In the late 1800′s after the whirl of the gold rush had died down in northwest Victoria, the people of the area need to find another way to make ends meet. This was made possible by the arrival of the Cheffey brothers who arrived from Canada.

The brothers having great success in parts of California, opening up arid areas, bought with them to Australia their irrigation methods. They also combined this with the laying of a railway that could reach outback areas such as Mildura by the early1900′s. This encouraged and influx of new settlers who were also keen to try their luck in this new colony.

This was a great turning point for the area. Suddenly unfarmable desert scrubland that had previously been good for nothing became a fertile growing area. It took a while to settle into things and the climate was still pretty tough, but water was the key and once it had been introduced to the area by means of irrigation, the new settlers soon discovered they were able to grow almonds, olives, citrus fruits and of course grapes.

The amount of water fed to the vines had to be controlled of course. The plants were thirsty and needed to be given just enough water to survive. This would encourage the vines to produce small but intensely flavoured fruits. Giving the vines too much water would simply produce large bloated grapes that would only serve to produce insipid wine.

Drip irrigation systems were favored and are now looked upon as essential. This allows the amount of water to the vines to be controlled and also prevents run off, allowing the water to drip straight down to the roots. Wine making in the region is both modern and high-tech, night-time machine harvesting was introduced and to maintain quality, it became important to pay growers by the color and ripeness of the fruit rather than just the weight.

This recent change in attitude has ensured that the Riverland wine region, once known for it’s quantity of wine especially for the bulk market, now has a growing brigade of producers who are keen to producer a smaller quantity of premium bottles of wine.

To discover more about wine, please visit the Beginners Wine Guide

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For white wines, my top picks are Chile, New Zealand, and Italy. In Chile and New Zealand, Sauvignon Blanc is the grape of choice. It’s light, has a fruity taste, and plenty of balancing acidity. These are delicious and easy to drink wines that go well with food. Do not ignore other grapes from here either such as Reisling and Chardonnay as you might love these too. In Italy, just about every Pinot Grigio is going to be great. Ignore any big names as you are paying for marketing, not wine making or taste. These are festive and stunning food friendly wines as well. It’s tough to go wrong with an Italian Pinot Grigio!

For red wines there are plenty of great choices and here are my top two. First of all, Malbecs from Argentina and Chile are excellent choices. Most are cheap, delicious, and complement a steak very well although they are great on their own as well. And just about everything from Spain rocks these days with lots of variety under 10 to 15 dollars.

It’s worth picking up a few of these bottles and seeing what you enjoy the most. We all have differing palates, but most of us will love the majority of these wines.

For some great information on sparkling wines, including Champagnes and more, please visit Champagne and Champagne Bottle Sizes.

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Materials and ingredients

This recipe for Concord wine will yield approximately 5 gallons of wine, and the following materials will have to be purchased. You will need one 6 gallon screw-top poly-fermentation bucket, a wooden long handled spoon, a nylon mesh bag, a 3/8 ” siphoning hose, an electric juicer, and a 5 gallon dark glass wine carboy with cork. For the ingredients you will need to purchase 40 lbs. of Concord grapes, 6 ½ lbs. of sugar, 2 tbsp winery yeast, ¾ tsp peptic enzyme, 1 tbsp acid blend, 1tsp wine tannin, and a gallon of water.

Mixing the ingredients

Wash the grapes well; remove any bad grapes and discard all of the stems. You will then run all of the grapes through the juicer, emptying it into the 6 gallon screw- top fermentation bucket that has been lined with the nylon mesh bag. Repeat this process until all of the grapes have been run through the juicer. When you are done, tie the top of the nylon mesh bag and squeeze as much juice from the pulp into the fermenting tank. After you have squeezed the grapes, leave the mesh bag of pulp in the juice and add all the other ingredients except the water, the yeast, and the sugar. Bring the water to a boil on the stove, add the sugar to dissolve it, and set aside until it cools down to 75 degrees. Pour the sugar water to the fermentation tank, secure the lid, and let it sit for 24 hours.

