A Neophyte's Guide To Wine Making.

 

Wine making is something I wanted to try for a long time. I am fascinated by the role that alcohol plays on our mind. Wine for me is a guilty pleasure. Recently, I have accepted that I like drinking wine more than any other alcoholic beverage that I have tried. Some say wine is not an alcoholic beverage whereas some say it is. Well that debate is for you….I do not care. I wasn’t a fan of wine before, I hated the bitter taste. As I grew up, I realized I loved that bittersweet taste. I haven’t tried it all but I would love to explore more. I am damn sure when I am more independent, I am going to take a wine-making class. Where they teach you all about making wine and tasting wine. I just realized I haven’t been to any wine-tasting.

I got a recipe of wine from my neighbor who makes wine at home, since you cannot buy it outside. Ever since I heard she makes wine at home, I just wanted to make it. I already wanted to learn. I annoyed my mother to ask the neighbor for the recipe, after the millionth time she finally asked and I got this recipe.

Now I am going to tell you how I made this wine. I wanted to try a recipe which someone has already tried. I guess there might be different recipe online.

. . .

First you need grapes (any color), I used green grapes; it was the only grape available.

For half kg grapes, you need 3 tablespoon Wheat, 2 tablespoon Sugar, 1 tablespoon Yeast, 1 Cardamom, 1 Clove and 1 inch Cinnamon.

I crushed the grapes with my bare hands. Each and every grape was crushed so much that the skin flattens. Even the pulp of the grapes was crushed well. While crushing it I kept thinking about the fact that in olden times huge amount of grapes were crushed with people’s bare feet. I couldn’t stop smiling at that time. The process of crushing the grapes was a little therapeutic for me. I was focused on the mixture of the grapes. As I was crushing the grapes I kept thinking about all the things that soothe me like applying moisturizer after a nice bath, peanut butter and jam sandwich, and my best friend’s hug. These things were running on my mind.

After crushing it well...it turns out like this. I then added the dry ingredients.

After adding it, I kept mixing and crushing the grapes that weren’t crushed properly. You have to keep mixing till the sugar is completely melted.

It turned out to be something like the picture above. And then I went to boil some water. You need to pour some warm water in the jar along with the crushed grapes brew.

I filled the brew in this glass jar. You have to only use a glass jar. Any glass jar would be fine.

I added the warm water according to the length and size of the glass jar. You have to take an approximate measurement going with your instinct. Making sure the water is not filled too much. We need to keep some space for the fermentation.

Then we have to close the jar, I placed a cloth on top and then closed it, to make sure it is air tight. After few minutes, keeping it aside…it looked something like the above picture. Slowly it started to ferment. There were bubbles rising up.

I am mixing it once daily for 21 days. On the 21st day, you have to filter it and then keep it back in the same jar for 2 days. In those two days you don’t have to mix it. Then after two days, you must filter it again. The wine is ready to drink.

I am on day 12, so far it is looking like this and on the next day i.e. day after I poured it in the jar it started to smell a bit like wine. So, you count day 1 as the day you poured it in. I was told to put caramelized sugar after the second filtration to turn it red. This is optional. But I am planning to add it.

Now I am just waiting for my precious wine. I cannot wait to consume it. If it turns out good I might make more. Honestly I found this more interesting than buying an expensive glass or bottle of wine.

Will soon post about how the wine turned out...stay tuned for the sequel of the wine making.