Winemaking

Winemaking is a fermentation process in which the sugar within grape juice is fermented by yeast. The yeast produces alcohol and carbon dioxide; the latter can escape through an air lock. The yeast is filtered out and what remains is the alcoholic beverage.

It all started as a gift for me. When I moved into my second student room in Groningen, a brand-new studio that was more than double the size of my previous room, a friend of mine gave me a fermentation bottle. I don`t think I had ever seen one before, nor did I know how to even make wine.

Luckily, he helped me, he had done it a few times before with some left-over fruits from his parents` garden and he thought that I would be interested in making wine as well. He couldn`t have been more right. This was a perfect occupation to work on besides studying. Whereas studying is mentally intensive, winemaking is a good way to clear the head, and as a plus the finished product is rewarding. Moreover, it still requires some effort to make the wine; preparing, filtering, bottling and not to forget, waiting in patience. It takes about three to six months to make the wine.

My aim for making wine is to make it special. Not making regular grape wine but focusing instead on combined fruit juices. The first wine I`ve made was an apple-pear wine: a mix of apple, pear and grape juice. Another wine that was quite successful was an apple strawberry wine. It did not end there, I will keep on experimenting.

If you're interested in reading more about the process itself, click here.