Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hi


Have just moved to a new house with a large vine in the back garden, that currently has tons of grapes on it turning a very nice red colour. They are definitely wine grapes as opposed to eating ones (shame) and I don't want to see them go to waste, but having done a search on the web for instructions it seems that to make wine from grapes is a very equipment heavy process.


As I don't know how good the grapes will be (and everyone is telling me that with this miserable summer they will be really sour) I don't want to invest in all the kit to have it festering in the cellar for years to come. A SW London friend came round at the weekend and said that near them there is a garden centre that organises a winemaking cooperative- you go in with your grapes, then come out a few weeks later with some lovely wine!


Anyone know of a similar project in our neck of the woods? Or can anyone offer advice for a rookie vintner?

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/4099-wine-making-co-op-in-se-london/
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

Wine making, in theory, isn't difficult - crush grapes, add yeast, ferment, age, bottle, drink. You shouldn't really need too much kit. As a good indicator, the pros get a bottle of wine for every kilo of grapes. YMMV, but if you're only expecting a crop of a few kilos the effort may be more 'of interest' than productive.


London is really too far north for reds. Whites may be possible. England tends to produce wines made of varieties that aren't your usual suspects - a nice glass of M?ller-Th?rgau anyone?


Anyway, you might want to talk to this bloke

Peckhamgatecrasher


I never did find a co-op, but I ploughed ahead anyway and got 40-odd bottles of red (well, light red/dark rose) wine, aging in my cellar.


The last tasting (back in June) showed that the wine still needs some maturing (OK, so its home brew, but also if you ever look at the commercial reds, they are mainly 2+ years old). I wonder whether last year I picked them too soon. Like you, my grapes this year are looking a nice colour already - but most info I've read says harvesting takes place late October/November. Could be "climate change" meaning they are ripening early, but to get the most sugar, I'm going to leave them as long as I can before the pigeons eat the lot!


This might help. A very basic, chuck it all in and see recipe for generic 'wine':


TAKE 2 GALLON BUCKET FILL WITH GRAPES TO THE TOP, WASH WITH WATER (COLD).


ADD BOILING WATER TO FILL WITHIN 3? OF THE TOP. ALLOW TO COOL.


CRUSH GRAPES AND STALKS ETC. WITH HANDS (CLEAN)


ADD 1 CAMPDEN TABLET (CRUSHED) AND JUICE OF 2 LEMONS AND 1 TEASPOON OF

PECTIN.


ALLOW TO STAND FOR 2 WEEKS ? COVERED.


RECRUSH GRAPES IN JUICE ? ALLOW TO STAND 1 WEEK.


DRAIN OFF JUICE INTO DEMIJOHNS, ADD YEAST AND 2LBS. SUGAR PER GALLON.


FERMENT UNTIL CLEAR.


KEEP AS LONG AS YOU CAN AND THEN DRINK !!


Best place I found for the equipment at a good price was searching online (but remember to buy all at once as they charge delivery whether its a spoon or demijohn). Or if you have a Wilkinsons handy - they do the lot there too.


Good luck, and Cheers!


LWL

poppy-bees Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I am attempting to make a cider press as we have

> so many apples we don't know what to do with them

>

> I would be very interested to hear from anyone who

> is in a similar situation with their apples /

> anyone who's successfully brewed cider


I want to have a go at cider too - it seems really easy to do. From what I have found out though you need to use some acidic apples in the mix - eating apples alone won't do. :)-D

  • 2 years later...
We have used the urban wine company ( chateau Tooting) for last 2 years. We have had in return 10 bottles of wine each year. Approx 2kg of grapes equals 1 bottle of wine. We also choose our name and label on our bottles. Our vintage is 'East Dulwich 1820' which is labelled on our bottles as we share our vine with next door neighbour and our door number is 18. The wine is drinkable a bit like a dry german wine and is blush in colour. It does cost to use them for bottling/ labels/ organisation. This years grapes we have to take to Merton on Saturday 1st October.They also organise a wine tasting evening for the un-bottling of the wine in March. I would recommend them as we have had great fun with serving guests/ friends with our wine from the back of our garden.Hope this helps.

Chateau Tooting sure ain't cheap. ?110 to join the harvest each year and they only promise 6 bottles back for that. I did try and find out what the 'discounted price' was for any more but I think they realised I couldn't afford it so didn't let me know in their email response. You can buy a lot of equipment to make your own at home for that price.

If you do try and get in contact with them, I think they're quite small so you need to give them time to respond. I got an answer in about a week.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • For every person like OP that moans their doorbell was rung and there was a knock on the door, there's someone else moaning that they didn't hear the delivery drivers. If you've ever done delivery work you'll know that loads of people's bells don't work. The delivery drivers probably goes to a hundred doors a day: press bell, knock door, drop package, move on. If you don't like delivery drivers, insist on delivery by Royal Mail where the workers have wages and a union - or just stop ordering shit online that's artificially cheap. But most of us (me included) don't want that
    • If someone comes to my house and bangs my door and slams my gate, I'd speak to them about it nicely and ask if they would please not do that. And then subsequently less nicely if they keep doing it, ending in reporting them.  We don't slam doors at home and I don't put up with that either. I can see us moving to a culture where we bribe drivers to be nice by tipping them, but we shouldn't have to. It's not necessary - does not matter if they are on minimum wage or not, or if society means that delivery services are outsourced or whatever reason anyone would like to concoct.     
    • We’ve got a gap on the roof of our shed that needs patching  don’t want to buy a huge roll so hoping someone has some leftover  happy to collect/reimburse 
    • I never said I thought it was targeted or deliberate. There also has never been a “stand off” or confrontation, we’ve spoken to them in a friendly manner about it. Our experience is they don’t seem to care. That’s the frustrating thing for us, if someone politely raises a concern at least take a second to reflect. Treat others how you would want to be treated.  I don’t want them to lose their job, far from it. But considering it could cost me a days work to fix any damage, I’m within my right to try prevent it.   
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...