Why did you start making wine?

[Ben]

As the title states; what made you decide to take up wine making? I have because I'm a poor starving student who refuses to pay for a bottle of wine. Not everyone's as stingy as I am though, so why make it?
I appreciate that some of the more..... experienced... members of this forum probably started making wine so long ago that they can't remember why...

[xwinex]

because you can make far better wine than what you can buy in the supermarkets,at a fraction of the cost.
i personally love picking the fruit for the wine,a very satisfying job

[jake47]

I started to make wine for two reasons , firstly i was never a wine drinker just having the occasional glass with a meal. I only ever drank white but my daughter got me onto the reds and i got a taste for them, i enjoyed red so much with the wife and sons that it was getting quiet costly, so decided to make my own after a break of 30 years or so. Best thing i ever did, the wine i have made is very palatable especially raspberry and damson(my favourite) . I think that as i generally pick my own wild fruit it gives me a great satisfaction to make and enjoy the wines i produce, and with the help of this site am getting better .

[NorthernWiner]

While working in Italy in 1990 I boarded with a husband and wife who grew grapes in their garden and made wine in the cellar. Their wine was simple and good. I decided I wanted to do that someday myself. Although the "someday" didn't come until 10 years later, I now have 30 vines growing in the yard. For me it's a relaxing hobby more than anything. Nothing better than going out to the garden in the morning and tending to the grapes.

Oh... and the wine is pretty good too.

Steve

[StockeyDAW]

I started to make wine because it keeps me busy and active during the fall and winter brewing and bottling season. With all the environmental concerns these days I like to know what is going into my daily supper time glass of a good home made wine. I am mostly a berry and fruit wine maker as they are more available in my area of climate and as such I know what pesticides have gone into growing these fruits and berries and then again what additives and how much are going into the wine that I drink. My wines are for enjoyment and to go along with the health benefits a glass of wine or two each day can provide. Of course on rare occasions I may over indulge as more often than not they are so good it is difficult to stop at two glasses. DAW

[jcnoren]

The kits they have now are wonderful... affordable, easy, a good end product and diverse. Diverse, you can make a 4wk wine kit while you allow your upper end kits time to age. I make the odd wine from scratch but it is the kit wines that got me going into wine making.

JC

[Mamgiowl]

I had a glut of courgettes (zuccini) which grew and grew into giant marrows (eeyuk!) I hate to throw anything away as I am a mean old biddy, so I found a recipe for marrow wine. It turned out to be absolutely awful. However, not knowing that at the time, I got the wine-making bug and now have gallons of the stuff on the go (and at least 90% of it is pretty good stuff if I say so myself )

[WVMountaineerJack]

As a kid I kept reading about folks in the olden days making persimmon wine and getting a kick out of it. Then one day I visited a friend who was making beer and I thought if this guy can make beer I certainly can make wine, and it was true. Although my persimmon wine wasnt as good as my long term expectations imagined. I live out in the countryside in the US and we have free wild black raspberries that just are fun to pick, make into wine and drink, and age so well too. We also were looking to putting in an orchard in our yard as we also love to grow stuff. We took about a quarter of an acre and turned it into a wineyard with elderberries, black and red and white currants, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries and apples. We love the berry wines and for some strange reason just dont care much for the grape wines plus my grape vines were a real pain to take care of while all the berries are the easiest things to grow. So making it cheaper never really came into being a reason, we wanted to grow our own fruit and make wine out of it for fun. Now I have a grape press and crusher but no grapevines, I wonder how good they dont on currants

Crackedcork

[Curt]

When you're 16 and can't find anyone to buy for you it becomes the easiest way to get a buzz on. Sometimes we didn't even wait for it to completely stop bubbling. Surprised we didn't wake up foaming from both ends! That was 39 years ago already.......wow, where the h3ll did THAT go? Still 16 at heart though.

[jojo]

The first time was just to see if I could do it.

It blew up from there.

[fasteddy999]

I started making wine to cheat the gubermint out of tax money. They take way more than their share as it is.

[Paul]

my startup

I run a nonprofit that helps low-income families in emergency financial crisis. People donate all kinds of things, including books, or more specifically 2 books on how to make wines at home . So assuming that a low-income family in emergency financial crisis would see home winemaking as a low priority in lifestyle, I brought home Terry Garey's book and read it. I did the one gallon apple wine and then did quite a few one gallon batches. Now I'm up to five gallon batches using different fruits and concentrates. Recenly a very long-time friend came to visit and he now has my copy of Terry Garey's book and has told me that he is not sure I did him a favor by finding yet another hobby for him!

Paul

[Hippie]

I ain't got no better sense!

[red_feet]

Why do I make wine?

Because most of my friends are Portuguese, here in Ontario, Canada. They introduced me to wine making at a very basic level (crush the California grapes and stand back). Only much later did I find out about various yeasts, good Ontario grapes, etc. I can make a good bottle of wine for under $3. Why not?

[ms.spain]

I live in an area that is quite famous for its "moonshine". (Some areas around us are not the kind of places a stranger would want to be snooping around-they just might come up on a booby trap.Some of these back-woods folks are real protective of their "livlyhood")
My Dad started making wine a few years ago and I thought, "Cool! here's an alcohol that I can make at home, and if I follow the rules, it's legal!!"
For me, it was a no-brainer!