime for winemaking. They were harvested a few days before the best time, to give them the opportunity to reach you before spoiling. Also typical shipment delays will not help with the end quality of your wine.

Anyway, you buy the grapes and bring them home. You're significant other may be the most understanding person on the world, but if he/she is not as enthusiastic about your winemaking project as you are, there may be some additional compromising to do. Winemaking from fresh grapes can be a bit messy. And yes, you need a pretty good size house, preferably where you have a garage or a basement where you can accidentally step on a few grapes without damaging your floor's finish. Oh, and by the way speed is of the essence, you cannot leave the grapes waiting any longer; they are already a long way from the day they were hanging from the vine.

Now you press the grapes and are ready to ferment the juice. You'll have to take a few measurements and add a few things as you go to make sure the fermentation os going along nicely. If you are like most people making the wine at home, you will probably put the juice in one of the big bottles with a spigot near the bottom, wait and pray for the best.

The rest of the story you probably know if any of your neighbors ever gave you a bottle of their home made wine.

It has a few things floating in it. It tastes like no other wine you ever tasted - as a matter of fact, it may not taste like wine at all in some cases. Your neighbor at this point will be attempting to cover up his compromises by telling you his wine is natural, nothing added and will not give you a headache.

Now, the solution we recommend: Get a Wine Kit.

Wine kit manufacturers have a few selected and tested suppliers who grow the best possible grapes, usually in California but you can get them from other famous wine growing regions, particularly Europe.

These companies run big operations. They harvest the grapes at the right time and process them into concentrated juice right away. The concentrated juice is vaccum packed and can keep until you get it and you are ready to use it.

The quality is controlled with the most modern techniques, assuring you the best and consistent quality every time. And you can select from among a couple dozen varieties. Do you prefer red or white? Sweet or dry?

If you have a basement, it is the best solution but if not, it's still not a problem. You will only be handling a bit over six gallons at a time, producing slightly over over two cases. And no messy grapes on your nice wood finished floor.

You may use recycled bottles, or you may buy new ones. You can choose the right bottle for the right style too. And other packaging materials such as bottle wax or visplas give your finished wine a very professional look.

The biggest problem, convincing your friends you did it; they won't believe you can do something so great in your own home.