Grape Wine
I’ve been trying to grow wine grapes for years. I am still climbing the learning curve and Mother Nature likes to make it interesting, so I only got a couple of pounds of grapes this year. We had a late frost in my area, and my vines got hit pretty hard. I harvested 3 lbs of Catawba, and no Niagara this year.
Being the stubborn wine maker that I am, I decided to make wine out of my grapes. Now, 3 pounds of grapes is not a lot to work with, so I added 2 cans of frozen grape juice to the crushed grapes from my harvest. I added water to bring it to 1 gallon,then checked PA and acid. Acid was fine, PA was a little low, so I added 1 cup of sugar to bring PA to around 10%. I also added 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 1 Campden tablet to the must. I will pitch yeast tomorrow.
I’ve made wine out of frozen grape juice before, so I feel pretty confident that I will have a drinkable wine when it is done. The fresh Catawba grapes should add their own flavors to the concentrate, so we’ll see how it turns out. I’m just kind of winging it with this recipe, but this is the Art part of wine making.
Which brings me to the lesson I want to leave you with today. After you understand the basics, don’t be afraid to experiment. Winemaking is part Art. We are trying to create something unique that we can share with others and enjoy ourselves. I grew these grapes, so I wanted to make wine from them. I added some frozen grape juice, got the numbers where they needed to be, and wha la, I have a gallon of grape wine being made.
Next fall, when I am harvesting next years grapes, I will open one of these bottles of wine, and enjoy it after the harvest. Hopefully I’ll be thinking, this is a great wine! This year I can make a full 5 gallon batch! Or I might be grateful that I have enough grapes to repeat this recipe. I don’t know for sure, but I am hopeful. I just need Mother Nature to cooperate with this plan. 
Enjoy!