979 before olives you make wine

as quite a few seem to be interested in their olive oil becuse they have olive trees before that job you make your wine..... just as labour intensive but all quite simple again

you should have been spraying them every two weeks for the last couple of months with a bordeaux mixture.... you might have noticed if you havent everybody else has blue tinted grapevines....

anyway whatever that all stopped a couple of weeks ago.... and no more spray should be used......

to make a simple and straightforward wine such as most people in this and other villages here do ...first off you need plastic crates again....this time sealed so nothing leaks out..... you pop down to the vines around september and start clipping the grapes off...the more help the merrier...especially as you have to sample last years wine whilst harvesting..... if your lucky and have an old house with a cantina you should have a big stone/cement bath somewhere in it with one big outlet from the side.... this is for the grapes...

first you aquire / borrow this large corkscrew type machine and you pass all the grapes through this... stalks and all.... this is balanced above the bath and the crushed output is dropped from the machine into the bath.... a container needs to be placed under the oulet to catch the juice....

if you have the wine bath you may also have the press.... a large wooden barrel with gaps between the slats and a large screw/press mechanism on top.... from the bath you take the solid crushed parts of the graps and load them into the barrel eventually when high enough putting the lid in place....putting some blocks of wood under the press and away you go again..... tightening down slowly..... there is an oulet again at the bottom to catch the liquid....

ok previous to all this you should have lined up severel clean demijons of around 50 lts each.... before adding in the liquid you hook a sulphur candle on a wire and just burn it for a minute or two in each bottle... this will sterilise the thing.....if there are only two of you its best to fill these bottle in the position you are going to keep them in high up if poss .. because they are heavy when full... and later the liquid has to be passed from one bottle to another

anyway you should have plenty of grape juice by now....you pour this in and leave it slighly below the top.... best to then wrap newspaper around because the fermentation when it starts is very messy and the newspaper will soak up some of the brown scum...

and thats about it.....

the liquid will heat up...erupt a bit and then cool down around december time either just before or just after chrristmas it should be ready for the first passing..... ie... more clean demijons..... sulphur candles...and scrupulously clean plastic piping with a bamboo tied at one end past the end of the tube so when you suck the plastic pipe is not in the sediment of the bottom of the older full demijons..... you then start moving the wine into the new demijons so that all the sediment is left in the old ones.... the result should be a clearer liquid....you then remove the old demijons and clean them that day otherwise you will never get the sediment out and place the new ones up high again....this time you seal the tops as fermentation is finished you are just waiting for sediment to settle again and for it to mature a bit..... a couple of months later do it all again and a couple of months after this you can drink it....

always have a supply of plastic tubes around ...clean of different diameters for passing whole bottle you need quite a largish one ...for filling little litre wine bottles smaller ones

the wine we make in this area is not that brilliant.... most people just have enough for their own use..... 10 km away they produce very good white and red DOC wines.... ours is very lite and very fruity...does not last well and is not very strong....hardly any decent red although one villager does make a very good red which is as far as i am concerned as good as the doc wines here....so it can be done

just another job once you have settled in... as most of you seem to have olive groves you must also surely have small vineyards as well on the side..... the only hazard with this job are the wasps..... so if you have allergic reactions to their stings ... apart that is from the obvios aversion to the pain ... be a bit careful and have the necessary tablets available...

my wine this year failed... i didnt do the second passing and i now have demijons of vinegar.... quite tasty but a bit too much for salad dressings..... a couple of hundred lts or so... my excuse was i didnt have the time ... too busy rebuilding an apartment next door.... i can here you maybe saying i got my priorities wrong.... i might agree...however none of my neighbours forgot...so the village is well supplied

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 05:12

John,

as usual a brilliant description...trouble is we only have 2 small areas with vines and have been told only good for eating. plenty of fruit this year...could we use them and have a bash at wine (alex used to make ooodles of it in the Uk with kits and fresh pears and potato ( yes potato !!!) this was in the 70s/80s and everyone was at it !!!! So he is pretty good at the process !!!).

