The DIY winemaking process is easy as 1 – 2 – 3

Are you wondering what it takes to make your own wine? Are you hesitant to take the leap for fear you may not like the wines? Do you wonder how much money you will save? These questions can be daunting and we make your DIY winemaking process as easy as 1 – 2 – 3. Here’s where you’ll see just how easy it is and get answers the answers you need to get going. Just in case you have more questions, you can check out our FAQ page.

Step 1 … choosing your wines

We have hundreds of wines for you to choose from so we’ll make your decision easier.

• First, we need to know what you like to drink: red, white, rosé, dessert or all of these wines
• Next, we need to know what you like to eat with your wines and which ones you like to drink by themselves

Narrowing down your preferences will help us help you to narrow down your choices.

Step 2 … pouring the love (yeast), starting fermentation and becoming a vintner

We’ll help you get your wine started by putting the initial ingredients into a Primary Fermenter. Our favourite part of DIY winemaking next to enjoying our wines is to add the yeast. It’s tradition for both of us to hold onto the yeast packet(s) while we pour the love. As the tiny yeast pellets make contact with the juice, fermentation bubbles start to form.

Wait while we take care of primary fermentation, racking, degassing, filtering & fining…

You don’t have to worry about a thing until we call you to come back for Step 3.

Step 3 – bottling or bagging & storage

The big day has arrived! When you taste your wine, it will taste good but young and may need to smooth out for a while as it ages in the bottle. Depending on your preference, you can bottle, cork, shrink cap and label your product or you can bag it. Bottles are great for presentation. If you bag it, you’ll have 5 bags which you can store more easily than bottles. If you do have room, you can store your bottles in our sturdy, stackable crates or your own wine racks. You can also leave them in the boxes and tuck them away somewhere that doesn’t change temperature much.

Once you know the wines you like, the choosing, starting fermentation and bottling will take than an hour. The key to DIY winemaking is planning ahead. There’s a chart on our FAQ page that answers “How long should my wine be aged after bottling?”. If you’re making an 8-week wine, you need to add 2 months and then you can calculate when it will be at its optimum.

One last word on how you will save money. Because you’re the vintner (or manufacturer) there’s no tax on your wine. You only pay tax on the corks, shrink caps and labels. Let’s say you like a red wine that costs $15/bottle. Multiply that by 30, add 15% in taxes and the cost is $517.50. Assuming you use your own recycled bottles, compare that to a batch of comparable wine that costs $225 plus tax and it’s less than $230. You’ve just saved 56%!

The DIY winemaking process is easy as 1 – 2 – 3. It’s fun and it will help you save money. Impress your friends or better yet, collaborate on group batches for variety!