experienced brewer, about to start wine making 8

Hi Scott,

I'll take a stab at answering your questions, in-line below.

On 2-26-2006 9:00 PM, Scott Lindner

All of the juice kits I have purchased have included sulfites. The kit instructions from Winexpert (formerly Brew King) state that the amount of sulfites they include is for wine which will be consumed in the short term, and for longer aging they recommend adding additional sulfite to protect and preserve the wine.

It's possible that you have a sensitivity to sulfites. But it's far more likely that you do not, statistically speaking. Sulfites are commonly blamed for any headache after drinking wine, but unless you've been medically diagnosed with a sulfite sensitivity you might be doing yourself a disservice to exclude sulfites from your wine based on a self-diagnosis.

Yes, you can make perfectly good wine without using sulfites. And if you will be drinking it within a year of completing the kit, there's probably no real need for the sulfites. However, sulfites in wine could be compared to hops in beer. They protect and preserve. Yes, hops also have a flavor component, so the analogy isn't a complete parallel. But the use of sulfites will help prevent oxidation, and it has other benefits as well.

Absolutely.

If you make homebrew you already have the skills required to make good wine. The only component you may lack is patience, and if you've ever aged a barley wine or other high gravity beer you won't lack this either. To make a kit wine requires only that you pay attention to your cleanliness, something every brewer has drilled into them, and that you follow the directions. The most common departure from the kit instructions is to allow more time in most of the steps, as the kits often make a promise that you'll have your wine in a certain number of weeks, when the same number of months would make a large improvement in the results.

Being oaked and having a full body are two separate components of a wine. It's true in general that lighter bodied wines are not commonly oaked, but it's also true that it's not necessary to oak every dry, full bodied red wine.

No. Several manufacturers sell oak chips which can be used to oak a wine being bulk aged in a carboy.

You can bulk age your wine filled carboys right next to your beer filled carboys.

They can be re-used. But the care and maintenance of an oak barrel is a subject worthy of a far more detailed answer than I can provide. I use Stavin oak beads to oak my wine (and also my beers where the style is appropriate) as I have found this to be a quality product. There are other options, including buying an oak barrel, but this is my solution to the question of oak. Most wine kits will come with some form of oak if the style is appropriate to an oaked wine.

On 2-26-2006 9:14 PM, Scott Lindner in the

It is typically time spent bulk aging, either in oak barrels or in stainless steel tanks, or in a combination of the two.

grapes possible to

I can't answer the statistical question with any certainty, but as a guess I'd say that it's likely that there are a lot more home winemakers who use kits than who grow or buy grapes for their home made wine. I personally straddle the line. I make wine kits exclusively at my home, but I also buttist my father-in-law in his yearly production of 200+ gallons of red wine made from purchased grapes. I also make about 40+ gallons of melomel mead yearly, most of that from whole fruit but not requiring a press.

beer

The typical wine kit size is 5-6.5 gallons. The size wine barrel I see in use at most local wineries is 50 gallons.

starting

Like the barrel question, this question has no good short answer. I'd suggest a web search for some good resources, or a browse through your library, or you might find that your local homebrew supply shop has some references. You might also consider contacting some local wineries for information, as they are typically very helpful and they may even be in the business of selling the vines.

I hope this helps!

Cheers, Ken Taborek