Fermentation

At the end of the 24 hour waiting period, open the fermentation tank and add the yeast. Pull out the nylon mesh bag and squeeze out the juice once again from the grape pulp. The fermentation process takes about 5 days to complete and you will want to occasionally open the vessel and stir it with the wooden spoon daily. At the end of the 5th day, remove the nylon mesh bag and squeeze the juice from the pulp and discard. Then wait for 24 hours and siphon the juice from the fermentation tank into the 5 gallon carboy. This is an important step in the process because you will not want to siphon the sediment at the bottom of the fermentation tank into the carboy. If the wine does not reach the neck of the carboy, add water, then cork the carboy and set in a cool dark area. The wine should be ready to bottle in two months, and while you can drink the wine at that time, it is best to let it age for two years.

Now that you know how to make wine, you can experiment making homemade wine. And after you have successfully brewed wine you can try other wine making recipes.

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The truth is that almost anybody can make a reasonable wine that is sort of drinkable. However it can be frustrating when you taste your wine that it is not quite up to the standard that you expected.

When you go to the local wine store and purchase a bottle for around six or seven pounds, there is a considerable difference between that wine and the one you have just made, in most cases if you are a beginner.

What you must take into consideration that the wine you bought from the wine store is a brand name and produced by professional wine makers. They have spent many years learning their profession perfecting their wine to be the finest quality.

The great thing about wine making there is always something new to learn and that’s the fun of it.

Why do you think that one bottle of wine can be sold for less than a fiver and yet another can be sold for thousands? It’s all about quality and learning the secrets of the trade. Most quality wines that are produced are made using the finest quality ingredients. It’s no good just chucking any old fruit into a container that was discounted at the local market and expect to produce a good quality wine.

The truth is that when you buy fruit from the local supermarket this fruit was picked when it was unripe. What this means to you is you are probably going to have to add sugar when making your wine from this fruit. This is a pretty simple task to check with the use of a hydrometer.

You may be thinking why would you pick fruit that is not ripe? The answer is simple really; if they picked the grapes when they were ripe by the time they reached the supermarket shelves they would be mouldy and not fit to sell.

Another alternative is to buy fruit juice that is ready available in the supermarkets. If you are going to go down this route then be sure to buy juices with NO PRESERVATIVES they will kill the yeast, best advice, read the label very carefully.

Stabilizing is a process where many home wine makers make the most mistakes. This process takes place after the primary and secondary fermentation is complete. At this point the wine is usually clear and you would think this is the time to bottle it, but trust me it is not.

Before you bottle your wine you need to use a substance called Potassium Sorbate this will not kill the yeast however it will reduce the chances of the yeast producing.

If you skip this process you could end up with an explosion and all your efforts could end up on the ceiling.

These are just a few pointers to move off from the beginner stages of making wine to advanced, and make a wine to be proud of.

Want more information on the subject of wine making for beginners? Alan is offering a FREE ebook full of essential guidelines to making wine at home at his web site by subscribing to his email course, plus a web site with access to 56 wine recipes and much more…

http://www.grapegrowingsecrets.net/wine-making-for-beginners.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Benney

This article is to help you avoid the pitfalls that many people fall into the first time around when they start to make wine at home.

Making wine at home is a growing industry, and is it any wonder when we continue to see rising prices throughout the world for a decent bottle of good quality wine.

I can remember visiting Spain a few years ago and it was possible to buy a good bottle of quality wine for as little as a few pounds. Today those prices seem to have increased dramatically even the cheapest wine is at least four pounds a bottle in the UK.

Recent reports say that the price of a good quality bottle of wine has more than doubled over the past couple of years in some parts of the world.

At this time in the UK there is a growing concern of young people who are overindulging in the use of alcohol and becoming a danger to society. The government are now taking action and putting pressure on the Supermarkets to increase their prices even more.

The truth is this is not good for normal people who like the odd bottle of wine at the weekend. It seems that sensible people have to suffer financially for the people who are unable to control their drinking habits.

This is probably the reason why that making wine at home is becoming more attractive to many people. The truth is it really is not that difficult. Wine making for beginners may appear to be a challenge, but the fun in making and sharing it with your family and friends is priceless, if you manage to make a good batch.

There are many questions that people ask in the beginning to how much wine should I make? And this question is quite understandable as you don’t want to be wasting money. But you need to make enough to build up a stock. You don’t want to be drinking it before the wine is at its best.

