Adventures in winemaking

Having read Decanter for over 15 years, I finally gave in to my niggling desire to venture into winemaking.

Regretfully this is not a story of cashing in stock in a wildly successful tech start-up to buy a vineyard in Napa; rather a more rudimentary Blue Peter version of the above.

In earnest though, I managed to buy some imported Montepulciano grapes from Italy. Great pleasure was taken in sourcing a crusher and press and I followed a scientific approach. There was commercial yeast, sulphur and malolactic bacteria, as well as a pH meter. The grapes fermented in a plastic barrel in my sitting room (temperature controlled by the underfloor heating) and my kids punched down the cap several times a day during fermentation.

The upshot? The goldfish died from what I can only guess was CO exposure during fermentation. Several litres were lost due to, er, human error, and the walls of the utility room now need to be painted to rectify what my wife describes as a crime scene.

I’m yet to safely bottle 23 litres and design a label, but I’d chalk this up as a success. I’ve learned more about wine and winemaking in the last six months than I have in the previous 15 years. I now read and enjoy Decanter that bit more because I understand the technical aspects of winemaking. I can’t wait for September when I can start it all over again, and I’d encourage readers to take the leap and go for it.

Paul Mckelvey, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK