experienced brewer, about to start wine making



I'm considering wine making. My wife and I drink a lot of wine... and beer. I have been brewing for a long time and it recently occurred to me with how much wine we drink that I should start winemaking. I have a couple of simple questions based on the little I know.. hopefully they'll get to other questions that I didn't know to ask.

Do juice kits have sulfites?

Is it possible to make good wine without using sulfites? I hate the headaches.

Currently, I enjoy drinking $8 to $12 bottles of dry red wine. For those that buy a lot of wine, you know what you can get in that range. Is it possible to make wine as good as this? What does it take to reach this mark? I ask because beginer homebrew.. well.. sucks. Until you learn the skills to make truly great beer. But not all of these things are without cost or lots of effort some people wouldn't go after.

My wife and I like very dry and full bodied red wines. If I understand correctly, I should probably consider using oak barrels for at least some of the aging to achieve some of the full body that I enjoy. But... looking back to my $8 to $12 initial objective.. is oak barrel aging required or are the use of oak barrels to hit the $20+ range?

What sort of aging facilities should I consider? With my homebrew... I need a chilly room to cold condition my ales for six months. Well.. I don't *need* it but that's what I do because that's the quality of ale I'm looking for. Are there storage requirement equivalents with wine making for truly great wine?

I've looked at oak barrel prices. They are expensive. Can they be reused? How many times?

That's it for now. Thanks!!!

Scott

Fining with both + and agents
John, RE: Searches: I rarely need to ask a question on this site. I always find a wealth of information when I do a search ... there's more info than one can imagine. I have...

 




winemaking | Previous | Next

Fining with both + and agents | HELP! Was the kit bad