Introduce Yourselves here

[Ivan Zeitlin]

Bob thanks for the welcome. I have been winemaking for 8 years and growing grapes for 7. I started out by making berry wines and quite quickly went into grape wines. Then the next step of growing my own grapes. You end up loving those things (vines) I preferred dry reds but have really been impressed with whites lately. I make champagne, port, and sherry with the ok lots that need sugar to offset the flaws (my wife loves that). My wife and her family are from Greece and they give me lots of advice (not normally right for my area). I hope to learn and ask questions to continue to learn this ancient craft.

[Mamgiowl]

Hi, Ivan and welcome. With your experience I expect we'll be looking for answers from you!

[lockwood1956]

A very warm welcome to you all

regards
Bob

[Gurgeh]

Hello

Hello folks,

I've got 25 vines. some in the garden and some at the allotment. I'm not cropping until next (3rd) year, so I thought i'd swing by and check i'm doing things the right way.

I'm in Rayleigh, Essex. i've got 15 Regent, 9 Phoenix (both on SO4) and one naff little excuse of a vine from woolworths which looks no different now to when it was planted 2 years ago!

Nice to meet you!
Pete

[lockwood1956]

Welcome aboard Pete,

you will find quite a bit of grape related stuff in the download section for new members

regards
Bob

[Gurgeh]

small world eh!

I got the link for this site from one of the moderators at 'Jims Beer Kit', where i spend much of my time.

My parents live in spain - 'proper old spain without english people' as they would say. anyway. dad grows loads of grapes and his wine is routinely disgusting. He refuses to treat his red & white grapes seperately and doesn't have much of a clue about the process. he always ends up with a sherry/vinegar blurgh.

I will be doing better...

(fingers crossed)

[lockwood1956]

I'm sure you will....


We will again this year be importing winemaking grapes from Italy and probably Spain, If you want to tag on to our order you are most welcome. We are also perhaps having a crush party at my house where we will process the grapes (crush-destem the whites and reds, and press the whites)
You are welcome to come along, and take away buckets of juice, we may have a BBQ and a stay over, my garden is big enough to camp in, or there are guest houses close by.

Oh and we will drink lots of wine too

you would be most welcome.

regards
Bob

[Gurgeh]

Thanks Bob

[Gurgeh]

Thanks for that too!

[lockwood1956]

If you havent allready got it, then Growing vines to make wines is a good book (Nick Poulter) just some minor alterations to the sugessted trellis system is all that is needed. From vines to wine is also good by Geoff Cox, but it is angled towards American grape growing.

They are available from good home brew stores.

Lon Romboughs book the grape grower is goo too, it's available drirect from his website

http://www.bunchgrapes.com

you may also want to sign up for his grapeschool programme.


hope this helps
regards
Bob

[Gurgeh]

I've got Alan Rowe's book - successful grape growing for eating & winemaking.

I like it very much, but from my beer brewing experience i know that there is a lot more to things than you might have expected...

I'm comfortable with the whole growing part, i'm going for mosel-hertz and my vines are in their second year.trouble free except for one vine that had a very slow start but has since caught up. i spray a couple of times a month with my special pongy mix of seaweed extract, sulphur, washing-up liquid & pesticide!

i've got this years wood nearly 2cm thick, i left them alone for a spell and had to prune them back by 3-4' so that they were merely 7' tall. each of them is tied into a 2" pole and they have earnt me the name 'pete vine' down the allotment. funny, the old boy sdon't ask me how the kids are (as everyone else does), they ask after my vines. Proud of them i am!

So next year they'll each do me a half dozen bunches. I had expected to put all the 'regent' grapes in a fermenting vessel with what we on jimsbeerkit.co.uk call a 'Daabs Flying Starter' of a wine yeast and let the little fellers do all the juice extraction for me. and i would rack off after a week or two. I've done a gallon or so as an experiment like this and it worked quite nicely - started off with a FV of grapes, 1 week later had an FV of wine and detritus.

From what I've read on here so far, i can see that you folks favour a more involved approach, stripping all the grapes off etc. Well I've got 15 months to get to the bottom of it...

my choices for Regent and Phoenix grapes were down to advice from the chap at winegrowers.info btw

I've got to do some reading of this forums primers, so let's go for the submit button now!

All the best,
Pete

[Mamgiowl]

Welcome Pete.

[David H]

As a new member - Hello everyone

Just a quick line about myself. A senior ctizen who has been interested in winemaking for many years.Just prior to early retirement I decided to become a Yorkshire Federation Judge, so I applied with many others and took the course and successfully passed as a wine judge. Fellow established judges urged me to become a National Guild Judge, so a lot more studying and tastings I took their exam and was successful. Best thing I ever did. What an honour it is to visit local Wine Guilds or Circles and be privileged to judge at their competitions. It is a hobby that has been a benefit to both my wife and I. The number of friends made on the way is amazing. Of course we drink our own too and enter shows as well.Currently we belong Doncaster Winemakers Society and for a few years I have been the entries secretary for our annual show and hope to continue in the future. Enough chatter time for a drink. Best regards David H

[Duffbeer]

Welcome Mr Hinchliffe, good to have another (crazy) Doncaster member on board

[lockwood1956]

Welcome David

For those who don't know David is my mentor and friend, and is my sponsor, in my judges training. A top bloke

cheers matey
good to see you here
regards
Bob