Make no wine before its time
My Approach to Winemaking
"Make no wine before its time."
C.J.J. Berry's classic First Steps in Winemaking presented 130 winemaking recipes in a unique fashion, listing the recipes under the calendar month in which the ingredients are usually plentiful and the corresponding wines are usually made in Great Britain. While that organization probably served the home gardener well in the 1950s and 60s in Great Britain, elsewhere, especially in these days of readily available produce from produce and supermarkets, such an organization makes less sense. It is difficult to utilize such a presentation without constant reference to the index. An alphabetical organization is far more utilitarian and will be used in my recipes section, with the primary ingredient listed first. I'll leave the timing of your winemaking to you.
While I love grape wines, I also love the varied tastes of "country wines," those wines made from fruits, vegetables, seeds, grain, leaves, flowers, bark, roots, and other non-grape ingredients. In particular, I like making these various wines. So, while you will find grape-wine recipes here, you will find that the bulk of this web site is devoted to non-grape wines.
I am also more than a little partial to making wines from wild, edible plants. Maybe it's the Boy Scout in me or maybe it's the idea of using what God has placed before us to be used, or maybe it's the activity of hunting for and gathering the ingredients in the few remaining wild parcels of land surrounding us, but I suspect it's a bit of all three. Thus, I am fond of using wild grapes for my grape wines and wild edibles for my non-grape wines. So you will find sections of this web site devoted specifically to the native grapes of North America and making wines from wild edible plants. In most cases, the recipes for a wild ingredient's wine is the same, or almost the same, as for the domesticated variety of the same ingredient if there is a cultivated variety. When this is the case, the ingredient's wine recipe(s) will be found in the main recipe section. But when there are special considerations for the wild variety, the recipe(s) will be listed under the section on making wines from wild edible plants. Wine recipes for wild grapes will be found, naturally enough, under the section on native grapes. The point is, if you don't find a recipe under the main recipe section, look under the edible plants section just to be sure. And, in a very few cases, you will find different recipes for the same ingredient under both sections. Again, look in both sections just to be sure.
Finally, I have to warn you that portions of this web site are, as they say, "under construction." That simply means there is more to say on the subject. No, you won't find any "under constraction" signs, but you might notice that the page or section is obviously unfinished. Where this occurs, I apologize in advance. The material I aim to present is simply vast, and I only have limited time to devote to web-building. So I ask you to bear with me, bookmark the site, and check back often. The truth is that I have hundreds of wine recipes to post and intend to do so, but it does take time. If you can't wait, send me an email request for a particular recipe and I'll write you back and post the reply under the requested recipes section (another good place to check, by the way).
My best to each of you, and may your wines always meet your expectations.
About the Author
We have been in the Wine and Beer ingredient industry for
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Red Wines
Wine was also forbidden in the Islamic civilization, but after Geber and other Muslim chemists pioneered the distillation of wine, it was used for other purposes, including cosmetic and medical uses. In fact the 10th century Persian philosopher and scientist Al Biruni described recipes where herbs, minerals and even gemstones are mixed with wine for medicinal purposes. Wine was so revered and its effect so feared that elaborate theories were developed about which gemstone-cups would best counteract its negative side effects.
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Wine Types
There are no rules! Try everything and see what you like. Forget the old "red with meat, white with fish"-it's completely irrelevant. Instead, if you live in a climate like the Northeast, you might make a seasonal choice: red in winter, white in summer. But a good wine will carry any dish.
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Dessert Wines
Don't forget the ros� Ros�s are perfect summer wines and make a great start to an evening.
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Chianti Region
Be careful about temperature. I drink white wine around 48-55� F and red wine around 60-65� F. If you drink wine that's too warm or too cold you lose all the fruit flavors and the complexities of the wine.
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Qld wine industry ripens - Courier Mail
Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:08:47 GMT
Qld wine industry ripens Courier Mail, Australia - Rutledge says that even though Queensland is often considered a newcomer to the Australian wine industry, grapes have been flourishing in the state since ... Merlot is state's signature, Winestate mag editor says |
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