Connoisseurs rightly call this drink “nectar of the Gods”. It is impossible not to fall in love with its heady aroma, rich flavoring bouquet and delicious aftertaste from the first sip! Of course, we are talking about wine.
Delicate table, sweet nutmeg, intoxicating fortified and even homemade blue grape wine is always and everywhere considered the most popular drink. Not a single feast, whether it is a romantic dinner or a chic wedding, can do without this delicious alcoholic product.
We offer you to plunge into the world of wine, and at the same time learn how to make wine from blue grapes at home.
Secret and blessed
The history of wine is shrouded in unsolved mysteries. No one knows for sure where the first wine was made and how long it happened. Around this topic, to this day, heated debate does not subside.
Scientists claim that already many thousands of years before our era, our distant ancestors drank grape juice that fermented in the sun.
Theologians assure that the first wine was made from grapes that the Lord gave Noah. There are many references to this drink in the Bible. According to the Holy Scriptures, Jesus Christ loved wine, so the Christian prohibition on drinking alcoholic beverages does not apply to wine. The clergy use the famous church wine “Cahors” for communion, weddings and baptisms and claim that this is good.
Be that as it may, wine has been loved and drunk for all ages. Even during the adoption of Prohibition in the era of the USSR, craftsmen made grape wine with their own hands and used it both for their home holidays and for underground sales.
Impressive variety
Making grape wine is a very lucrative business. Wine is perhaps the only alcoholic drink that is provided in a wide variety of tastes and recipes. Its taste changes depending on the grape variety, the aging method and how much sugar is in the grapevine. manufacturers added. Even the material from which the container for the fermentation of grape juice is made affects the aroma and taste.
Curious Wine Facts
True wine connoisseurs and collectors can spend hours with manic enthusiasm telling stories about this drink. There is even an enology science that is studying this product.
Wine in the fortress is: dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet, dessert, liqueur, fortified. In terms of taste, it can be: table, vintage, collection. The color of the wine also pleases with variety and can be: white, amber, pink, red, ruby and even black.
Separately, it is worth noting homemade grape wine. How to make it? Read on!
Home winemaking
In order to taste delicious wine, it is not necessary to run after him to the supermarket and spend hours studying the labels on the bottles - you can make grape wine with your own hands, taking into account individual taste preferences.
Do not be afraid to try yourself as a winemaker! Making grape wine is not too complicated and exciting process, which has great chances to turn into a hobby.
The first thing to do is make a list of the necessary ingredients and tools. The second stage is to decide which drink you want to get. Beginners are recommended to start making wine from blue grapes - at home this is the most successful option.
All About Blue Wine Grapes
The most sophisticated, but nevertheless amazingly tasty and aromatic - blue grape wine. At home, it is prepared most often because of the availability and cheapness of this variety of berries.
The best varieties of such grapes are considered "Livadia black" and "dove". These are unpretentious species that do not require special care, which can be found in almost every suburban area. Wine grapes ripen in early autumn, and then the fences of neighboring household plots and market stalls are simply bursting with the abundance of these berries.
Blue grapes contain a huge amount of vitamins and other beneficial substances. Each berry contains 50-80% juice, saturated with pectin, natural sugar, vitamins A, C, E, PP, H, B, as well as macro and micro elements such as magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, sulfur, chlorine, phosphorus, iron, zinc, chromium, copper, manganese, iodine, molybdenum, fluorine, silicon, boron and others.
It is interesting that homemade wine from blue grapes does not detract from all its beneficial properties and can be not only an alcoholic drink, but also to some extent a vitamin cocktail.
Getting to the winemaking
Before you start making wine from blue grapes at home, you need to make sure that you have everything you need:
- blue grapes - 10 kg;
- granulated sugar - 3 kg;
- stainless capacity of 30 liters;
- a pair of glass bottles of 20 l;
- medical gloves;
- gauze;
- colander;
- a tube 2 m long and 1 cm in diameter;
Stage One, Preparatory
So, we begin to make wine from blue grapes, the recipe for which
described in the following and for convenience is divided into several stages.
