Seedless Grapes

[grapeman]

How does that look Barney?

Where ya been hiding lately? I hope spring has sprung for you over there.

And I had to try it 3 times to get it to take Dan! I needed to tell it to edit the signature so it would save it!

 

[ibglowin]

Good to see you Barney!

 

[joeswine]

Thompson seedless

I lost my last post!

Thompson seedless was the very first wine I made from all grapes. I was able to get an 18 pound crate of grapes for five dollars a great so I bought five crates. If it wasn't for the fact and associate in our wine group had destemmer /crusher I don't know what I would've done .that's my first excursion into winemaking with whole grapes. It was a lot of work good deal of the time ,but after year two years of process it was well worth and was learning curve that I had to go . So by all means if you get them tried the well worth..... Good to hear from you, hana

 

[jswordy]

Barney there are a number of folks that make Dago Red using just wild yeast. Then there are others on here like Sirs that goes 100% natural with no additives or yeast and makes great wine. There is risk to it on not having the wine take off amongst other things but it can and is being done successfully.

Hahaha ... my uncle just told me yesterday that my grandpa called his wine Dago Red! 100% Ellis Island Italian, he was the real deal. LOL.

I was thinking about the SO2 being high and yet the wild yeast taking off. Making wine in the same location over time innoculates the area with the yeast being used. And commercial yeasts are bred to tolerate much higher SO2 levels. Wild yeasts have a much lower SO2 tolerance. It's possible the yeast seeded in your winemaking area took hold in the must, explaining why it was able to work even in the presence of SO2. So there's one theory.

 

[hannabarn]

Hope you guys had fun changing from Appleman to Grapeman!! It took me awhile just to get on this forum let alone messing with graphics!! So I'm happy to be here again with my "Wino" friends and making new friends

 

[hannabarn]

My father-in-law made a red wine and he called it "Dago Red"! He was a Swede!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jswordy]

My father-in-law made a red wine and he called it "Dago Red"! He was a Swede!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you search that, you will find...

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/dago-red-wine-recipe-15762/

...and...

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/dago-red-bottle-13031/

BigBend's posts brought back some memories. I was very young but I can still recall being at my grandpa's one time when they were making wine. I have been emailing with my uncle about what he recalls from those days, which ended in the mid-1960s. My uncle emailed me today...

> You are correct about the oak barrels. I don't know where he got them from but I think they were old whiskey barrels that he cleaned up.
> He had a pair of hip boots that we would wear and climb in a half barrel and crush the grapes and put that in big barrels to ferment for about a week. You could tell when they were done fermenting because it would stop rising.
> After draining all the juice off we would run what was left through the press he made. I don't know if you remember the press he had. The big screw part was from an old flat bed printing press.
> I remember he did add sugar at the end but did not like to add too much. Did not seal the barrel until it quit boiling which was several months.
> Those were the good old days.<

I have seen posts here that "dago" is derogatory and all, and indeed, my family has stories of the prejudices my grandfather endured looking for work as a new immigrant, but overall the family has been pretty good-natured about such terms. Some jokes they themselves have shared could not be posted here, I am sure. I guess it's because those old-timers, they still knew how to laugh at themselves. Very much a lost art today. Too bad, it is a healthy trait to have!

Anyway, I am becoming more and more intrigued about making wine this old way sometime, just for grins.

 

[jswordy]

Look at the reach of this forum, helping my elderly uncle recall how he helped his Dad make wine way back in the 40s, 50s and 60s! I sent posts to him by email, and he added this today:

> Yes, it is bringing back memories. Grandpa would do two pressings but put it in separate barrels. The only thing he added was sugar but not much. He would heat and mix the sugar with a little wine and then in the barrel.
> Also would add water to the remains before the 2nd pressing. There would not be much left when he got done.
> I would guess he would get 30 or so lugs of grapes. Zinfendel one part and a red grape 2 parts I think. <

Between what I've found searching here and my uncle's information, I might be able to try doing this in the fashion my grandfather did it.

Got recommendations for the red grapes?

 

[g8keeper]

i don't know if anybody watches the show, but this thread reminds me of a recent episode of the show "duck dynasty"....the ceo of the company went and bought a vineyard and winery....looked to me like it was during the summer, but i don't know enough about the climate down in i believe louisiana, but anyways, it was before grape season, so there were no grapes....the ceo's brother goes to the supermarket and buys a whole lot of cases of seedless table grapes and sugar, saying the only difference between wine and regular grapes is the amount of sugar....they also say they figure if a little sugar and yeast is good, than a lot has to be even better.....so they proceed to crush, and immediately press all these grapes, with them shooting out of the press all over the place....making a complete mess....they then take the juice, all in buckets mind you, even though i am sure they actually had all the pumps and such they needed, and poured it by hand into a stainless steel vat, with a number of bags of sugar and huge measuring cups of yeast....the ceo, upon buying the vineyard, booked an unveling of the wine for 3 weeks after the purchase....low and behold, somehow in 3 weeks, they had it bottled and had a big party to unveil it...from the reactions, i guess it was pretty god awful.....lol...i can only imagine....