Hello:

I live in Northern California. I've made a couple of kit wines now
(with lots of tips from this group, thank you!) and they're aging away
- it'll be a while before they're ready to drink. I am wondering what
is involved with going to the next step - making wine from grapes.
Anybody in the local area that can give me some info on where to
buy/what to arrange? Recommendations, tips, etc are all welcome. I'm
sure there are a lot of options given I live so close to major wine
grape growing regions, if anyone has any advice about going down this
road, please feel free to share!

Theresa

Theresa,
Why don't you look for a club in your area? They could
be a source for a wide variety of information and fun.
A google search or asking at a local home wine making
store might help locate one.

Don

Theresa wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I live in Northern California. I've made a couple of kit wines now
> (with lots of tips from this group, thank you!) and they're aging away
> - it'll be a while before they're ready to drink. I am wondering what
> is involved with going to the next step - making wine from grapes.
> Anybody in the local area that can give me some info on where to
> buy/what to arrange? Recommendations, tips, etc are all welcome. I'm
> sure there are a lot of options given I live so close to major wine
> grape growing regions, if anyone has any advice about going down this
> road, please feel free to share!
>
> Theresa

One source is The Oak Barrel winemaking supply store in Berkeley. They
have a dozen or so varietals from good sources. You have to reserve
the grapes in mid-summer for pickup usually the day of picking.

Alternatively, try calling your favorite wineries and see whether they
will sell some of their grapes. There's also quite a community of
gleaners in Napa/Sonoma--people who pick over vineyards once the main
harvest is done--but you'll want to have a refractometer available when
you pick so you know what you're getting. I'd like to begin gleaning
myself sometime, but I haven't looked into it yet.

Have you considered raising your own grapes? I don't know if Concord is a
wine making grape, but I have tasted some wine made from them and it was
delicious.

You could plant them this spring and in 3 years have your own. You plant
them around 10 ft apart, and once they are established, 3 or 4 plants should
be plenty for wine and jelly.

Dwayne
"Theresa" > wrote in message
om...
> Hello:
>
> I live in Northern California. I've made a couple of kit wines now
> (with lots of tips from this group, thank you!) and they're aging away
> - it'll be a while before they're ready to drink. I am wondering what
> is involved with going to the next step - making wine from grapes.
> Anybody in the local area that can give me some info on where to
> buy/what to arrange? Recommendations, tips, etc are all welcome. I'm
> sure there are a lot of options given I live so close to major wine
> grape growing regions, if anyone has any advice about going down this
> road, please feel free to share!
>
> Theresa

It depends on how much wine you want to make. If it's a couple of
carboys of decent wine, then the suggestion of Oak Barrel is a good,
easy one. If you want to make a barrel of potentially great wine
(roughly 1/2 ton) then you've got a lot of options. I'd say that
www.winerysite.com had the best classifieds. Starting in June/July
there will many, many listings and if you're patient you can pick up
tremendous fruit.

Michael;
Do you have an idea, approximateley, what one would expect to pay for half a
ton of quality California Cab or Merlot ?

I am currently buying M&R, Lodi, grapes from dealers in Vancouver, Canada -
often low SG and hi acid.

Depending on price/quailty it might be worthwhile driving down ...

Thanks,
Roger


"Michael Brill" > wrote in message
om...
> It depends on how much wine you want to make. If it's a couple of
> carboys of decent wine, then the suggestion of Oak Barrel is a good,
> easy one. If you want to make a barrel of potentially great wine
> (roughly 1/2 ton) then you've got a lot of options. I'd say that
> www.winerysite.com had the best classifieds. Starting in June/July
> there will many, many listings and if you're patient you can pick up
> tremendous fruit.

"Analogueman" > wrote in message
news:Q4fVb.10059$QX4.8827@clgrps13...
> Michael;
> Do you have an idea, approximateley, what one would expect to pay for half
a
> ton of quality California Cab or Merlot ?
>
> I am currently buying M&R, Lodi, grapes from dealers in Vancouver,
Canada -
> often low SG and hi acid.
>
> Depending on price/quailty it might be worthwhile driving down ...
>
> Thanks,
> Roger

Roger,
Grape prices strongly depend on quality and location of the vineyard. Good
quality Napa Cabernet sells for about $4000 per ton. But, you will have
trouble locating a vineyard willing to sell you a half ton.
lum

Lum,
What do you think about the shipping of grapes and how it
affects the wine. I know there's no possibility of getting
Napa grapes up here in Eastern Canada but a distributor up
here mentioned that in season he gets truck loads in from
CA every two days. Considering that growers wait until the
right moment and often pick throughout the night how would
the grapes be affected by picking and shipping 3000 miles
by truck?

Don

> Grape prices strongly depend on quality and location of the vineyard. Good
> quality Napa Cabernet sells for about $4000 per ton. But, you will have
> trouble locating a vineyard willing to sell you a half ton.
> lum

"Don S" > wrote in message
om...
> Lum,
> What do you think about the shipping of grapes and how it
> affects the wine. I know there's no possibility of getting
> Napa grapes up here in Eastern Canada but a distributor up
> here mentioned that in season he gets truck loads in from
> CA every two days. Considering that growers wait until the
> right moment and often pick throughout the night how would
> the grapes be affected by picking and shipping 3000 miles
> by truck?
>
> Don

Hi Don,

I have often worked with grapes that were picked, held in cold storage for
several days and then shipped several hours in refrigerated truck. The
fruit comes into the winery at 40 to 45 degrees, and I love working with
cold grapes.

I have never worked with grapes shipped 3000 miles, but I think they would
be just fine if they were kept cold.

lum

"Analogueman" > wrote in message news:<Q4fVb.10059$QX4.8827@clgrps13>...
> Michael;
> Do you have an idea, approximateley, what one would expect to pay for half a
> ton of quality California Cab or Merlot ?
>
> I am currently buying M&R, Lodi, grapes from dealers in Vancouver, Canada -
> often low SG and hi acid.
>
> Depending on price/quailty it might be worthwhile driving down ...
>

Most winegrowers that have cold storage and are set up to sell their
grapes via bin or lugs will sell you a minimum of one skid worth
(42luggs/skid). I strongly suggest buying lugs instead of bins; the
grapes get crushed in the bottom of the bins. Call any refrigerated
transport company and they will pick up and deliver. We received
grapes here in Florida from all over the west coast all the way up to
Washington Sate this year. We roughly took in about 8 trailers worth.
It started with a couple of friends wanting "real" grapes, to trying
to make a few bucks on doing the project.

Next fall I will just do it with a couple of friends. We made good
money but it was not worth all the hassle. I was really amazed on the
high quality of the grapes shipped us. I don't think I found a single
leaf in any of the lugs I did. Proving the point that the growers
really did a super job on their end. The longest shipment was for some
Pinot Noir out of Washington State that took 7 days to arrive.

SG Brix