How to Make White Grape Wine

Wine makers commonly use white grapes to make wine at home. Vitis labrusca is a popular species of white grape in the United States and is the source of most white grape juice. These grapes are quite sweet and require very little additional sugar to produce a crisp white wine. You can find the special equipment needed for this recipe at any winemaking supply store.

Things You'll Need

• 1-gallon white grape juice
• Stainless steel pot
• Saccharometer
• Finely granulated sugar
• 2 1-gallon plastic jugs
• Brewer's yeast
• Ice pick
• Siphon hose
• Clarifying agent
• Bottles with caps

Instructions

1. Buy a gallon of whole white grape juice from the grocery store. Read the label to ensure that it's 100 percent white grape juice with no other ingredients. It's essential that the grape juice not contain any preservatives such as benzoate of sodium, as this will prevent the yeast from growing.

2. Pour the grape juice into a stainless steel pot and stir in one-half pound of sugar until it's thoroughly dissolved. Float a saccharometer in the sweetened grape juice and dissolve any additional sugar needed to increase the sugar content of the mixture to 22 percent.

3. Transfer the sweetened grape juice to a one-gallon plastic jug with a plastic cap. Add a pinch of brewer's yeast and poke a hole in the plastic cap with an ice pick. Store the jug in a cool location and allow the must to ferment for about two weeks. Test the specific gravity of the must with a saccharometer and continue to ferment the must until the specific gravity drops to 1.01. "Must" is the name of the grape juice mixture from the time the yeast is added until the fermentation process is complete. Specific gravity is a measure of the must's density relative to that of water. A saccharometer can measure the specific gravity of the must to determine how much of its sugar has been converted to alcohol.

4. Siphon the wine into another plastic jug, using care to leave the sediment behind. This procedure is called racking the wine, and you may need to perform it more than once before the wine is clear. Add a clarifying agent to the wine if it doesn't clear after racking it several times.

5. Bottle the wine and allow it to age. You can drink white wine immediately instead of bottling it, although it's best when aged in the bottle for at least a year. White wine should be drunk within three years of bottling.

Tips & Warnings

• The wine in this recipe will be very dry since virtually all of the sugar will be converted to alcohol. You can sweeten the wine to taste by adding additional sugar just before bottling it.

References

• Grow Grapes & Make Wine