Making homemade wine is a fantastic hobby that I've enjoyed for 13 years.
You can make wine at home for a fraction of what it would cost you to purchase store bought wine and in these tough economic times it sure helps.
There is a lot of personal gratification with the recognition by family and friends of my wine.
One time my wife gave a bottle of our wine to a friend of hers who served a glass of it to her husband.
Her husband sampled the wine not knowing anything about it.
After tasting the wine he was so impressed that he inquired as to where she had purchased it and was totally amazed when told it was homemade wine.
I did not tell this little story to blow my own horn but to show that good quality wine can be made at home.
Another great bonus for me is my daughter now has become interested in making wine and helps me with the process as does my wife.
The reward in this is with life's busy schedule it gives us some wonderful family time together which to me is very precious.
Not only is making red wine a fun hobby, drinking red wine can benefit your health.
Studies have shown that consuming red wine in moderation (one to two glasses a day) has several health benefits.
One of most widely documented benefits of red wine is heart health.
Researchers found that red wine inhibited the build-up of fatty material along the artery walls which helped to explain why people in France have a relatively low incidence of heart disease despite a diet rich in saturated fats.
Other studies also indicated that red wine can raise HDL cholesterol (the Good cholesterol) and prevent LDL cholesterol (the Bad cholesterol) from forming.
Red wine is a particularly rich source of antioxidants which studies suggest may help protect against certain cancers.
From the beginning I was successful thanks to my brother-in-law who is now in his sixties, Italian born and has been making homemade wine for most of his life.
To this day he still buys the grapes and crushes them to make his wine.
However, since venturing out on my own some years ago, I now make my wine at home from the juice as it produces a wine of almost equal quality to the grape method and eliminates the crushing, pressing and disposing of the skins.
One of the most important things that I have learned is - to make great wine always use high quality juice or grapes because the quality of your wine is totally dependent on this! Red homemade wine is easier for the beginner to make.
This is the simplified explanation of how to make red wine from grapes: 1) Crush the grapes to extract the juice.
2) The skins and pulp are kept with the juice during fermentation to add more colour and give the wine body.
3) After the fermentation transfer the wine to glass containers, such as demijohns.
4) Skins and pulp are pressed to extract any remaining liquid.
5) The wine is given time to age and transferred several times to leave behind sediments.
6) Bottle, cork and age This is the simplified explanation of how to make homemade wine from juice: 1) The juice is fermented 2) After the fermentation transfer the wine to glass containers, such as demijohns.
3) The wine is given time to age and transferred several times to leave behind sediments.
4) Bottle, cork and age I was fortunate to learn from the expertise of my brother-in-law and with this knowledge the process of making wine at home has been mostly smooth sailing but not without the occasional mishap.
I will write about these mishaps soon but for now get started making your own great homemade wine today and enjoy.
You can make wine at home for a fraction of what it would cost you to purchase store bought wine and in these tough economic times it sure helps.
There is a lot of personal gratification with the recognition by family and friends of my wine.
One time my wife gave a bottle of our wine to a friend of hers who served a glass of it to her husband.
Her husband sampled the wine not knowing anything about it.
After tasting the wine he was so impressed that he inquired as to where she had purchased it and was totally amazed when told it was homemade wine.
I did not tell this little story to blow my own horn but to show that good quality wine can be made at home.
Another great bonus for me is my daughter now has become interested in making wine and helps me with the process as does my wife.
The reward in this is with life's busy schedule it gives us some wonderful family time together which to me is very precious.
Not only is making red wine a fun hobby, drinking red wine can benefit your health.
Studies have shown that consuming red wine in moderation (one to two glasses a day) has several health benefits.
One of most widely documented benefits of red wine is heart health.
Researchers found that red wine inhibited the build-up of fatty material along the artery walls which helped to explain why people in France have a relatively low incidence of heart disease despite a diet rich in saturated fats.
Other studies also indicated that red wine can raise HDL cholesterol (the Good cholesterol) and prevent LDL cholesterol (the Bad cholesterol) from forming.
Red wine is a particularly rich source of antioxidants which studies suggest may help protect against certain cancers.
From the beginning I was successful thanks to my brother-in-law who is now in his sixties, Italian born and has been making homemade wine for most of his life.
To this day he still buys the grapes and crushes them to make his wine.
However, since venturing out on my own some years ago, I now make my wine at home from the juice as it produces a wine of almost equal quality to the grape method and eliminates the crushing, pressing and disposing of the skins.
One of the most important things that I have learned is - to make great wine always use high quality juice or grapes because the quality of your wine is totally dependent on this! Red homemade wine is easier for the beginner to make.
This is the simplified explanation of how to make red wine from grapes: 1) Crush the grapes to extract the juice.
2) The skins and pulp are kept with the juice during fermentation to add more colour and give the wine body.
3) After the fermentation transfer the wine to glass containers, such as demijohns.
4) Skins and pulp are pressed to extract any remaining liquid.
5) The wine is given time to age and transferred several times to leave behind sediments.
6) Bottle, cork and age This is the simplified explanation of how to make homemade wine from juice: 1) The juice is fermented 2) After the fermentation transfer the wine to glass containers, such as demijohns.
3) The wine is given time to age and transferred several times to leave behind sediments.
4) Bottle, cork and age I was fortunate to learn from the expertise of my brother-in-law and with this knowledge the process of making wine at home has been mostly smooth sailing but not without the occasional mishap.
I will write about these mishaps soon but for now get started making your own great homemade wine today and enjoy.
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