getting started

[winophite]

Hi, I have a small yard, but really green thumbs when it comes to gardening. I have two vines of Canadice for the kids to eat and they are loaded! What about wine grapes... how many vines would be needed for making a small batch of some kind of wine, could four vines be enough if well managed?

[hotwine]

The way I understand it, you need about 2.5 lb of grapes to make one bottle of wine (750 ml type). If each vine yielded 12-15 lb of grapes, that would be 4.8 - 6.8 bottles per vine. Be optimistic and call that 6 bottles/vine - so that would mean 2 cases from four vines. (Lots of assumptions there... I may be all wet. Maybe a grape-grower past or present will speak up. Foodie?)

[Thomas]

I can't think in those small numbers. Takes a ton to produce about 150 gallons of juice. At 3 pounds of grapes per vine, it could take 667 vines to produce that 150 gallons. That's about 4.5 vines per gallon of juice (juice loss may be about 5% before it becomes finished wine).

12 bottles of finsihed wine equals 2.4 gallons. So, 4.5 vines would get you about 6 bottles.

The real problem, even if you have more than four vines, is pressing them. Without a decent grape press you might as well buy a jackhammer. Grapes do not yield their juice willingly.

Either buy grapes or juice to make wine or go to your local retailer... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

[winophite]

Ah, very interesting. I'm still in the site preperation stage this year so your input is very helpful. Thanks

Phite