How to Make Wine at Home: A Garage Wine Primer

One of the best parts of making wine in a professional setting is being able to see what wine is capable of – both its negatives and its positives – on a large scale. In some sense a branded wine is one that has achieved more positives than negatives and has therefore carved a niche within the industry for its particular style of winemaking.

In recent years, however, scores of exceptional wines have come from very small producers who literally made their first wines in a garage. Pomerol garage wines, as well as some from California and Washington state have found acclaim in their respective markets, proving that the big producers don’t always turn out the best wines.

But how can great wine be made on a small scale? Doesn’t great wine require a significant financial investment?

Answer: Great wine requires know-how, attention to detail, and great grapes.

I received a question regarding this subject after a recent Wines & Spirits conference in Napa. The specifics involved making an Amarone or white Recioto Italian style wine at home. These are intense wines that derive a lot of their character from an extended drying phase after the harvest. During the drying phase, the water inside the grapes evaporates and the flavors concentrate.

The wines are made from Corvina, Rondinella, Molinara (for red Amarone and red Recioto della Valpolicella) and Gargenega (for white Soave). Recioto comes from the Italian word for “ear,” orecchio. Long ago, vintners in the Veneto, in Northeast Italy, where Amarone and Recioto wines are made, learned that using the shriveled grapes on the top of the grape clusters near the “ears” (or shoulders) resulted in wines with more intensity of flavor than the same kind of wine made from grapes of the same cluster that did not shrivel.

The Veneto has a cooler climate than other regions in the south of Italy. The wines are made this way because the climate is cooler, and therefore the grapes retain more natural acidity at harvest. In order to balance the acidity, the grapes undergo an extended drying period after they have been picked. The drying of the grapes rounds out the acidity by concentrating the fruit and sugar within the grape. This can be done with just about any grape you like, anywhere in the world, with varying degrees of positive and negative results. My suggestion, choose grapes that are slightly under ripe (22˙-24˙ Brix).

Assuming you find the grapes you need to make an authentic Amarone or white Recioto and the grapes arrive in your driveway in good shape (ie: ripe, healthy, without rot), you want to gently lay the grape clusters on a porous screen or mat in a single layer and let them rest, unharmed, with a fan blowing across the grapes for as long as six weeks to three months.

In that time the water inside the grape evaporates naturally, the sugars concentrate, and the fan keeps bugs away from the fruit. A light mist of sulfur water over the grapes can protect against rot and unwanted fermentation. Keeping the grapes safe during this part of the process is of the utmost importance.