How to Make Wine as told by my cousin Nicholas Bolino, June 12, 1974. An old hand typed wine recipe sent to me from a cousin.
"Purchase grapes in the following proportion: 20 bushels of zinfandel to 3 bushels of moscata. Let grapes set for three or four days to settle juices; get barrels ready while grapes are settling.
Crush grapes into barrels, leaving barrels at least one-quarter empty to allow for expansion during fermentation. Continue fermentation until boiling stops – about two weeks. (You can hear the boiling process.)
Draw out wine from hole at bottom of barrels. This hole is about six-inches from bottom and is plugged with a large cork during fermentation. It is placed high enough to allow sediment to settle below the point at which wine is drawn off. The wine is placed in open barrels to allow additional slow fermentation (about four and five months).
The sediment (now called “venazza”) is next put into a large wine press and every drop of liquid is extracted. This is accomplished by jacking the wine press to the ceiling beams above the press and using a large seven or eight foot steel bar for pressing the sediment. It requires at least two persons to turn the steel bar for pressing the sediment. The wine that is drawn off by pressing is distributed equally in each of the other full barrels in order to maximize the flavor. The wine that is pressed has more of the grape essence than that which is obtained from the original crushing."
That's it! Easy as pie. WoW! Um.. uh.... I read this recipe for wine and I am frightened to attempt it. This is a typical old Italian recipe which is lacking some important details. This is just how my grandmother wrote down her Italian Recipe, very little detail. You put some of this, some of that and cook until done! Well, I placed this wine recipe here because it is family history for me and I sort of know how my family used to make home made wine.
Now lets see, I need to find a 7' iron pole, I need a basement, wine barrels, where do I get wine barrels? 20 bushels of zinfandel to 3 bushels of moscata, yes, my local grocery store should have that... and a press of some sort. OK, got it. Wish me luck ;-)
Where is a resource that goes into a lot more detail than what my cousin did in the above family wine recipe.
Here is a wonderful Italian Wine making video from 1967. Really takes you back to a simpler time!
Italian Wine making 1967: Ventresca clan
How to Make Home-Made Wine
Vincent Scordo writes all about Italian food and recipes. They share their pasta, pesto, tomato sauce soup, risotto, chicken, lasagna, cookbook and easy food recipes. This page is where Vincent talks about making home-made wine. He going into a lot of important details on this. I just love this advise he gives us in this article: "If you're serious about making home-made wine, you will probably want to track down someone who has been doing it for a while". Great advise!!!
