Wine from real grapes?

[James]

I met a retired Dr. from Mobile this weekend. He purchased land in this area and built a house and lake on it. He heard from common friends that I made wine and he informed me that he had planted several vines of grapes and they would be ripe soon and we needed to make wine. I tried to tell him that the only grape juice I had ever seen came in a box and I didn't even know you could grow grapes in south Alabama. This did not phase him and he is hot to trot about making wine. I'mhope ya'll will help me every step of the way.


Here are some of my first questions.


1. I have the equip. for making kits, what other items do I need to work with real grapes. (I can get my hands on a screw press but that's it)


2. He appears to have75 to 100lbs. of grapes total and each vine (10)a different variety, red & white, seeless & not seedless. Is it possible to throw them all in together? Do I need to post the various varieties? If they don't ripen all at once can you store them until you have enough for a 6 gal batch?


Let's start slowly and thanks for your help. I did tell him that I had the perfect source of info.





Jim

 

[swillologist]

Jim there are people here that know a lot more about this then I do. Which doesn't take a lot.Here is a link to a thread that Waldo hason making wine from muscadinegrapes. You may fine this interesting.


http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2656


This is a really good place to come to get answers to your wine making questions. Lots of knowledgeable people here.



Edited by: swillologist

 

[Wade E]

You could freeze them until they are all ready. I would keep the
varieties seperate as some of them are probably not good to make wine
out of but it can be done. I will otherwisew wait for someone more
experienced with grapes to chime in and tell you which ones are good
and which ones arent. How many primaries and carboys do you have though.

 

[James]

Wade,


I have 2 primaries and plenty of carboys though I might have to do some bottling to free up some space.


For what it is worth, here are differentthe variaties; Blue Lake, Daytona Lake Emerald,Stover, Catawba, Suwanee, Orlando and, these are seedless, Crimson,Flame, Lady Finger, Reliance, Summer Royal, Thompson. Recognize any of these?

 

[grapeman]

James, those varieties are all over the map in type and time of ripening. I'm not saying they couldn't be made into wine(if you can make wine out of dandelions and chickweed you can make it out of anything)but, why? Most are great eating varieties and you only have a few bunches of each. I would eat them if I was him and enjoy them immensely. I would buy the best kit I could out of the type I like best and have you teach me how to do it. That way I could get nice eating grapes and 30 bottles of the best wine I ever had. I wouldn't be rude to him, but explain you don't have any experience with any of those grapes and it could turn out terrible. If you made him a kit, he would be able to get the type he likes at a vry good per bottle price. Then you could pick a variety or two with the most grapes and maybe try a gallon. The 75 to 100 pounds he might have would only make about 1 batch of 6 gallons.

 

[Mr Robusto]

Like A-Man stated, those are mostly eating grapes. I would encourage him to make jelly or other things then wine. It would be a great expirience to make from the vine, but from what i have read, the process is more of a science. You need to be able to make several adjustments for killing off the wild yeast and such. A lot of work for about 5 gallons of so-so wine.

 

[James]

You know, in the back of my mind I was hoping someoone would tell me that. This really sounded like to much of a project. It might be fun if the end result had the potential of being something good, butit sounds like the odds are against it. Thanks for the practical advice.


I'll tell him to make jelly. Hell, he doesn't enjoyhealth benefits of alcoholenough to be making wine anyway.


Jim