Wine is always regarded as the best drink for any occasion and among the wines it’s the Red wine that holds a special place in the people’s heart. Be it for its benefits or its taste; this wine can hold its own any time, any place. It easily is the most preferred over other wines like White wine or rose Wine. Also check out Health benefits of red wine and Different types of Red wine.

So how is Red wine made? Can we prepare Red wine at home? Well the answer is yes! Here’s how you can prepare your favorite drink and enjoy it. All you will need are a few equipments that you can rent out or buy, if you want to turn professional, that is. You’ll get the equipments required at a winemaking supply store and once you have got the equipments handy you are all set.

Before we begin let me tell you that Red wine is made completely using red grapes and they contain anthocyanins and have tannins. The main difference in producing a red wine and a white wine is through fermentation of the skin, seeds and the juice of the red grapes and then pressing the wine. Let us divide the steps into two separate sections to ease the method.

Things required to make red wine

1. granulated sugars or corn sugar       
2. wines yeast       
3. fining materials       
4. siphon hoses
5. fermentation locks
6. hydrometer
7. acid-testing kits
8. A bucket for mixing
9. glass gallon barrels or Jugs used for fermenting
10. vinifera red grapes
11. sulphite crystals
12. grape crushers
13. grape press

Now that we have the required tools lets begin our wine operation.

Before fermenting the grapes

• Crush the grapes in a primary fermentor and make sure it is 3/4^th or 70% full. Also make sure to remove the 3/4^th of the stem.
• Add 0.1 gram of sulphite for 1 liter of water and add sulphite crystals. Dissolve it into a cup of warm bottle and add it to the fermentor. Continuous stirring of Fermentor is recommended.
• After Sulphite crystals have been added, the crushed grapes must “Sit” for a minimum of two hours.
• The next thing would be to check the Brix( measure of sugar content). It should be hovering around 24 degrees. If the Brix happens to be less than 21 degrees more sugar must be added to the juice.
• Using the acid-testing equipment, test the acid level. Acid content of 6 to 6.5 g/liter is best recommended.
• Keep checking the temperature of the solution in the fermentor and proper adjustment of temperatures is recommended. The temperature must be between 70 to 75F (21 to 23 degrees).
• When the proper Brix, acid level and temperature are reached, dissolve 1 gram yeast pellets in a cup of warm water for every 3.5 liters of the solution. Let the yeast settle for 15 minutes and then add it to the fermentor. Also, do cover the fermentor with cheesecloth.

 After Fermentation

• After 24 hours check the solution. If a gurgling sound is heard or bubbles are seen, it means fermentation is still in progress.
• The “cap” is the top layer of the grape seeds and skin. This cap should be kept wet and stirring the solution twice daily is best recommended.
• The Brix temperature should have an average of 2 degrees drop daily.
• When the Brix reaches 10 degrees or the cap starts pushing to the top, press the wine to the gallon jugs.
• As the sediments drop out add sulphite crystals and rack the wine. Fining materials can be added either when the wine is clear or during “racking of wine”.
• Again after all the sediments drop out rack the wine and add sulphite crystals.
• After deciding on the variety of the wine required, it must be aged appropriate amount of time.
• Bottle the wine and age for the required amount of time.
• After the desired aging your wine is ready to be served.

Do remember that wine tastes better if it aged more. The more aged the wine the better the taste. Happy Sipping!!!

 Important steps you would want to know:

Racking

Racking is the process of transferring the wine into a new barrel or bucket .It allows stabilization. If Wine is allowed to age in the bucket used previously it may be of a very “bitter” taste. Racking tubing is used and can be attached to a racking cane to make it easy.

 Brix

It is the sugar content for any liquid solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams. It is measured in Degrees Brix .

Aging:

Aging is the process of allowing the wine to grow old or allow it to be kept bottled at normal temperature so that further action of yeast increases color, taste and effect of the wine.

Fining

Fining is defined as a method of adding substances that increase the ionic bonds between the particles that are present in wine. This helps in separating wine from unwanted particles dissolved in wine and helps improve the concentration of wine. Though filtering helps remove many particles, fining removes proteins and also polymerized tannins.