My father made wine for years! He had 100's of bottles stored in the basement in a separate room. One night , a batch of wine "exploded" popping corks and broken bottles & wine spraying all over the place! My Mom was furious! It was a huge, nasty mess! Other than this incident, they enjoyed the process and drinking it also. as I recalled most of it was good, but some was awful.
Your bottles look clear and your labels are very nice.
Thanks for bringing back those memories - My dad will be 85 soon - his wine making days were a very long tine ago! I hope you have as much fun with the wine making as I remember my parents having!

Mago, that's why I keep my fermenting bottles in my second bathroom, in the tub! Just in case something decides to explode.

Forturnately, they now have ingredients you can add to prevent this from happening. What kind of wine did your dad make?

I am SO impressed! Lovely looking wine and great labels. I would love to sample those.

Teresa

Several of my friends are very serious wine makers, so I know it's a rewarding hobby. I would say that you are going to enjoy it but, heck, you already are.

Just don't get too impatient. Let the wine age for at least 20 minutes before opening.

Jim

That is lovely looking wine gardengrl! And it's interesting to see the process with your photos.

One of my sons-in-law works at a winery in Canada and also makes his own wine at home. I think he uses just about any fruit available but he's also partial to making both ginger and rhubarb wine and I've seen him starting them out in the kitchen when I've been there on holidays.
Some of his wine is pretty good, some is also not so good LOL. But he does make great beer as well and I keep telling him that he should start producing it commercially. Although I'm not a beer drinker I will have a very cold glass on a very hot day.

Wishing you further success with your wine!

SharonCb

OMG!!!
That wine looks fantastic!!!
I may have to try my hand at making some.

The photos are great, never thought of banana wine..sounds so good.

Linda

gardengrl- my Dad made all the fruits, and berries and probably some really weird tasting stuff. My Mom was an excellent, very down to earth cook. We ate
very well balanced meals - I think she even served vegetables at breakfast! As I recall, he was very creative in his trials.
The explosions happened in the middle of the night. It sounded like a shooting gallery in the basement - scaring the whole family.
This looks like a fun hobby.

I can't remember, years ago it was either here on the CF or on the Harvest forum, where someone made Ginger Beer and it exploded all over the inside of her refrigerator. Her explanation of it all was hilarious.

When I was younger, Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine" was and still is my favorite book. The thought of making dandelion wine intrigued me.

So far, knock on wood, what I've made has turned out yummy. I'd love to make a ginger wine soon, and I've also heard about a Pumpkin Spice Wine for the holidays.

Kathy, it's funny how you posted this right now, Elery and I were just discussing making strawberry wine.

He has made one large (50) bottle batch of a zinfandel type wine, using a "starter from a local winery. We were hoping to try black cherry wine this year but the cherry crop is a total loss due to that late frost. Maybe blueberry?

Annie

Annie, I'm using organic cherry juice I bought from the store for a batch of oaked cherry wine. It was expensive but I had coupons! I spent around $50 for juice for 5 gallons, but it will make about 25-30 bottles. If I were to buy wine like this at $10-15 per bottle for 30 bottles...well you do the math. It's worth the cost!

Blueberry is my favorite!!! The wine hobby shop I go to makes a fabulous sweet blueberry wine. Love it!

Check out Jack Keller's website, I used his frozen strawberry wine recipe. Oh, and freeze your fruit FIRST! Defrost the fruit, then make wine. You'll get more flavor and juice extraction (cellular structure breaks down).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Here is a link that might be useful: Jack Keller's Wine Making Website

I really enjoyed your photos and your wines are beautiful!

I wish you better luck than we had. Our large carboy of a red wine (cabernet?) tasted more like sherry and not a very good sherry. Tried this twice.

I had more success making liqueurs and cordials. Now that was fun. I had a large jar of fermenting cherries on the windowsill for months. Everyone that tried it, liked it. Also made peach schnappes (sp?), vanilla bean liqueur (easy), strawberry liqueur (also popular), and a thyme aperetif (wouldn't make that one again, lol), but my favorite was hypocras, a meade-like drink with strawberries, from an old recipe. The hypocras tasted like fresh strawberries. These are all easy, because although some do ferment, you start off with vodka or grain alcohol.

