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Welcome to our newsletter. We hope you find the information interesting and useful. We have added a PDF download feature to the various subject matters. Please share with us and our readers, your stories , pictures and suggestions. Tell us your winemaking experiences, send us pictures of your wine cellar or wine tasting room and always welcome are any home winemaking tips. Have fun..make wine!

Rob & Cindy, SomethingWine

St Anthony 2008	Intro	Your Health & Wine
Wine Etiquette	Tip #1	Close To Home
Winemaking 2006	The Ritual of Wine Decanting	Wine of the Season
	Other Links	Wine & Health News

Why make homemade wine? Well other than the obvious, cheaper than buying wine at the wine store. Home made wine makes for a great gift anytime of the year for any occasion or just a simple thank you token. Another really neat ideas is the future bride & groom to make their own wine, bottle it and design their labels to give as a token of their love on the big day. We have heard that some people have made wine to give away at a special wedding anniversary or if you have an annual get together say on New years eve a your place...give out bottles of wine to family and friends to welcome in the New Year, they can even save the wine and pop the cork the next New Years!

We are going to squash the myth that you need this huge area to make wine. Well you do if you are making gallons & gallons but to make 30 bottles at a time, you just need a small cool area, really. Yes everyone would love to have a wine cellar but reality is that most home winemakers do not.

Please if you have made wine and gave it away as a gift or whatever for other occasions, let us know.

 

We thought it may be helpful if your just exploring the possibility of making your own wine by giving you an example of instructions on how to make your wine from a concentrate kit.

These are the instructions for making one of our Vintners Reserve wine kits. They really are incredibly easy to make. If you can stir and follow directions, you can make a fabulous wine at home.

STAGE #1 - PRIMARY FERMENTATION

1. Add two litre's of warm water to the bottom of your sanitized primary fermenter. Stir the water vigorously and slowly add the contents of package #1 (bentonite) onto the surface. Stir for 30 seconds to ensure even dispersal.

2. Secure the neck of the bag into the collar on the top of the box and pour the contents into the primary fermenter with the bentonite solution. Add 4.5 litre's of warm water to the bag to rinse out any remaining juice and add it to the fermenter.

3. If your kit contains oak or elderflowers, add them to the primary fermenter now.

4. Top up the fermenter to the 23 litre (6 gallon) mark with cool water. Stir vigorously for 30 seconds.

5. Check specific gravity (with hydrometer). It should read between 1.080 and 1.090.

6. Ensure that the temperature of the juice is between 65-75 degrees. Sprinkle the yeast gently onto the surface and gently stir in.

7. Cover the primary fermenter and place in an area with a temperature of 65-75 degrees. Fermentation should start within 24-48 hours.

STAGE #2 - SECONDARY FERMENTATION
After 5-7 days the specific gravity will be 1.010 or less. You must transfer the wine to a carboy at this time.

1. Carefully siphon wine into a clean, sanitized carboy. Leave the sediment behind. This may leave a space at the top of the carboy. Do not top up at this stage.

2. Attach air-lock and bung to carboy.

3. Leave carboy in fermentation area for a further 10 days.

STAGE #3 - STABILIZING
After 10 days, check your specific gravity. It should be 0.996 or less. Verify a stable gravity by checking again the next day.

1. Dissolve the contents of package #2(metabisulphite) and package #3(sorbate) in 1/2 cup of cool water. Add to carboy and stir for 2 minutes to disperse the stabilizers and drive off CO2.

2. Shake contents of package #4(chitosan or isinglass). Carefully cut open the corner of the pouch and pour contents into carboy. Stir for 2 minutes to drive off CO2.

3. Top up carboy to within 2-5 inches of the neck. Allow your wine 8 days to clarify.

STAGE #4 - CLARIFICATION & BOTTLING

1. After 8 days, check your wine for clarity by drawing a small sample into a wine glass and examining it in good light. If it is not completely clear, leave the carboy for another 7 days. Do not bottle cloudy wine, it will not clear in the bottle.

2. Siphon your wine into clean, sanitized bottles and seal with a good quality cork. Leave bottles upright for three days before lying them on their sides.

YOUR WINE WILL BENEFIT GREATLY FROM 3 MONTHS BOTTLE AGE. ENJOY!

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Shopping cart Look for our Home Winemaking with Concentrate Book authored by Rob, based on his many experiences at Home Winemaking.

Talk about your adventures with making wine from juice and grapes this past year and maybe the equipment used..

 

 

Cork Tray I finally took some of those hundreds of corks I have been saving and made my cork board. it is not as easy as you may think trying to ge those corks aligned just right. You can always buy unused corks but, that takes the fun out of it and by using corks from your favorite wines, makes the tray unique to you. I have received so many compliments. Check out the picture!

Shopping cart Cork tray available with or without corks

Try this tip

Maybe talk about some of our customers. the ones that make wine out of mead, or fruits or grow their own grapes etc.??

