Many different wines can be made from apples, either by themselves or in combination with other fruits. No one variety is known to be outstanding on its own but cooking varieties make better wine than dessert varieties.
Experience over many years has shown that a combination of cooking, dessert, crab apple, pears and quince make the most attractive wine of all. Apples respond well to most yeast’s but especially to champagne yeast.
Although perfect fruit is desirable for most wines, windfall apples make excellent wine. The apples do not need to be peeled or cored, but naturally any badly bruised parts that have turned brown should be cut away, with any parts infected by a maggot.
Apples are sometimes hard to crush but various answers have been found to this problem. Perhaps the easiest is to wash the apples in a sulphite solution of about 100 ppm, so removing dust, leaves and grass at the same time as killing off unwanted micro-organisms. Next, drain off the surplus water, pack the apples into polythene bags and place them in a freezer for 48 hours. When thawed they should be soft enough to crush with your hands.
If a freezer is not readily available, place the washed apples - a few at a time - in a polythene bag and hit them with a mallet, wooden rolling pin or steak hammer. When each bagful is crushed, drop the contents into water containing sulphite and citric acid to prevent oxidation.
A third method is to place the apples in a strong polythene or wooden bin and to ram them with a 10 cm. (4 in.) cube of wood on the end of a broom handle.
Another way is to liquidise them, and yet another is simply to cut each apple into about 16 pieces. Coarse mincing is not recommended unless it is known for certain that the metal, from which the mincer is made, does not react to acids.
Apples should always be fermented on the pulp. If you lack a big enough bin for this purpose, a heavy gauge, large polythene bag inside a cardboard container may be used very effectively. The neck can be gathered and fastened with a rubber band or a wire tie - not so tightly, of course, that the carbon dioxide cannot escape.
After pulp fermentation a press is needed to extract all the juice. Bale the pulp out of the bin into a freshly sterilised hessian, linen or nylon bag placed inside the press. At first the juice will run free, and then a little shaking-up of the bag will encourage even more to do so. When pressure is applied, do so intermittently rather than steadily; a better run is thereby obtained. When you are satisfied that no more juice can be extracted, the apple cake can be used to make a second-run wine.
Often elderberry, or blackberry, or damson, or plum, wine is being made at or about the same time. The addition of the applecake to the other fruit improves the body and flavour of that wine. Alternatively, the two pulp residues may be mixed together and added to a grape juice concentrate wine to improve its body and flavour. Spent apple and elderberry pulp mixed with a white grape juice concentrate can make an attractive rose.
It is always worth making the maximum amount possible of apple wine. It blends well with other wines, is useful for topping up jars that are not quite full - no matter what the wine they contain - and it makes an excellent base for liqueurs.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/making-wine-from-apples-426937.html
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Gareth Meradith runs a Hotel in Blackpool and is sponsered by Karcher Pressure Washers and Snickers Workwear
Vintage wine is a favorite of wine experts. It is more than a beverage because more went into the creation of the wine then simply mixing it up and bottling it. There are many aspects of a wine that make it vintage. When a wine is considered vintage you will find that it meets the following 5 points.
These five points highlight the things that set vintage wine apart from other wines. Additionally, you will see why vintage wines are more expensive then other wines on the market.
1. Point One - The source of the grapes.
Vintage wine is made with grapes that are all grown or mostly all grown in the same year. The reason for this is that grapes harvested in different years will have different tastes. Using grapes from one year helps to ensure the consistency of the taste.
2. Point Two - The aging process.
Vintage wine is carefully aged to the point where the flavors are perfect. The aging process allows the flavors to develop. With vintage wines the aging process is carefully monitored and the wine is carefully handled to ensure proper aging and storage for the perfect final taste.
3. Point Three - The bottling process.
Vintage wines are bottled in a single batch. Bottling can alter the taste so when wines are bottled together the tastes are going to be consistent and similar.
4. Point Four - Regulation specifications.
In the US there are specific regulations about what wines can be labeled vintage. This helps consumers to ensure that they are getting true vintage wine. In order for a wine to be labeled vintage and with the country of origin 95% of the grapes used in the wine must come from the same year. Without the country of origin on the label, the wine must contain 85% of grapes harvested in the same year.
5. Point Five - Regional characteristics.
Grapes from different regions taste different. The different growing conditions produce grapes that have different flavors and that directly relates to the taste of the wine from that region. With vintage wines the grapes all come from the same region. This helps to ensure a pure flavor. In fact, vintage wines are often characterized by the region so this is an important aspect.
These five points help to define what a vintage wine truly is. Sometimes false labels may suggest a wine is vintage, but unless it follows these points, it is not a real vintage. When buying wine you should note the points so that you are sure to get what you pay for. You do not want to spend hundreds of dollars on wine that is not truly vintage.
Wine experts can tell the difference through taste, but if you’re unable to taste before purchase or you are not that advanced in your wine tasting skills then you have to rely on the label to tell you what you need to know. It can be embarrassing to serve a wine as a vintage when it really is not, especially if someone can tell the difference.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/5-important-points-of-vintage-wine-425029.html
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For the best wine gift store on the web shop at The Wine Standard. They have hundreds of wine related gifts and wine accessories. Shop for wine racks, from wrought iron to wooden. A wine cabinet is also a must for any wine lover, matched with a line of wine refrigerators or chillers.