My new house has a vineyard - now what!

July 8, 2010 11:09 AM

I just moved into a house with a vineyard - what now?

So our new house has a small vineyard - 40 or so vines, Pinot grapes and last year it yielded about 400lbs of grapes.

At a bare minimum what do I need equipment wise to make some wine come harvest time and what are the best resources to figure out what on earth I should be doing :)

posted by zeoslap to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Best answer: It is not all that difficult to make your own wine, but it is also complicated enough that it can not be explained with any coherence here.

There are tons of books about the basics. Here is a pretty good one.
That will provide with more than enough info to get started
posted by Flood at 11:45 AM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Your local homebrew store would be a great resource. They sell kits that would contain all the equipment you need and even the most expensive starter kit is less than $200 (at my LHBS admittedly far, far away from you). You could even make a test batch from frozen juice before harvest time to make sure you get all your hard lessons learned first.
posted by mkb at 11:51 AM on July 8, 2010

Your local homebrew store will likely rent you a press when the time comes. After that, you'll need buckets and glass jugs (called carboys in the biz) and tubing and such, but that's all in the kit mkb described. There's a whole industry that will supply you with all the stuff you need.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:59 AM on July 8, 2010

Best answer: I have no idea what your situation is, but in my part of the woods village members with small yields put their grapes together to make their own community village wine - which means that individual members don't have to acquire all the equipment and expertise on their own.

I'm just mentioning it in case there is any similar group in your area that might welcome your collaboration.
posted by taz at 12:35 PM on July 8, 2010

Best answer: You should invite us all over to harvest & crush! Perfect opportunity for http://irl.metafilter.com/.

This article has some good basics, but it's probably worth talking to people in the area about specifics - go make friends with the nice people at Periscope Winery in Emeryville.
posted by judith at 12:58 PM on July 8, 2010

After giving yourself due time (a couple of days might do it, I imagine) to recover from the exhaustion brought on by all that rolling around on the ground in ecstasy, I suggest bringing in a local viticulturalist to assess the state of your vines and what you could do with them in light your tastes in wine.
posted by jamjam at 1:06 PM on July 8, 2010 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You moved into a house with a vineyard?

The first thing is to take one hand and reverse it over your shoulder. Then pat yourself on your back several times, you lucky bugger.

When you've done that, find a neighbor who also has a vineyard. Invite them for dinner. Ask them what they do. There may be a wine co-operative or a local organisation that rents out equipment for smallholders.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:02 PM on July 8, 2010