The suggested amount to make is 5 gallons that would produce around 25 bottles of wine. The fact is that most people who make wine want to get to taste their wine as soon as possible and so a couple of bottles soon disappear.

The longer you leave the wine in the bottles the better it will taste. The biggest mistake that most wine makers make is not to let the wine mature in the bottles.

However if you want to make a wine quickly then you might want to start with a gallon that would only make around 5 bottles. The reality is that five bottles can soon get consumed before it gets a chance to mature.

The next stage is to decide which type of juice you would like to make your wine out of. Do you want a red wine, white wine? The choices are endless; however the most popular choices include grape juice and cranberry juice.

With regard to these juices if they turn out a little dry you can always add more sugar once it has fermented and been stabilized.

If you are looking to make a sweeter wine then many people are very successful with cherry juice.

The next stage is very important and that is to add the juice to the five gallon container but not before you sterilize all the containers and equipment.

There a couple of choices on the subject of sterilizing, you can use a sanitizer or just plain hot water. If you are going to use a sanitizer then be sure to rinse off all the surfaces. Most people use this because it avoids getting scolded with the hot water, but you still need to rinse off all the equipment with hot water after using the sanitizer.

With most wine making kits for beginners, if you read the instructions carefully it will tell you all you need to know with reference to what equipment you need.

I regret it would not be possible to cover all you need to know to make a good quality wine in this article, however I hope this encouraged you get started and save you a ton of money.

The facts are you can make a bottle of wine after the initial investment for around 30 pence a bottle. The great thing is once you achieve a good batch you can get a great deal of pleasure to sharing your efforts with your friends, knowing full well that you have made it yourself.

Want more information on the subject of wine making for beginners? Alan is offering a FREE ebook full of essential guidelines to making wine at home at his web site by subscribing to his email course, plus a web site with access to 56 wine recipes and much more…

http://www.grapegrowingsecrets.net/wine-making-for-beginners.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_Benney

Wine was served and drank for the purposes of seduction, as a stimulant for courage during battles, reconciliation, sealing pacts, celebrating religious festivals and for rituals, etc. Grapes were first known to be grown domestically in Southern Caucasus and the Near East, especially in the Fertile Crescent area.

Earliest historical records have shown the presence of wine growing in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first known source of wine production was discovered in Iran during 6,000 – 5,000 B.C. Grapevines and vineyards were unearthed in this place during that period. In Egypt, wine became a part of its ceremonies and rituals. The Egyptians produced white wine from the Muscat grapes which grew abundantly in Alexandria. They stomped on the grapes to extract the juice and allowed it to ferment in large vats.

The spread of wine- Making to other European places was attributed to the Phoenicians who were a seafaring people. They reached places like Italy and Greece. Wine production in France, Germany, Italy, and other European countries dates back to the Romans and Celts who dominated Europe in the past.

During the glory of the Roman Empire, wine was served in lavish occasions. It was in the Middle Ages that wine making became a popular skill. Technology in wine production improved as in the development of the wine press and the use of barrels. It was in Medieval Europe that wine was used in the religious rites of the Roman Catholics in their masses. Christian monks of France and Northern Italy were responsible for producing wines and coming up with new wine varieties. They kept track of the types of grapes they have fermented and the details of the result. This turned to better improvement in wine production until France became the best wine-producing region in the world.

On the other side, the advocates of Islam, through Geber and other Muslim chemists, concentrated on the uses of wine for its medicinal and industrial benefits. Nowadays, wine has been studied by modern medicine and has been proven for its health benefits. Throughout world-wide society now, wine-production exists in other places. Among the new vintners of wine history are the Americas, Africa, and Australia.

Historically, wine has come a long way and is here to stay for better reasons.

Buy wine store and you’ll never regret for doing so. Wine is like pancakes, they are one of the fast-selling commodities in the market these days. Wine store franchise is also a good idea but you have to franchise the one which is already known and which can guide you in starting out your business.

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If you think about it, wine making is chemistry and like any scientific project it sometimes takes a bit of experimentation to obtain successful results. Homemade wine recipes should be looked at as guides. Adjustments may have to be made based on the ingredients used. If anything is off you may have an undrinkable mess on your hands.

