Any garagistes here?

[BKeats]

I have been making my own wine for a while. When we bought the weekend house, I was excited to find that there were vineyards in the area. So I planted some vines. French American hybrids as I didn’t want to deal with grafting.

Today was a gorgeous early fall day so I decided to get the harvest in. Using my refractometer the first grape I measured came in at 22 Brix. Woohoo I thought. Northeast weather be damned I got some ripeness. The next grape came in at 19 Brix. Then one at 17. Damn. Oh well. Still I needed to balance ripeness against the birds eating all the grapes. Time to harvest.

The first bucket for testing.

I harvested and crushed and when I measured the batch of juice it came in at 20.

Not bad. Will be a touch light on alcohol, just under 11%, but I think I can skip the chaptalization this year. Will post as things progress until bottling and tasting in the spring.

Anyone other amateur winemakers on HO? Would love to get other’s experiences.

[kaleokahu (Kaleo)]

I am a reformed garagiste, who delusions of grandeur took well past the legal annual household limit. I made my first “wine” at about age 12 (bottles all exploded). Later in life, I got involved with a small hobby wine group, and learned the basics. Then I struck out on my own, dove deeper, and acquired professional tools and equipment. I never grew my own grapes, but I developed relationships with growers in AVAs I liked, and had my grapes picked to order and trucked in. One year my Cabernet Sauvignon won an international gold and was my state fair’s only unblended Cab to take firsts.

Winemaking is a fine hobby.