Greetings From Finland

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MrHerbington

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2022
Messages
63
Reaction score
38
Location
Finland
Hello everyone, I planted my first grape vines this year, meanwhile trying out some grape juice kits. Some experience with brewing beer, though I was interested in winemaking 10 years ago already, but could not find any suitable grape juice kits in Finland. Now I can get multiple different brands of grape juice kits and will be doing them until I get my own grapes (or some other grape source).
My first two vines are "Hazaine Sladkii" (Vitis vinifera x amurensis) and "Zilga" (Vitis Labruscana) which SHOULD endure harsh winters of the north. I also have Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris seeds in the fridge in cold treatment as they need cold to germinate, hoping to grow them inside first and then plant them next year. Also trying to find some cold tolerant variants to plant next year, some pure Vitis vinifera would be nice. Everything will be Red, as I dislike white wines.

Funny thing is that even if you make actual grape wine in Finland, you cannot call it wine, but instead it is "fermented alcoholic beverage made from grapes" as Finland has not registered as official winemaking country in the EU. That applies only to selling it, and I'm making wine solely for personal use.
 
Will do! I enjoy information overload and complex topics, so no worries...
Also I have quite bit of garden experience with variety of different plants already, so planting a vineyard should not be too hard. I've been gardening and fermenting for some 15 years.
 
Welcome to WMT! Kits can be interesting. I started out just following the kit instructions. Now I add some of this and that, in primary and/or secondary or while aging. As Joeswine say, a little is a lot.
 
Hello and welcome. Enjoy the forum and your vines. How's your winemaking so far?
 
Welcome to Wine Making Talk, , , so you like red grape wine > possible options

* last year I made a “BIG RED” from mulberry juice and tannins from the bottle
* elderberry was the English answer to tannic French wines
* haskap, especially varieties with Russian genetics have a tannic bite and grow in zone 3 and a nice red grape color
 
Hello and welcome. Enjoy the forum and your vines. How's your winemaking so far?
Not yet started the first kit. I received a faulty 20 liter glass bottle which was dirty/had bubbles/bad seals in the glass so I'm returning it. It was supposed to be new but I won't use any glass with tensions as they will break sooner or later. Very frustrating as this is the only (new) glass bottle I can buy in the whole country. I could buy some mystery glass which are 30-60 years old but pretty sure they won't be any better. I planned to bulk age on glass but now I have to get some PET carboy instead. Primary is stainless steel, I would age it there but it has huge airspace compared to PET bottles so that might be an issue.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20220810_194539901.jpg
    IMG_20220810_194539901.jpg
    3.3 MB · Views: 0
  • IMG_20220810_194135752.jpg
    IMG_20220810_194135752.jpg
    2.2 MB · Views: 0
Welcome to Wine Making Talk, , , so you like red grape wine > possible options

* last year I made a “BIG RED” from mulberry juice and tannins from the bottle
* elderberry was the English answer to tannic French wines
* haskap, especially varieties with Russian genetics have a tannic bite and grow in zone 3 and a nice red grape color
I want to make a grape wine and grow actual grapes, I've tried berry/fruit wines already. Might plant some haskap & mulberry though, but I will make some jam/juice with them
 
Not yet started the first kit. I received a faulty 20 liter glass bottle which was dirty/had bubbles/bad seals in the glass so I'm returning it. It was supposed to be new but I won't use any glass with tensions as they will break sooner or later. Very frustrating as this is the only (new) glass bottle I can buy in the whole country. I could buy some mystery glass which are 30-60 years old but pretty sure they won't be any better. I planned to bulk age on glass but now I have to get some PET carboy instead. Primary is stainless steel, I would age it there but it has huge airspace compared to PET bottles so that might be an issue.
Kind of frustrating indeed, but you do have a better option in PET I think. Can you update us whenever you start that first kit? Have fun!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top