How much wine do you plan to make in 2010?

[NorthernWiner]

So...

With the new year (and decade) coming, I figured it was time to start a new thread.

How much - and what type of - wine is everyone planning to make in 2010?

As for myself, I am planning to aim for about 100-150 gallons ... a little less than I made in 2009.

[lockwood1956]

I'm (hoping) to make suppliers dependant
110 gals Merlot
110 gals Ciliegiolo
110 gals Trebbiano (up to 50% of it sparkling)
(to sell in 2013/4)


for personal use
Seyval and Rondo depending on suppliers (hopefully 50 gal of each)


and the usual apple, pear, elderberry, blackberry, plum and whatever else crosses my path

and I'm definately making the Australian Petit Verdot Winexpert release in the spring....if you make only 1 kit wine this year, make it this one, its fab, if you can bear to age it three years it becomes a wonder.

[ms67]

not sure how much in total i plan, maybe 50 gallons which will see me having to cycle though my DJ's 2-3 times (no more space for more than i have already). Will up my best brews to 5 gallons +.

they are:
variations on cheapskate rose
parsnip wine
orange wine
elderflower
blackberry

everything else will be between 1 and 3 gallons.

[cpfan]

Hmmm...tough question to answer. Does "planning to make" mean "planning to start"?

I've got 21 Imp gallons to the go right now, with 11 of them ready to bottle. The other 10 will need at least another couple of months.

I've got three wine kits and one beer kit in house already to be started. I won a Selection Estate kit from Winexpert, so I need to decide on that one. I got a very nice gift certificate for Xmas that will allow me to get a high-end RJ Spagnols or Cellar Craft kit at some point this coming year. We'll need at least one more beer kit, and another mist kit at some point during the year.

To me, that seems a lot, but it's only seven kits or 35 Imperial gallons (25 wine, 10 beer). For reference, I bottled 52 gallons of wine and 15 gallons of beer in 2009. In 2008, because of a cross-country move and needing to shrink the size of our cellar, I only bottled 5 gallons of beer (no wine). In 2007, it was 40 gallons of wine and 10 gallons of beer.

Hmmm...not much compared to Steve and Bob.

Steve

[NorthernWiner]

and I'm definately making the Australian Petit Verdot Winexpert release in the spring....if you make only 1 kit wine this year, make it this one, its fab, if you can bear to age it three years it becomes a wonder.

I've got one on order... and like you say, it will likely be the only kit wine I make this year.

[hedgerow]

My biggest problem is storage, of either demijohns or bottles. I have a demi john wine shelf that I can store up to 12 full ones and if I remove two I can have a beer barrel. So we are going through the allotment shed for the big 5 gallon batchs or the evan bigger 10 gallon barrels, We have still to sort out some storage for the finished wine bottles ?
So my plans are to try something completely new as well.

30 , one gallon batchs of wine in demi johns
8, 5 gallon batchs of wine
2, ten gallon batchs
the bigger ten gallon barrels will hopefully go into my new love of champange production
we also do beer kits as well so there will be about 12 , 1.8kg kits plus a few 3 kg kits as well, because I have obtained a burco boiler this winter I do like the idea of trying to make a full mashed beer as well. Lastly and I do wonder if some times I am strang doing this but the whole lot of wine making will be done with home collected ingrediants , no wines kits for me I am affraid , I cant afford them

[fatbloke]

Pass, next question ?

I do wonder about this "planning" thing...... it makes it more like a commercial entity, that a hobby - IMO anyway....

[lockwood1956]

You are planning without realising it all the time in winemaking.....


if you make a good one, you plan to make another, if you make a bad one you either decide not to do it again, or you formulate ways of making it better.

If you intend making Elderberry wine, you are planning on making it when the berries are ripe ie Aug/Sept

I have a large bramble and elderberry patch behind my house that I am harvesting in Sept

I have grapes delivered here Sept 26th..so am planning my grape making wines then

I grow grapes, so am making grape wines from them when I harvest (likely Oct/Nov depending on weather.)


also you are making plans regarding the size of batch you are making, this of course being dependant on your fermenter stock, if you wanted to make more of youre favourite wine this year, you could be planning on buying a bigger fermenter...


so we all plan all of the time.


My plans for making bifgger batches, are indeed commercially based, as those of you who follow these things know, i now have all the paperwork in place, and am a bonded warehouse, so will be selling some of my wine in the new Year. I will however still make the other wines as before.

seasonal regards
Bob

[hedgerow]

WOW

NOW THATS WHAT I CALL A SET UP!!!

