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I first tried homemade wine in Tashkent when I was a student. My classmate brought a 3-liter jar of Uzbek red wine musallas to the hostel. We invited the girls and, in a pleasant company, six of us drank more than half during a sincere conversation.
After that we went to the disco. Good music, beautiful girls. Suddenly one of our friends jumped on the column and began to dance right on it. No matter how much the disc jockey tried to lower it, he did not succeed.
Everyone began to cheer the dancer. Shouts, noise, laughter and applause. Following him, a girl from our company jumped onto the second column, and also began to dance. The fun continued almost until the morning. As they say, there is something to remember, nothing to tell the children.
Story from my subscriber Alexander.
Why I decided to make alcohol myself
The idea of making my own homemade wine has been in my head since I was young. Agree, it’s wonderful to do something with your own hands.
Moreover, after the “Gorbachev Prohibition” good wine could not be found even during the day with fire. That’s why I decided to go into winemaking. But I did not know the technology, and I did not have recipes.
And then one day, in the distant autumn of 1990, I came across the book “Homemade Natural Wines”, authored by Pavel Shestov. I bought it and after reading it, I realized: this is what I need.
What ingredients are required
I live in the north of Turkmenistan, where there is an abundance of various berries and fruits. All this can serve as a raw material for wine. But in our country, almost no one is engaged in home winemaking, although a small vineyard can often be found on the farm, especially in villages.
The book says that wine can be made from pears, plums, quince, cherries, as well as wild berries – raspberries, strawberries, currants – all this is an excellent material for winemaking. However, the best raw material is, of course, grapes.
Several varieties of it grew in our garden: ladies’ fingers, raisins and taifi, a local variety that ripens in October. It served as a raw material, but I didn’t use such well-known ingredients as sugar and yeast at all.
The cooking process
Having carefully studied the “instruction for beginner winemakers”, I decided to make dry wine, since it was his recipe that seemed to me the most suitable. First of all, it was necessary to make a starter.
I squeezed the juice of the ripest berries (you can’t wash them), poured it into a bottle, closed the neck with a cotton plug and left it to ferment in a warm place for several days.
Six days later, the starter was ready, and I began to prepare the wine material. I chose the best and ripe berries, without rot and mold, separated from the ridges. I put all the raw materials in a 30-liter enameled tank.
The choice of containers in winemaking is important, the best option is an oak barrel, in the absence of it, you can use glass bottles or enamelware.
Now it was time to bear fruit. I wanted to squeeze everything out with my hands, but remembering how Adriano Celentano danced on a large barrel of grapes in the film The Taming of the Shrew, I took off my shoes, washed my feet thoroughly and began to crush the berries in such an original way.
The must was ready, I added sourdough (100 grams per 10 kilograms of wine material) to it and took it to the cellar, where there was an ideal temperature for fermentation – as required by the book (18-21 degrees).
The grapes began to ferment, the must rose to the top with a hat, and in the fall there was a wonderful smell of champagne. Every day, several times, I stirred it with a wooden stick so that the cap would fall down, otherwise everything would turn into wine vinegar.
When the fermentation was over, he squeezed the wort through gauze, and threw away the pulp. I poured the squeezed juice into three-liter jars and took them back to the basement to ferment. Then 2-3 times he poured the wine into another dish, removing it from the sediment.
At the final stage, I poured the wine into bottles, corked them tightly and put them in the cellar, where it aged for six months, gaining strength.
What result did I get
On the second of April, I invited friends to my birthday party. On the festive table, next to vodka, there was also young wine. One of my guests drew attention to several bottles without a label.
What’s in those bottles? – he asked.
“Wine,” I replied. I did it myself.
“Great, pour it for me!”
Having tasted it, he said: guys, this is a wonderful thing, don’t pour me vodka now. After some time, almost all the guests drank only wine. My joy knew no bounds, because my friends appreciated my work.
My first wine turned out great! Light pink color, with a pleasant light taste and aroma. It was much better than the “liquor” that was then gathering dust on store shelves.
After all, the wine that you have prepared yourself and put your soul into it must definitely turn out good. What do you think, friends?