The philosophy of winemaking you will encounter in your average book on the subject will run along the lines of :-

• Ensure all your expensive kit and equipment is so sterile you could perform heart surgery with it,
• Brew it up using complex methods and recipes taking the care and attention you would normally reserve for making dynamite and
• Leave it to mature for at least a couple of years.

We are realists. We look at this philosophy and say, well, sure, but...
Thus we give you:

Our Philosophy on making wine at home

• Ensure all your kit and equipment has been washed at least that day.
• Bang up a gallon of wine whenever you get a free half hour or so. Use whatever recipe, method and ingredient supply you have to hand. The more wine you have, the better, and the more popular you will become.
• Leave it to mature until you want to drink it. Ideally this should be longer than it takes to ferment.

This forms a rough comparison with the above rules, but other important points are:-

• If you can't afford it, sod it.
• If you need it, but can't afford it, improvise. Who needs a wine press if a bucket and a clean foot will do?
• If it doesn't move, ferment it.

See also the Fundamental Rules of Winemaking.
and The art of pretentiousness.
Back to Wine Homepage. The Glossary