The right grapes. Quality of a wine depends first of all on the grapes it is made from. As is true of other fruits, there are hundreds of grape varieties. They fall in three main groups.
First, there are the classic vinifera wine grapes of Europe. These also dominate the vineyards of California, with its essentially Mediterranean climate. But several centuries of trial have shown that they are not at home in most other parts of the United States.
Second, there are the traditional American sorts such as Concord, Catawba, Delaware, and Niagara, which are descendants of our wild grapes and much grown where the vinifera fail. They have pronounced aromas and flavors, often called foxy, which, though relished in the fresh state by many, reduce their value for wine.
Third, there are the French or French-American hybrids, introduced in recent years and now superseding the traditional American sorts for winemaking. The object in breeding these was to combine fruit resembling the European wine grapes with vines having the winter hardiness and disease resistance of the American parent. They may be grown for winemaking where the pure European wine grapes will not succeed.
What wine is. Simply described, wine is the product of the fermentation of sound, ripe grapes. If a quantity of grapes is crushed into an open half-barrel or other suitable vessel, and covered, the phenomenon of fermentation will be noticeable within a day or two, depending on the ambient temperature. It is initiated by the yeasts naturally present on the grapes, which begin to multiply prodigiously once the grapes are crushed.
Fermentation continues for three to ten days, throwing off gas and a vinous odor. In the process, the sugar of the grapes is reduced to approximately half alcohol and half carbon dioxide gas, which escapes. Fermentation subsides when all the sugar has been used up. The murky liquid is then drained and pressed from the solid matter and allowed to settle and clear in a closed container.
The resulting liquid is wine—not very good wine if the constituents of the grapes were not in balance, and readily spoiled, but wine nevertheless.
Beneath the apparent simplicity, the evolution of grapes into wine is a series of complex biochemical reactions. Thus winemaking can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. The more you understand and control the process, the better the wine. The following instructions cover only the essentials of sound home winemaking.
Under Federal law the head of a household may make up to 200 gallons of wine a year for family use, but is first required to notify the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Form 1541.