Make your own wine and enter the amateur wine contest

By Janet Eastman

“YOU” – and he means every amateur winemaker or wannabe in Southern Oregon – “can make exquisite wine very inexpensively,” says Bob Bacolas of Grains Beans & Things in Medford, which has become the meeting place for home winemakers. Bacolas and his wife Tonessa sell winemaking supplies and equipment (and other things), and offer winemaking classes.

Think about it: You can have the ultimate house wine with your label on it by simply buying a do-it-yourself kit that produces five to six gallons of wine in about four weeks. Or you can buy equipment that easily fits in a corner of a garage, pay for some grapes and make your own concoction. Or you can grow grapes, with each plant producing a bottle of wine (more or less).

Success at making wine focuses on three elements: cleanliness, keeping air exposure to a minimum and, most important, the grapes.

In the coming weeks, I will have more stories on small-scale grape growers and winemakers, but for now, here are the numbers to get you started, according to Bacolas:

The easiest way: RJ Spagnols Vino del Vida, Vinters Reserve and other brands of winemaking-in-a-box (about $70) include some form of juice or concentrate, yeast, clarifiers and stabilizers.

More personal way: If you want to really make wine from "grape to glass," you’ll need to buy or grow grapes, study a few books or take a class, and get this basic equipment:

• Fruit press: $150 and up. Or, many vineyards associated with Grains Beans & Things will destem, crush and press your grapes for a small fee.

• Six-gallon glass jug (“carboy”): $34

• Bung and airlock to fit the mouth of the carboy: $3

• Hydrometer and tube to measure the amount of sugar before, during and after fermentation: $11

• Glass or plastic tube used to extract small amounts of wine from the container (“wine thief”):  $10

• Food-grade bucket with grommetted lid to ferment the wine: $23

• Food-grade hose to siphon wine from one container to another (“racking”): $4

• (Optional) Oak barrel for aging: $260 for a six-gallon size or you can use Barrel Mill Oak Infusion Spirals ($8.75)

• Bottles: $17 for a case of 12. Bacolas offers this tip: Home winemakers save big by delabeling and reusing commerical wine bottles. He even suggests asking for empty bottles at restaurants.

To cut down overall start-up costs, Bacolas recommends purchasing a complete winemaking equipment kit that includes a step-by-step winemaking DVD for $130 (less with occasional discounts and coupons) .

The all-important grapes: You can buy growers' surplus or you can nurture you own.

Growers with grapes for sale post information at Grains Beans & Things. The cost is about 60 cents to $1 per pound, but varies by the varietal, quality and quantity. In general, 80 to 90 pounds produce about six gallons of wine.

The cost to plant a vineyard is a big commitment of time and money. To plant an acre of grapes and the necessary support (poles, trellis, etc.) is about $20,000. It can take up to three years before the first bottling.

Pallet Wine in Medford is fully outfitted to crush grapes, guide you through the process of turning them into wine, then age, bottle and store them. (More on this new company next week.)

To decide the direction you want to take (if any), read about winemaking and grape growing from these recommended How-To books:

• "Home Winemaking Step by Step: A Guide to Fermenting Wine Grapes" by Jon Iverson (Stonemark Publishing, $17.95)

• “From Vines to Wines: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine” by Jeff Cox (Storey Publishing, $18.95)

• “The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture” by Lon Rombough (Chelsea Green Publishing Co., $35)

Better yet, stop by and talk to Bob. He’ll get you started.

To see your future, check out the results of the 2009 Open Class Beer & Wine Amateur Division at this weekend’s Jackson County Harvest Fair. Judges tested 49 entries by amateur winemakers. Will there be 50 to taste next year?

For more info: Grains Beans & Things, 820 Crater Lake Avenue, Suite 113, Medford, OR, (541) 499-6777, www.grains-n-beans.com