My elderly Aunt Jo used to talk about making dandelion wine. She said that the only place to keep it was behind the sofa in the parlor and when her beaus came courting (this was around 1895 to 1900), there would be an occasional fizz or pop but she was too embarrassed to tell them what was making the noise.

SO pretty! I'd love to try this some day -- I'll add it to my bucket list.

Wow, I am so impressed! Tim bought me all the equipment to make wine several years ago and I tried it and it turned out terrible!

So the stuff has been sitting in storage ever since. You may just be my inspiration to try again!

Your wines look lovely, glad they taste good, too!

Linda

Linda, getting all the equipment is 80% of the battle. Go for it!

Another good website to try is Winepress.com, if I'm not over here on the CF, I'm over there!

A GREAT book to start out with is "The Joy of Home Winemaking" by Terry Garey. She's a great resource and has a great sense of humor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winepress winemaking forum

You made it look so easy. Your wine looks just beautiful. It's one of those hobbies I've always wanted to take up, but haven't quite found the time.

I really have to admire you Kathy! You're so up for exploring new horizons from chicken stock from litte feet, decorating cakes, canning and now wine making! Annie is our all purpose gal, but you're fast on her heels! LOL

Seriously, this post brought back a memory of when my pharmacist father once made some type of schapps. I'll have to call him and ask more about it. All I remember is vodka and the jars sitting on top of the fridge for a few weeks. My mother wasn't impressed and I don't recall tasting it myself. I'll have to ask him about the outcome and the experience!
E

I have a wine making supplier about 1 mile from my house I always wanted to do this. My friend Matty buys his grapes from a supplier in New Jersey and makes a great red wine.

And the great thing is you don't have to make wine out of grapes! You can make wine out from just about anything, which is what appeals to me, kinda like canning & preserving. Where else can you buy Lemongrass wine? Or Beet Rhubarb wine?

My husband says if I come home with a butter churn, he's going to have an intervention, but he doesn't complain when it's time to eat or drink! :-)

Seriously though, he's a great sport and I think Annie has the best deal. She's got a fella with a tractor! And a farm with chickens and cows! And a huge garden! And a basement! Oh, what I would do for a basement.

But if you're seriously interested, start reading and lurking on winemaking forums, then get your stuff and give it a shot. It's one of those hobbies that is mostly waiting, but the end result is a lot of fun!

Welcome to the club! I've been making beer and wine for probably 20 years now. I started with beer but find wine an easy brew. In years past I've made several grape, rhubarb, apple, and the famous elderberry.

I highly recommend those think about giving it a try do so. You can start with a gallon of apple juice which might even come in a glass gallon jug! Get the kind without preservatives. A cork and bubble lock like you see in Gardengrl's are only about $2-3. A cup of corn sugar (dextrose) per gallon will up the alcohol content to a reasonable level. Wine yeast is only a few cents per packet. Buy a simple instuction manual and your bottles won't explode. Forget Grandpa's way... he plowed his fields with a horse. There are better ways now.

My favorite thing about homemade wine is that I can leave the sulfates out! Shelf life is reduced and you have to bottle it dry. I like dry wine and appreciate not having a pickled stomach from the sulfates. Not that I don't enjoy a nice claret but it would be nice if France (or Italy or Germany or whoever) could ship it over the ocean without chemicals. When in the mood I sweeten my wine glass by glass with pop or juice... plain water makes an excellent mixer!

Great post Gardengrl! Got me thinking about the grapes I see growing out in my field.

Five gallons of apple-blueberry being "inspected" by Luna Looski as I was getting ready to bottle and cork it in regular wine bottles. A magical picture because my cats never get on the counter.... Lulu probably Photoshopped herself in the pic?

A cheater wine because the apple juice was store bought and the blueberries dry.

: )
lyra

Hey! If you ever need an extra Taste-Tester, I can sure send you my address!! LOL

Beautiful looking wine!

Deanna

Those finished bottles are just beautiful.

Alright Lyra! Your Apple Blueberry sounds delish and it looks like it's coming right along.

I choose to use sulfites as I'm afraid of going to all the trouble and having the wine spoil. The good thing is I control how much I put in, which with commercial wine, I have no idea.

The neatest thing about this hobby is what you learn along the journey. I learned A LOT about sulfites, and that a plate full of salad from a salad bar has more sulfites than an entire bottle of wine!