How to Make Wine - Wine Making Instructions
By Pierre Duponte

Every single wine has a specific way of making it that will yield the best results. Nevertheless, the overall process of winemaking follows a series of steps that you will always find in wine-making instructions:

Step 1: Sanitize Produce

Washing your produce is very important to get rid of the bacteria and natural yeasts that are gathered on the fruits skins. If these are left behind on the grapes, they can significantly affect the fermentation process, ruining your whole batch of wine.

Wash your produce with cold water to preserve its flavors and structure. To dry, just let it stand for at least an hour.

Step 2: Sanitize Work Station

Just as important as ridding your produce from bacteria and yeasts, you must sanitize your work station. Aside from the detrimental effects bacteria can have on your wine, they can be also dangerous to the consumer.

In order to reach all your stations' crevices, spray a solution made with 5 Campden tablets and a quart of water. Once the solution has acted on the surface for at least 10 minutes, rinse and let air-dry.

Step 3: Crushing Your Produce

As soon as your work are has been sanitized, you are ready to crush your grapes. To do this, use either a wooden paddle or crushing grate. The latter are a popular choice amongst wine makers since they can be used both for white winemaking and red winemaking. The grate leaves stems behind, aiding in the stem, skins and seed removal process that is prevalent in white wines.

Step 4: Get Ready for Fermentation

Before fermentation, you must combine all your ingredients (minus the yeast) into a primary fermentor, filling the rest with water -that's just at the 5-˝ gallon mark. Add 2 Campden tablets to kill any unwanted bacteria and/or yeasts, and let rest covered for a day or so.

Step 5: Make a Starter

Before you get started with the fermentation step, you'll need to prepare the must (crushed grapes) so that it can be successfully fermented into a delicious wine. To do this, you must make a yeast starter with the wine making yeast that you have selected. Mix the yeast with some sugar (or juice concentrate) and lukewarm water, and allow to 'wake' for 24 hrs.

Step 6: Fermentation

Begin fermentation by combining the starter to the prepared must. Cover and once 48hrs elapse, stir daily for 4-6 days. This step will vary most drastically according to the wine type that you are making.

Step 7: Racking

Remove any pulp that floats on top of the fermented juice, and make sure to squeeze any retained juice with a mesh bag. Using a hose, siphon the wine into a clean carboy, leaving behind any sediment or solid parts that are left at the bottom of the original container. Seal the top using a moistened airlock in order to prevent oxidation of the wine.

Step 8: Ferment Again

Once your wine has been racked into a secondary carboy, it must ferment for another four to six weeks. After this time, you will siphon the wine back into its original container and, if you'd like, add a dose of sodium bisulfite to preserve and help clear up the wine.

Step 9: Bottling

Now all you have to do is bottle, age and consume. For best preservation:

-Use dark bottles that will block out harmful UV rays that can oxidize the wine.

-Make sure corks are placed in tightly to avoid any air entering the bottle.

-Age at a temperature range between 45 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

-Don't age white wines for longer than 12 months.

Pierre Duponte is a grape growing expert. For more detailed wine making instructions as well as grape growing information, visit http://www.grapegrowingwinemakingtips.com/.

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