 

 

Seems like every day we learn new health values from drinking wine (of course in proper moderation).  The most recent we have read is that it helps prevent osteoporosis in women.  Wine contains an easy to assimilate form of calcium and polyphenols that has anti-ageing properties.  Osteoporosis is a big win as many women can’t take the recommended drugs.  Again, please drink in proper moderation and consult your doctor.

Wine can also reduce the rate of certain types of cancer.   Again, please drink in proper moderation and consult your doctor.

 

 

So you properly serve your wine to your guests, red wine should be cool (62-64 degrees F).  No need to refrigerate unless the bottle feels a little warm then put in fridge for about 10 minutes.

White wine can put in the fridge for about two hours or for that romantic touch, place the bottle in an ice bucket for about 20 minutes. Either way should bring your favorite white wine to that perfect chilled temperature.

Never fill a glass more than 2/3 full. In some cases you may even just pour a glass half way. 

Salute!

Stemware Rack the only way to dry those precious wine glasses properly.  You can fold it up or leave it out for display.  We use ours all of the time.  No more worrying about breaking glasses in the dish drainer!
Shop under accessories for our Stemware Rack. Coming Soon

Stem less Wine Glasses.  What a great idea for someone who loves to entertain with wine but, just does not have enough room to store your traditional wine glasses safely.

Maybe put a kit and it's description here like a mid size starter kit.

 

 

Decanter it's that time of year again to start thinking about gift giving. Decanters make great gift ideas because most wine drinkers don't purchase decanters for themselves. They just pour from the bottle into the glass. Please read below to learn more!

 

The Ritual of Wine Decanting
Whites & Reds

Wine can add the finishing touch to any meal or any occasion. Weather you choose to decant one bottle or several will depend on the size of the decanter. By definition decanting simply means transferring (decanting) the contents of a wine bottle into another receptacle (the decanter) prior to serving. One might ask how will the task of pouring wine from the bottle into a second container make the wine taste and smell better. We hope to inform you of some of the reasons that many people for hundreds of years or longer have used decanting to enhance their wine consumption.

Why do wine lovers decant their wine? Is it the mere fact that the decanter is a more attractive looking vessel or does the pretty shape and the clear glass accentuate the finer qualities of the wines color? Decanting serves a two-fold purpose. First when wine older wines are decanted in the proper manor the wine will be separated from the sediment, a grainy byproduct that many older wines have. The sediment is merely the fallout from the tannins and coloring produced during the crafting of most wines particularly the red family. Sediment is not harmful but just a nuisance to the eye. For this reason we explain how to carefully transfer wine into the decanter without the sediment. There are two types of wine to decant and we don’t mean Red or White. The two types we are referring to are the older wines and younger wines. With these two types there are two ways to properly decant and explore the full potential of your wine.

Younger wines tend to have very little or no sediment are will benefit greatly with the ritual of wine decanting. The young wine is very easy to decant, simply pour the bottle into the decanter and don’t worry about splashing about in the decanter. The oxygen will mix with your wine and will benefit on a grand scale with the duration of 20 minutes or more prior to serving. It will even continue to evolve for several hours.

Older wines which may contain sediment should be decanted as follows. First be aware the older wines may have reached their maturity and overexposure to oxygen prior to serving may ruin the overall taste. For this reason we recommend that you decant immediately before serving so the wine will not have the opportunity to change. This slight mixture of wine to oxygen ratio will do much better for the older more mature wines.

Now you may be wondering how the sediment is removed. Try these steps and see for yourself. Have a clean decanter at the ready and an uncorked bottle of your favorite selection close at hand. The unopened bottle should remain standing upright for an hour or longer if you have the time. This serves to allow the sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. When the time is right you can slowly pour the bottle into the decanter. Hold the bottle so as not to raise the bottom high enough to allow the sediment to be mixed with the pour. Again pour slow and hold steady the decanter at an angle and the bottle so the sediment does not pass the neck. You may ask how will I see the sediment on the dark bottles, that is a good question and we will address that by telling you what many wine lovers do. Light a candle and place it on the side of the bottle so as you face and hold the decanter and bottle the candle will illuminate slightly through the dark bottle and allow the vision on the sediment much more pronounced. You can also try to rotate the bottle in a circular motion and watch for the sediment as it creeps toward the neck. At this point you should stop the pouring into the decanter. The wine contained will be a clear and clean elegant wine ready to decant in its new home. The remainder of the wine in the bottle can be filtered into a glass for consumption.

Cleaning the decanter is a simple task but there are some rules to follow to properly clean them. Due to the odd shape of decanters cleaning poses a slight challenge that is easily overcome. Try not to use detergent or dish soap as they will form a residue on the inner walls of the glass that are very hard to remove. A proven method is the use of a coarse sea salt and simple shaved or crushed ice. When placed in the decanter half full simply shake for a minute or two and rinse several times with clear clean water. Try to place the decanter with the neck down to allow it to drip dry. This method will remove the wine residue buildup while not leaving any odors in the decanter.

Download this file / section in Adobe PDF format The Ritual of Wine Decanting

Shop under accessories to see our beautiful Wine Decanters.

 

 

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