How To Make Wine

Wine Making Instructions

Note: "Wash all equipment coming in contact with your wine with a chlorinated detergent, rinse well, then sterilize with a sulphite solution, rinse again, before starting. Anything coming in contact with your wine must be clean and sterilized."

IN BUCKET:

Pour in concentrate from bag
Add two bags of hot water from tap to rinse out bag
Very slowly sprinkle the Bentonite into the bucket
Fill bucket to the 19 litre level, stir and check temperature.
Add cold or warm water to bucket to have about 75 degrees F. at the 23 litre level and stir thoroughly
Check specific gravity of the liquid in the bucket and record
Sprinkle yeast on top of liquid (or re-hydrate yeast if desired)
Seal cover on bucket and let stand for approximately five days
Check specific gravity - if it reads 1.01 or lower transfer liquid to carboy, carefully leaving all sediment in the bucket
If specific gravity is above 1.01 continue to check daily until this value is reached

IN CARBOY:

Top up carboy with luke warm water to lower part of neck
Install air-lock containing sulphite solution or water
Let stand 10 days. At this time the flavour and aroma develops after the fermentation stops. Do not continue for 10-14 days
Check specific gravity - For white wine SG should be 0.990

For red wine SG should be 0.997

When specific gravity is equal to or just below these values either :

A: Transfer wine to bucket being careful to leave all sediment behind in the carboy
Wash and sterilize carboy
Transfer wine from bucket to the carboy holding back 1 cup of wine (do not add any water at this time to top up carboy), or

B: Remove 1 ½ cups of wine from carboy discard ½ cup and continue (no racking at this point)

Then to one cup of wine add pouch 2A (potassium metabisulphite)and pouch
2B (potassium sorbate) and mix thoroughly
Add mixture to carboy and stir vigorously
Mix pouch 3 (isinglass) in half a cup of warm water and mix until thoroughly dissolved -add to carboy
Install air-lock containing sulphite solution
Stir vigorously three times a day for three days

Let stand a minimum of seven days until wine has cleared, additional waiting at this stage will not hurt the wine, it is better to wait an additional week or two than to bottle a cloudy wine

BOTTLING DAY:

Soak corks in hot water and sulphite solution for about five minutes
Wash, sterilize and rinse bottles
Transfer wine to bucket being careful to leave all sediment in carboy (check and record SG)
Add wine conditioner, oaking compound, etc. if desired and stir gently
Siphon wine into bottles leaving about 1" air space between the wine and the bottom of the cork
Cool a bottle while you clean up, then enjoy your Estate Bottled Wine!


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