Harvest of the vine

During the fall my Father-in-law and I try to make wine for the following year. It happened as a lark one year, he'd been making it with his friends and I think he thought it was something we could connect over. Well it was and it is and now some ten years later we have an activity that is both fun and infuriating.

At the end of September/beginning of October you need to harvest your grapes or in my case buy some from a local distributor. It's hard to say which grapes are best. I prefer either grapes that will make a dry wine with less alcohol(Chianti) or a juicier wine with higher alcohol(Zinfandel). Some people blend the grapes for color but I find that if enough time is spent fermenting and the skins are kept with the juice the color should be fine; this is only for red wines, white wines should be crushed and pressed immediately so the light color remains pure. I tend to make red wine, though not exclusively. I also hope that other people appreciate that the tools we use to make wine are probably 75+ years old, but they still work like a charm. It's such a simple process of crushing, de-stemming, fermenting and storing. I guess it always surprises me when wine is created by it. It's easy to see how it's such an ancient drink, but all the nuances necessary to make a mediocre wine good or a good wine great are what make it a real challenge in culinary terms.