Today, the fashion is for DIY (Do It Yourself) and home manufacturing. And while some embark on small projects, such as making bread or homemade laundry detergent, others are more ambitious and decide to make their own wine. For a return to basics, for the satisfaction of consuming what we produce, or to adopt more environmentally friendly habits, discover the art of making wine in your garden .
Making your own wine: a fascinating return to basics
Making homemade wine has many advantages, and is a fascinating activity. The wine and nature lover then takes the time to better understand the winemaking process and to appreciate all the wonders of nature. It is also an opportunity to become aware of the expertise required in viticulture and winemaking, and of the know-how of winegrowers of yesterday and today.
Wine making is an age-old art, and producing wine in your garden, for family consumption, is today a return to basics that allows you to reconnect with nature and return to the simple things of life.
Even if drinking your own wine helps counter the rise in market wine prices, having your own personal production is also a wonderful hobby which is not intended to compete with or replace professionally produced wine. Rather, the goal is to be open to new experiences . True wine lovers couldn't do without great wines and good bottles, and their domestic production is rather intended to open them up to experimentation and to return to basics.
Producing a wine that is more respectful of nature
It must be admitted that nothing will ever match the qualities of a professional winemaker's wine. And if amateur winegrowers are launching into garden wine, it is rather to respond to ecological motivations . On a small scale, producing your wine at home helps contribute to environmental sustainability, by preserving soil health and promoting biodiversity and gentle winemaking techniques.
The choice of grape varieties and the cultivation of each vine requires listening to the environment, respecting the cycle of the seasons and being attentive to the cycles of nature. It is therefore a return to the origins of organic viticulture which also allows you to maintain control over the wine that the budding producer will then consume.
If we go further in the environmental approach, producing your wine in your garden also allows you to reduce the ecological impact of greenhouse gas emissions from the transport of wine. So, even if the wine lover continues to buy wine, by reducing his consumption, he turns towards more sustainable and responsible habits.
How to make wine in your garden?
Today, it is quite easy to find tutorials to learn how to grow bunches of grapes in your garden , then vinify them into white wine, red wine or rosé wine. Some stores even offer starter kits and guides, to support the amateur winegrower from growing grapes to bottling.
During the winemaking process, it is essential to monitor the alcohol content of the wine. The alcohol level can vary depending on various factors such as grape variety, weather conditions and fermentation. It is recommended to measure the alcohol level at different stages of the process to ensure complete development of the wine. Additionally, ambient temperature plays a crucial role in the fermentation and aging of wine. It is advisable to store wine bottles at optimal temperatures to preserve the quality of the final product, especially when dealing with light wines. Precise control of these elements will help to obtain quality wines, rich in flavor and balanced.
In fact, producing your wine goes through the same stages as a professional producer. You simply need to adapt the techniques according to the material and equipment:
- The choice of grape varieties (white grapes or black grapes) and the cultivation of the rows of vines;
- Manual harvesting of grapes;
- The crushing of grape grapes, to burst the berry and release the grape juice;
- Skin maceration, to give fruitiness and roundness to the wine;
- Pressing, to separate the grape must and recover the grape juice;
- De-settling, to remove solid particles in suspension;
- Alcoholic fermentation, to let the sugars transform into alcohol;
- Malolactic fermentation, to reduce the acidity of the wine;
- Aging, to let the wine age and mature.
As with professional winemaking, home wine making can also be completed with optional steps (stemming, sulphiting, etc.).
Growing your own vine: perpetuating wine traditions
Beyond sustainable development issues, creating your own natural wines is also a centuries-old tradition, which some are trying to revive. The goal is then to perpetuate traditions which have shaped the history of wine in France and around the world, but also to preserve and nourish the richness of French terroirs, with endemic grape varieties and ancestral know-how which make up the identity of our wines .
Whether for the pleasure of cultivating your vines and getting closer to nature, for the pride of serving your friends a bottle of wine from your own production, or to respond to environmental issues, garden wine has the wind in its sails. And even if the project requires a lot of techniques, our ancestors proved that it was entirely possible to make your own red wines and white wines. So why not us ? If you want to know more, discover our article: How to make wine yourself in 10 steps?