lyn

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 09:30

I suppose I will have to dig all of the plants out of the beautifully located concrete "Feed troughs" :o :o around the place, I did wonder if they had any other uses :D
on second thoughts, will probably drop down to the agricolo again, they have those big heavy plastic containers which you could use as a hot tub if you lived in Tuscany (and were a Jim Saville impersonator)
Brilliant practical post John, thanks.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 09:39

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]John,

as usual a brilliant description...trouble is we only have 2 small areas with vines and have been told only good for eating. plenty of fruit this year...could we use them and have a bash at wine (alex used to make ooodles of it in the Uk with kits and fresh pears and potato ( yes potato !!!) this was in the 70s/80s and everyone was at it !!!! So he is pretty good at the process !!!).

lyn[/QUOTE]

Grape Jelly and raisins are two good ways to preserve surplus table grapes.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 10:25

thanks for suggestion about raisins and jelly (is that jam)..?
and look, I just became a SENATOR ....probably 'cos I keep gabbing !!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 10:45

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]thanks for suggestion about raisins and jelly (is that jam)..?
and look, I just became a SENATOR ....probably 'cos I keep gabbing !!!!![/QUOTE]

Jelly and jam in this instance are slightly different - [url]http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/1244/0.shtml[/url]

The one I have had is actually more a smooth jam (along the lines of a tropical fruit jam, no bits in it). I will ask for the recipe and post it up here. Stuff does keep for ages...

Congrats on making Senator!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 11:00

Thank sano, I'd like to try it..gawd..... what with bread making, olive picking, making my own pasta, mastering the perfect risotto, making jelly..........am I Italian yet !!!????

And what is a praeter or have you been fiddling with the systaem ???!!!

P>S> Sorry..but I love dots !!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 11:19

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Thank sano, I'd like to try it..gawd..... what with bread making, olive picking, making my own pasta, mastering the perfect risotto, making jelly..........am I Italian yet !!!????

And what is a praeter or have you been fiddling with the systaem ???!!!

P>S> Sorry..but I love dots !!!!![/QUOTE]

I haven't a clue what a Praetor is, probably someone that prates a lot... (I like dots too...). There is a thread somewhere that explains all these terms.

Yup, I would say you are almost, nearly, just about Italian at this stage. Once you start plucking your own chickens, hunting truffles and churning your own butter you will get the gold star and certificate!

Risottos are easy - worry more about making them to your taste than about achieving some ideal version of the dish. If you can get it in Italy (and I am sure you can) try making a risotto with smoked mushrooms - there are few things in life better than that!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 08/02/2005 - 11:26

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]Thank sano, I'd like to try it..gawd..... what with bread making, olive picking, making my own pasta, mastering the perfect risotto, making jelly..........am I Italian yet !!!????

And what is a praeter or have you been fiddling with the systaem ???!!!

P>S> Sorry..but I love dots !!!!![/QUOTE]

Just to be really boring take a look here... [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetor[/url]

The site is really useful for lots of other things, too!

Russ

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 08/03/2005 - 01:48

Cor blimey (olde english expression or cockney !!!!) Sano, do you relaise how important you are as a Praetor !!!

Have a look at that web link above ...I bow to you !!!!!
Lyn

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 08/04/2005 - 06:37

[QUOTE=adriatica]the wine we make in this area is not that brilliant.... most people just have enough for their own use..... 10 km away they produce very good white and red DOC wines.... ours is very lite and very fruity...does not last well and is not very strong....hardly any decent red although one villager does make a very good red which is as far as i am concerned as good as the doc wines here....so it can be done[/QUOTE]
I'm surprised or possibly you are too modest. I think we established that we don't live too far apart - within the same provincia at least. We produce a DOCG wine, Colline Terramane, which is considered among the great wines of the world. Indeed most of the provincia is turned over to DOC and DOCG wines as well as DOP olive oil. One of our neighbours takes most of the production from the many small vineyards as well as their own extensive lands to produce the wine which sells for up to EUR 68 bottle, even more in the USA.

Unless you are very high up, above Montorio for example, or have predominantly north facing land, you must have the potential for a great wine even if it isn't currently being realised. Have you considered having a chat with one of he big winemakers? They love their product and they aso like to encourage others and it may be that a few tips on cultivation and the use of a sugar test to establish when to press the grapes could result in a big increase in quality.