my biggest planning issue is drinking the stuff i make, evan at a bottle or two a week thats still only a mere 25 gallons, so realy do look like a light wieght at times

my favorite way is loads of single gallons each one completely differant than the others of there is lots and lots of variety, so we keep some for several years others we throw down our necks as quickly as possible , then i make a big batch of my favorites so there is pete's vin ordinair (elderberries red). pete's white plonk ( rhubarb and or apple) , and finaly pete's G.K.W. ( god knows what wine) thats when i have managed to get my rubby mits on some ones old orchard and have dragged a trailer load of fruit away, this season 2009 it was around 300kgs of cider and cooking eating apples, 70% cider, 15%cookers,12% eaters and 3% crab, this was mashed and extracted in the back garden with several friends both of which after medical assistance have recovered from that particular weeked, altho one wife is still not speaking to me!!!!!, we ended up with 30 gallons of apple juice a few we froze as apple juice for the kids the rest we fermented, it will become the base for my next foray into bubbles( the wife has realy gone into bubbles )

sorry but as sad as it sounds i love planning things, they never go to plan but thats just the way it is . because my job is alwfull i spend all day thinking about the allotment or my bees or the wines and beers, i work a 10 hour day and spend almost all of it mentaly else where, my next big thing is the fruit and veg shops i cycle past on the way to work, many times i have come past one at night and ended up with something in the back box , last time it was 6 pineapples for two quid, bananas can go for 39pence for a bunch or three bunchs for a quid,( around 2kg for a £1) i then get home and that plan is out the window because we are doing these instead

great fun i love it

[Richard S]

Probably will end up with 50 - 60 gallons from 2010. All types of wine from kits to fresh grape and a lot inbetween and beyond.

[fatbloke]

You are planning without realising it all the time in winemaking.....
if you make a good one, you plan to make another, if you make a bad one you either decide not to do it again, or you formulate ways of making it better.
If you intend making Elderberry wine, you are planning on making it when the berries are ripe ie Aug/Sept
I have a large bramble and elderberry patch behind my house that I am harvesting in Sept
I have grapes delivered here Sept 26th..so am planning my grape making wines then
I grow grapes, so am making grape wines from them when I harvest (likely Oct/Nov depending on weather.)
also you are making plans regarding the size of batch you are making, this of course being dependant on your fermenter stock, if you wanted to make more of youre favourite wine this year, you could be planning on buying a bigger fermenter...
so we all plan all of the time.
My plans for making bifgger batches, are indeed commercially based, as those of you who follow these things know, i now have all the paperwork in place, and am a bonded warehouse, so will be selling some of my wine in the new Year. I will however still make the other wines as before.
seasonal regards
Bob

All credit to those here who do make larger batches Bob, certainly I was aware that you'd been looking into commerciality of your efforts.

Me? nah! don't work like that. My efforts tend to be ideas or suggestions cribbed from others, particularly with slightly "left field" ingredients. Never any plan though, I'm too "ad hoc" (and opportunistic). If I see a source of an ingredient, then I try to find time to get enough of "it" to try a gallon or so.

Partly why I prefer making meads and don't bother with "grape" wines as such (apart from when it's "just" an ingredient of something else). AFAIC, the "johnny foreigner" chappies do a brilliant job of grapes - certainly better than I could ever concieve..... sure, interesting to learn about, especially some of the commercial techniques, but otherwise.....nah!

The mead thing? well, in the UK, it's less of a market, and more of a sideline to already existing commercial entities. I've not heard of any "pure" meadery, only vineyards/winemakers who happen to make it, pretty much as a novelty - I could be wrong and just not looked hard enough......

So planning ? no.....

regards

jtfb

[Omniata]

I've got quite a lot planned for this year. Well I say a lot, not compared to you lot but for me a small mountain

I have 7 gallons finishing soon...
With the 9kg of honey I got cheap, via eBay , I've got around 8 gallon of mead looming, probably all blueberry as the recipe I trialed seems to have worked
2 gallon of Elderberry...
3 gallon of Apple, homegrown...
2 gallon of ginger, courtesy of the cheap market in Manchester
2 gallon Blackcurrant courtesy of the back garden...
and another 6 gallon from whatever else takes my fancy at the time as I progress, maybe more...

So ~30...

Quite a lot considering I used to be lucky achieving 5 a year!!!!!

[lockwood1956]

The mead thing? well, in the UK, it's less of a market, and more of a sideline to already existing commercial entities. I've not heard of any "pure" meadery, only vineyards/winemakers who happen to make it, pretty much as a novelty - I could be wrong and just not looked hard enough......

Lindisfarne Mead....made on Lindisfarne (Holy Island) origionally by the venerable Bede and his Bretheren, sometime in the midle ages

So planning ? no.....

Top banana...

[goldseal]

I am formulating a plan, which of course will fall to bits about mid-January

I have two problems:

1. I have a lot of stuff (mainly Grapefest 08 and 09) bulk-ageing, occupying space and carboys/DJs

2. We always seem to be running out of everyday plonk, forcing us to nibble away at the stuff which we should be ageing.

My plan consists of:

1. Making lots of plonk in Jan/Feb

2. Bottling a significant amount of Grapefest stuff just before GF 2010

3. Making lots of GF / Elderberry in autumn

4. Somehow squeezing in at least 3 Ltd Edition kits

Volume? Probably 80 gallons ish.

[ms67]

2. We always seem to be running out of everyday plonk, forcing us to nibble away at the stuff which we should be ageing.

hmmm, that's a good reminder for me to do a wine number 1 variation for something decent, quick and easy. I've been wanting to try it for some time and that comment reminds me why .... so i'll add that to my plans now.