- The first step is to pick ripe grapes. You need to collect it directly with branches, without tearing off the berries themselves. Then we separate them from the bunches and put them in a stainless container. You can’t wash the grapes, because it is in the skin of the berries that there is a substance due to which the fermentation process occurs.
- After this, you need to crush the berries with your hands until a large amount of juice is released. It is recommended that you immediately wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, as the juice can stain your skin and cause a burning sensation and itching.
- Then carefully cover the container with gauze transferred to the berries and leave to wander in a warm room for 5 days.
Stage two, the most important
After 5 days, if everything was done correctly, the pulp should rise in the tank. This is what remains of the berries after squeezing the juice.
- Everything needs to be filtered through a colander, then the pulp should be thrown back on cheesecloth and squeeze the remaining juice out of it.
- Peeled grape juice must be carefully poured into bottles and add equal portions of sugar. It is important to mix it very carefully.
Stage Three, Final
It should be borne in mind that sugar does not dissolve too quickly, so be patient.
- After the sugar has completely dissolved in the juice, a medical glove should be pulled over the neck of the bottle. Each of her fingers should be pierced with a needle, and the glove itself should be firmly fixed on the bottle.
- Then we leave the wine in a warm room, it will ferment for 2-3 weeks. If the process goes right, the glove will inflate and will remain in this state until the completion of the fermentation stage, and the wine itself will gurgle. As soon as the glove is deflated, the wine is ready for further action.
- Next, you need to very carefully strain the liquid into thoroughly washed bottles. It is very important that sediment does not get into them along with wine. This is best done using a tube.
- After filtering, the bottles should be carefully corked and taken out to a cool place. A month later, the wine is ready, and it can be put on the table for tasting, and then on all festive feasts.
Guests will likely appreciate your homemade grape wine. How to make it and what you need for this - they will be happy to tell them a newly made winemaker.
Wine Variations
In addition to the traditional method of preparation, there is a recipe for grape wine with water. It is slightly different from the usual, but at the same time the wine is no less tasty. To make such a drink, you need to calculate the measures of water and sugar in relation to grape juice. For 1 kg of berries you need 1.5 liters of water and 0.7 kg of sugar.
- After squeezing the grapes into the mixture of juice and pulp, you need to add the required amount of water and sugar and mix well.
- Leave to ferment for a week, stirring 3-4 times every day to prevent mold.
- Then the juice should be filtered and bottled. A medical glove with punctures on the fingers is put on the neck of the bottle, and then everything is the same as in the traditional recipe for making wine.
The secrets of home winemaking
In order to make the wine the first time, the process did not become tedious, and the result did not bring disappointment, it is worth familiarizing yourself with some secrets that will be very useful for a beginner winemaker.
- Juice can be obtained not only by hand squeezing, but also using a juicer.
- Instead of bottles, you can use ordinary three-liter jars.
- For lack of a medical glove, a condom will do.
- The sweetness and strength of the wine depends on the amount of sugar, so less sugar is needed for dry wine, and more for fortified wine.
- To keep the wine stored longer, it is best to pour it into glass bottles, and not into plastic ones.
- The best place to store wine is a cellar or cellar.
- To make the wine crystal clear, before bottling it, it is recommended to lower specially prepared bentonite into the container.
Most likely, the first production of wine will be followed by a second, and third, and fourth. Gradually, this process will become a kind of annual priesthood. After a few years, trial and error will invent a host of varieties of homemade wine. In addition to blue grapes, such varieties as Lydia, Isabella, Nastya, Kesha can be used for production.
Moreover, wine can be prepared not only from grapes! A unique alcoholic drink can be obtained from fragrant raspberries, sweet blackberries, ripe apples, juicy currants, tender plums. The scope for imagination and experimentation is enormous.
Homemade wine is so tasty and healthy that, having tried it once, you will never want to buy its similarity in the store again. Naturalness, a huge amount of nutrients, a divine aroma and taste fall in love once and for all ...