In amateur winemakers, one of the most popular grape varieties is Isabella. From it turns out moderately sweet, a little tart and generally pleasant drink. At the same time, the plant itself is unpretentious in cultivation and perfectly maintains our frosts. But we will talk about how to make wine from grapes "Isabella" at home.
Features of grapes "Isabella"
Before you start making, you need to get acquainted with the variety in order to understand its features, to know what to expect from this variety. Variety refers to the table-technical, which are used to prepare not only dessert wines, but also juices, jams, compotes. Berries can be eaten fresh.
A bunch of grapes dense, without gaps between the berries, cylindrical or cone-shaped. Dark, medium-sized berries have a light patina, a dense skin that is easily separated from the pulp. The latter has a strawberry flavor, about 16% sugar content and 6-7 g / l acidity. The bones are small and in small quantities.
Did you know? Variety "Isabella" bred in America a few hundred years ago. It turned out from the crossing of varieties "Vitis Vinifera" and "Vitis Labruska". A significant contribution to its development was made by the breeder William Prince, who brought him to the characteristics that the variety is famous for today.
This is a late ripening grape variety that has high yields, resistance to frost and diseases. From the moment of the appearance of the first bud until the end of the ripening of the berries, about 180 days pass. The berries are ready for harvesting in September - October. Up to 70 centners of crop can be harvested per hectare. Two main varieties are cultivated: dark, or classic, and white, which is called "Noah." All grape varieties perfectly take root in different climatic zones. The only thing in the cold strip of the berries may not have time to ripen.
Terms of collection and preparation of berries
As already stated grapes ripen in September - October, depending on the climatic zone. But to get a homemade grape wine from "Isabella" turned out quite fragrant and sweet, you need to remove the clusters a week after technical maturity.
Important! Harvest should be before frost, otherwise it will affect the taste of wine. It is advisable to do this in sunny weather.
For wine, it does not matter what size the berries will be. The main thing is that they are mature enough and not spoiled. After harvesting, it is necessary to carefully inspect all the clusters and remove the spoiled, dry, immature berries.
After harvesting, washing is strictly prohibited. The natural white bloom contains bacteria that act as yeasts and ensure proper wort fermentation.
Without them, this process will be carried out with violations, and the home-made Isabella wine will lose its qualities.
Features of the process
If you used to make wine, you are familiar with the process. When using this variety, it does not change. If you start production for the first time, be guided by the following algorithm:
- Harvest, select high-quality berries.
- Squeeze the juice. To do this, you can use the juicer or mash the berries with the usual kitchen "tolkushkoy". Then pour the mass into a colander or gauze and squeeze the juice out of the mash.
- Wash and dry the glass bottles. Pour into them the juice for fermentation by about two-thirds of the volume.
- After fermentation, carefully pour the wine so that the sediment remains in the bottle, where the juice is fermented.
- Add sugar, stirring until it is completely dissolved (100-150 g per liter of wine).
Popular recipes for wine from grapes "Isabella"
Over the years, the use of varieties in the wine industry has many recipes for the manufacture of the noble drink. Some of them were handed down from generation to generation, as a family tradition. But today, most of these secrets are available to every winemaker, even a beginner. Some recipes of wine from "Isabella" we share below.
Did you know? The variety is popular not only due to its aromatic and flavor qualities. It is known that "Isabella" berries have healing and even healing properties. They cleanse the body of toxins, increase efficiency, strengthen the immune system and are used as a natural energy.
The recipe for quality fortified wine "Isabella"
The easiest recipe for wine from "Isabella" at home is prepared as follows. According to the principle described above, wort or juice is prepared from selected grapes. To get a fortified wine, you need to bring the level of sugar in it to 25%. To do this, add about 150 g of sugar per liter to the raw materials. The resulting mixture is left in a dark cool place to ferment for 10-14 days. To make this process faster, wine yeast is added to it - 2 g per liter.
During this time, the juice ferments, and the sediment should settle at the bottom of the bottle. Now the liquid must be carefully, using a rubber tube, poured into a clean container so that the sediment remains in the same capacity. Drink tightly closed and stored in a cool place.
The recipe for classic red wine "Isabella"
The classic wine "Isabella" is prepared according to this recipe. About 10 kg of debris cleaned and sifted berries are taken, which are folded into a dry container. There they must be thoroughly crushed and squeezed by hand. Then the container is covered with gauze and aged at room temperature for five days. Once a day the mixture should be stirred with a wooden spatula.
Important! The skin of the berries contains natural dyes, which give the wine a red hue. Therefore, if you want to create a white wine, pulp must be separated from the juice.
Then a glass container is prepared: cleaned, washed and dried. It transfers the wort to about two-thirds of the volume and adds about 3 kg of sugar. The mixture is thoroughly mixed, and the container is closed with a rubber glove. You need to make several holes in the glove so that carbon dioxide, which appears in the process of fermentation, leaves through them. In this form, the container is left at room temperature for three weeks.
The drink is ready when the glove stops inflating. Then the resulting liquid must be carefully drained, filtered and poured into clean bottles. If sediment appears during storage, the wine will have to be poured into a clean bottle again.
The recipe for a festive wine from grapes "Isabella"
Special wine for the holidays can be prepared as follows. We take 5 kg of selected berries and carefully knead them in a clean container. After that, they should be left for three days to wort infused. Then you need to add about 600 g of sugar, tightly close the container with a lid and stand for two weeks at room temperature. After this period, more sugar is added to the wort at the rate of 100 g per liter. And again the container is removed for two weeks to complete the fermentation.
At the end of this process, the mixture is filtered through gauze folded several times. The resulting liquid is infused in a cold and dark place for two months. Only then can it be filtered and bottled. They are also stored in a dark dry place in a horizontal position.
Common mistakes
If you decide to cook wine at home from the grapes, get ready for surprises and troubles. Even professionals can’t avoid mistakes, what to speak about amateur winemakers. Errors and their consequences may be different. But it is advisable not to allow fatal blunders, because of which all wine spoils, and it simply has to be poured.
So, if it is bad to close the bottle or feel sorry for the sugar, the wine can be sour and unpleasant. When a drink is poorly filtered, there is little acid in it, or it was stored incorrectly, unpleasant stale notes appear in taste. In case of a lack of acid, the situation can be corrected by adding ascorbic or citric acid - 0.2% of the total fluid volume.
If the wine is not strong enough, it means that it is a little ferment, it does not have enough yeast. This can also be corrected by adding wine yeast at the preparatory stage.
As you can see, it is easy to make wine from Isabella grapes. The drink promises to have a thick color and a pleasant strawberry flavor. Do not be discouraged if the wine did not turn out the way you expected. Even professionals are not insured against mistakes. But if you do not despair and continue to experiment, you can become a real expert in the preparation of this drink.