At the heart of all home wine recipes is the main flavor ingredient such as grapes, berries and apples or plants like dandelion and clover. Sugar and yeast are vital elements, plus acid, nutrients and water. There are also certain chemicals needed for wine.

Let’s take a look at the fruit, the sugar and the yeast.

One of my favorite blackberry wine recipes calls for 4 lbs. of blackberries. If the berries are exceptionally sweet and flavorful you may need less fruit. If the berries are lackluster you may need to add 1-2 lbs. of additional fruit. Using a larger quantity of fruit will produce a fruitier more flavorful wine and you may decide to modify the recipe even if the fruit is acceptable.

All fruit contains natural sugars and the sugar content is essentially dictated by how long the fruit remains on the vine. The content is expressed in percentages.

Typical supermarket fruit (4-8%) is picked long before it is vine-ripened in order to survive the trip to your grocers without rotting. Frozen fruit (10-13%) has more sugar because it is picked and frozen closer to ripening. Produce picked at a farm or purchased at a farm stand is usually fresh and fully ripened (15-18%) and has the highest sugar content. This is to say that the amount of sugar called for in a recipe may need to be adjusted up or down depending on the starting sugar content of your chosen fruit.

It should be noted that the sugar you add at the beginning of the fermentation process has nothing to do with how sweet the wine will turn out. This sugar is added simply for the wine yeast to turn into alcohol. If wish to have a sweet wine, you will add sugar (along with stabilizers) after the final fermentation.

Yeast is the true work horse of the whole wine making process. Yeast partners with the sugar to begin the fermentation process. Fermentation produces the alcohol. Isn’t that what we’re all here for? The right type of yeast is very important.

Make sure you have yeast that is specifically designed for wine making. No, you cannot use bread yeast. Like sugar, fruit has its own naturally present yeast. Yeast cultivated for wine making comes from the skin, seeds, etc of the spent fruit.

In using a homemade wine recipe you must be careful to consider these points. You will naturally find yourself adjusting ingredients to fit the condition of your fruit and the number of gallons you wish to produce. There are many sources for reliable recipes, but interpreting a recipe and knowing when to make adjustments comes after considerable experience, experimentation and unfortunately, a few dreadful batches of wine.

I’d like to share one of my favorite homemade wine recipes – blackberry. And while you’re there check out the Complete Illustrated Guide to Homemade Wine. This easy to follow book brought my wine making skills to a whole new level. Best of all it contains over 175 delicious recipes for making wine at home.

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The term coconut wine or kaong wine should not be mistaken with lambanog or vodka. Wine contains 9-18 % alcohol while vodka contains 35-50%. The usual alcohol content for lambanog is 80 proof or 40%. Wine goes through distillation process to produce 80 proof vodka.

Wild yeast are responsible for fermenting sugars to alcohol. I requires no oxygen during the process. Then, acetic acid bacteria that are naturally present in sap ferment alcohol to vinegar. It requires oxygen to take action. We’re gonna kill vinegar producing bacteria during wine making process.

1. Clean all equipment that will be used for sap collection. This will help reduce microbial contamination. Sap are collected from unopened coconut flower and sugar palm (kaong) male inflorescence. Mixing of two liquid is permissible

2. Collect sap every 5 hours. Longer collection interval allows acetic acid bacteria to convert it to vinegar. Soured juice is not fitted for toddy processing.

3. Transfer to fermentation tank. A narrow mount jar with cotton plug will do. Leave enough head space to accommodate rising bubbles. Fermentation is done when bubbling ceases. Alcohol fermentation occurs in anerobic condition while vinegar conversion occurs only with the presence of oxygen. Avoid air exposure of sap to prevent sourness.

4. Pasteurize for 15 minutes at 75 degree centigrade. Pack immediately in clean jars. It can be consumed immediately but aging will develop its flavor further.

5. If a more flavorful wine is desired, age it for at least one year. The longer the aging, the more delectable it becomes. Then, siphon the clear liquid and fill into sterilized bottles. Label.

Marvin Vicedo is a licensed Agriculturist major in Food Processing and an experienced Researcher.
He is the author of foodrecap.net.

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