🍷 Home winemaking
Wine made at home from one's own grapes for the family.
Home winemaking is making wine at home from your own grapes, for yourself and your family. It is an old tradition in countries where grapes grow, from Georgia and Moldova to Italy and Ukraine. Such wine is usually not sold.
The process is simple in outline. Grapes are crushed, the juice with the skins ferments in a vat or barrel, then the wine is drawn off the sediment and bottled. People often use large glass jugs of many litres, called demijohns. Home winemakers love them: wine ferments and matures in them.
For home wine, undemanding varieties are often chosen, for example Isabella: it grows well in damp climates and gives wine with a characteristic berry aroma. Quality depends on clean equipment and on how fermentation is controlled.
Rules for home winemaking differ between countries: in some places a limited volume for personal use is allowed. Like any alcohol, it should be enjoyed in moderation.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Home winemaking → kind of → 🍷 History of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Previous step
- 🍷 Demijohn
- Next step
- 🌿 Isabella (grape)
- Part of
- 🍷 History of wine
Frequently asked questions
What is home winemaking?
It is making wine at home from your own grapes for the family, without selling it.
What is a demijohn?
A large glass jug in which home wine ferments and is stored.
What grapes are used for home wine?
Often undemanding ones such as Isabella, but others can be used too.
Similar
🍷 Jean-Antoine Chaptal · 🍷 Prohibition in the United States · 🍷 Noah's vineyard · 🍷 Saint Nino · 🍷 Saint Vincent of Saragossa · 🍷 Omar Khayyam