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How to Make a Delicious White Wine That Will Impress Your Guests

White wine can be just as delicious and complex as red wine, but it’s not nearly as common or popular. If you want to impress your friends with some homemade white wine, you’ll need to follow this recipe closely to get the best results. White wine is made from grapes that have their skins removed before fermentation, so the entire process will differ slightly from the red wine making process. Follow these instructions to make yourself a delicious glass of white wine that will impress your guests at dinner!

Ingredients

2 kg of grapes (organic is preferred, as chemicals are often sprayed on conventionally grown produce), 1 packet of wine yeast and sugar. If you don’t have sugar in your house, try raw organic honey or agave nectar instead. However, you will want to make sure it doesn’t increase your total calorie count. If that isn’t an issue for you, feel free to skip adding any sweetener.

Equipment

You’ll need several things in order to make your own wine at home. Depending on what kind of wine you want, there are many different options you can choose from when it comes to equipment. (The basic supplies needed for making red wine are all basically the same.) For example, if you want your homemade white wine sweet and fizzy, then an airlock is something that will be important for fermenting—but if you’re going for a dryer tasting white wine with no added sugar, then that won’t matter as much.

Preparation

Before you start preparing your wine, you’ll want to make sure that you have all of your supplies ready. You’ll need 1.5 pounds of table sugar, 3-4 tea bags (or 2 tbsp loose leaf tea), 1 gallon jug, cooking pot with lid and standard sized wine bottles. You will also want white wine yeast for fermenting (but any kind should do) and extra funnel or sieve to remove solid residue from finished product (if desired). As for equipment, aside from some basic kitchen tools like tongs, rubber spatula and long spoon, you’ll need one large sealable container for mixing liquid ingredients together.

Fermentation

All wine is fermented, but different types of wine use different processes and ingredients. Fermentation is actually one of the most important parts of making any kind of alcohol—without it, you’re left with undrinkable ethanol. Red wine is fermented with red grape juice (or crushed grapes) while white wines are typically made with grape juice that’s had its color removed by pressing. To create white wine, grape juice (usually Pinot gris or Chardonnay) is fermented under controlled temperatures; when it comes time for red wines to ferment, temperature control is critical.

Bottling

The bottling process is really simple, but will take some time. This is where you want to use a siphon so that your wine isn’t disturbed too much in its progress from carboy (glass jug) to bottle. If you don’t have one, don’t worry about it. You can also filter out sediment with a coffee filter or cheesecloth if you don’t have a siphon. Use enough bottles for your batch size, plus an extra one or two just in case something goes wrong and you need to re-bottle later on. I like using recycled wine bottles because they’re pretty cheap and readily available at most grocery stores.

Keeping The Wine For Longer

White wines should be consumed within one year of purchase. However, keeping them for longer can be quite simple. If you want to store white wine for more than a year, you should simply make sure that there is no air in your bottle and that it is stored in an area where it is cool (but not cold). Keeping these wine bottles at 60-70 degrees will ensure that they age properly. A few cases of white wine can easily last 10 years or more if they are stored properly!

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