> I was curious if anyone had experiences with making very small batch
> wine, if such a practice exists. I have 2 vines newly planted in my

Like you, I'm growing grapes in my backyard. I pulled in my first
harvest last year, and it tipped the scales at 4lb. How's that for a
small batch? You've *really* got to want to make wine to make a batch
that small, and I did - 500 ml (give or take) of finished wine is
aging in a beer bottle as we speak.

Normally my small batches are 1-gallon, and for batches of that size I
would recommend an assortment of smaller containers. Half-gallon jugs
and wine bottles come in handy when you've got to rack a 1-gallon jug
and don't have anything to top it off with. So do half-bottles. Heck,
I even overpaid for a six-pack of coca cola in those little 8oz glass
bottles, and I don't even drink coke anymore. You'll need lots of #2
bungs, drilled and solid, to go with them. You can put the siphon hose
into a pint or quart sized glass measuring cup during racking,
temporarily, while you're switching from the half-gallon jug to the
wine bottle.

Once you've got wine in a wine bottle or smaller bottle, be careful
about racking out of it, because weight of the liquid in the bottle
helps to keep it steady. As the liquid is siphoned out, the bottle
becomes more and more sensitive to little pushes and pulls (like that
ever so slight tug on the siphon hose while all your attention is on
the receiving container). If you don't have a helper, or something you
can clamp it to, you might just want to decant instead of siphoning.

With small batches, it becomes more important to save the lees/slurry.
Let it settle in a small bottle until you get clear wine on top, then
decant. It's often best to combine the lees of several batches so you
can fill a container to the top.

Erroll
www.washingtonwinemaker.com