Making Wine with my Father

I have fond memories of making wine with my Father.  



As a youngster it was enough just to sit on the cellar steps and watch my 

Father and his Cousin making the wine.  As I grew older I began to participate 

in the process.  My Father taught me  how to taste the juice and determine how 

much sugar would be required.  Since we were lucky enough to get grapes vine 

ripened from my Uncle's Vineyard little if any was ever needed.  (I now use a 

sacromiter - wine making has gone technical) 



The wine press that he used was made out of 8X8 Railroad Ties that he 

dovetailed together, a wine press basked that he purchased at the Italian 

Market in South Philadelphia and a 15 Ton Railroad Jack to apply the presure. 

My Father and Uncle built this about 1935 and I still use it today.  Works 

great.



Dad was very particular on how he made his wine.  We always had to seperate the 

grapes from the stems before grinding, because the stems made the wine bitter 

and absorbed some of his presious juice.  My Mother would always take some of 

the juice at this time to make Mustatha (Wine Pudding).  This would always 

start the arguments and Dad would complain that he was not going to have enough 

juice to fill the barrel.  He always hade more than enough.



The next steps was always the fun part of wine making for me.  I had to punch 

down the grape skins into the juice a couple times a day to make sure that the 

made contact with the juice to get a good red color.  After pressing the wine 

into the storage barrel, extra juice was saved to add to the bung to replace 

the juice that had bubbled out of the barrel during the fermentation process.  

When the fermentation stoped the barrel was capped and we began to wait for the 

wine to settle and clarify.



We began the process in early September and we draw the first wine during the 

Christmas holidays.



Now when we helped my Uncle make wine with his 5 Acres of Grapes.  Well that's 

another story. Mabey Elliot Ness would like to have known about that operation. 



I have a little wine with every evening meal, and have since my Father taught 

me the Love of Wine and how to make it.



Salute