New to Wine Making

[Gtbaker369]

Hi all,
Ive been brewing beer from kits for a few years but due to myself finally sorting out my Greenhouse and Alllotment have decided to move onto making wine from various bits and bobs.
Ive recently bought a book called "Drink You Own Garden" which to be honest has got lots of fantastic ideas which i would have thought about making wine from.

Anyway within the book there a few ingredients which i would like peoples opinions on and if these are completely necessary or just the authors preference.
Ideally I would like to brew wine with as little additives and modern shop bought chemicals etc.
What im trying to understand is if these things should be added then how did people brew wine years and years ago without these things.

The ingredients im talking about;

Yeast Nutrient
Pectin Enzyme
Grape Tannin
Camden Tablets

I hope this makes sense and would appreciated all advice and info

Thank You

 

[bobsbeer]

Yeast Nutrient
Pectin Enzyme
Grape Tannin
Camden Tablets

All are important and common ingredients.

Yeast nutrient is self evident. Many wine ingredients are lacking in nutrients so you need to add some. Lack of is a major cause of stuck or partial fermentation.
Pectin Enzyme breaks down the pectin in fruit which causes cloudy haze in the finished wine.
Grape tannin gives the wine mouthfeel and bite, often described as astringency.
Campden tablets are added at the beginning to stun wild yeasts on fruit and veg and also used at the end if you use a stabiliser. This ensures the yeast do not continue fermenting in the bottle.

 

[Gtbaker369]

Ok thanks for that.
But what I still don't get is how was wine made years ago when I assume they did not have all of this stuff?

Thank you

 

[oldbloke]

There's always been some kind of nutrient - the chemical stuff is just better
There are natural sources of pectin, or you can just wait a very long time, or drag the haze particles out with finings
Grapes have their own tannin of course, and so do many country wines (leave a few twigs in...), or you can use strong tea, but powdered stuff is more predictable
Before Campden, people used sulphur in various ways, or boiled everything - sodium metabisulphite aka Campden is more effective

I understand the desire to do it the 'natural' way, I fancied it when I started, but the biggie you come up against is: sugar. Until we colonised the West Indies, all we had was honey.
We live in the time we live in - find the flavours where they've always been, make the wine with the best science we have.

 

[bobsbeer]

When it comes to wine we think of grape wine, but not exclusively. Years ago the wild yeast on the skins was the dominant yeast in the must, and these gave the wine a regional characteristic, ie Burgundy, Alsace etc or think West Country Cider. Wild yeast are everywhere still today, but not all are good for making wine. Or we want a particular style. UK wild yeast are not renown for making decent wine. So to combat this we must first stop the wild yeast taking over. Campden does not kill the yeast but stuns it into inactivity. After 24 hours or so the active ingredient disperses, and we can add our yeast of choice. This then takes over and dominates the must, pushing out the wild yeast.

Grape tannin is a natural substance made from the skins of red grapes. Fruit other than grapes are often lacking in tannin, a notable exception being Elderberry, but in order to balance the wines acidity and sweetness and give body to the wine we add tannin, and also to help it age. Over time this mellows and alters the feel of the wine. Try making a small batch without the tannin and try some at 1 month and then 6/12 months. You will notice the difference. Sweeter wines need less tannin to achieve the balance. But ask yourself why are grapes the dominant fruit to make wine? Why not other fruit? There are lots of reasons but one is the final product makes a very nice beverage. The other main reason is that the grape has nearly everything in it already, and does not need anything added. That's not to say that other fruit do not, but by and large adjustments need to be made.

Pectin is a desired ingredient when making jams or conservés. It's what makes it set. And depending on the jam being made it is often added. But in a wine it causes a haze and no amount of filtering will remove it. You will often hear the term pectin haze. But it is not a desirable attribute to wine. We tend to like our wine sparkling clear these days. So in order to break down the chains we add a natural enzyme. This causes the pectin to clump and drop out. You don't need to do this with all fruit. Some varieties have little or no pectin. But when making fruit wines I always add it.

As for history you are right. But don't forget that our forefathers added all sorts of unsavoury ingredients to help their wine along. Some we still use today. Whoever thought of crushing up **** shells? Or using swim bladders of fish? So wine has not always been as 'natural' as you think. Science has just given the ingredients long names to make us think it's not. But to me it is not what I put in my wine, but the taste of the wine I drink. Let that be your judge whether to use them or not.