Making Eugene Wine Using
Premium, Coveted Juices

Major wine brands from around the world can own vast miles of grapevines. They do the growing, picking, crushing, acid balancing, and pasteurizing of the grape juice, They then store tens of thousands of gallons of their juices in huge temperature controlled stainless steel silos. These wineries the have two business models that utilize the stored grape juice.

       Business Model 1 -They store their grape juice in stainless steel silos and bottle based upon sales, label, pack the cases of wine and sell it to distributors. That’s the wine you buy in stores or drink in restaurants. But, because competition keeps growing (just look at all the labels in liquor store isles) more often then not, lack of sales has caused their storage silos to contain excess, unsold grape juice which they flushed away.

       Business Model 2 - About the year 2005, one of the renowned wineries came up with a brilliant idea. Instead of destroying their surplus wine, why not sell their excess grape juice to wine making non-compete wine-kit manufacturers? Those kits range in price dependent upon whether they're for making table wine or superb, premium wine like our Eugene wine.

The grape juice types these kit makers sell will be used by world-wide micro-vinters. All of us who turn those very expensive renowned grape juices into wine do so under a specific agreement that limits us to only naming the region the grape juice came from, but never the actual specific brand name company whose juice we purchased. Even though aged Eugene Wine might be identical or sometimes even better than those well known brands, in effect, we are not competing with the brand name wine whose grape juices we use.

 MAJOR BRANDS WINE MAKING INGREDIENTS,
EQUIPMENT, PROCESSES VERSUS
 EUGENE WINE'S

All wine making requires similar ingredients, equipment, and processes. The only difference is the amount of money huge wineries have to spend on their vineyards, professional equipment, cost of goods, labor and overhead compared to the costs for our smaller commercial equipment version, cost of goods and overhead.

Eugene Wine’s Equipment Needed To Make 30 – 750ML Bottles Of Wine

  • One primary 6.5 gallon fermenter

  • One 6 gallon Italian reinforced, secondary fermenter thick glass carboy.

  • Airlock and rubber bung with hole for airlock.

  • Vacuum Machine.

  • 4 feet of siphon/racking hose, hose shut off clamp and stainless steel racking cane.

  • Vacuum machine‘s wine racking attachment to transfer wine from fermenter to a new sanitized glass carboy. Then to transfer ("rack") wine from host carboys to receiving carboys up to five times to the final filtering and bottling steps.

  • Wine Thief (for removing samples of wine).

  • Hydrometer Wine Testing Jar.

  • Hydrometer used to measure sugar content.

  • Solid bung used after cleaning and sanitizing  carboy.

  • 2 oz. Potassium Bisulfite (to sanitize equipment, bottles and corks).

  • An additional 6 gallon carboy.

  • Vacuum machine’s wine de-gassing (CO2 removal) set-up.

  • Vacuum machine’s wine filtering attachment.

  • Vacuum machine’s bottle filler attachment.

  • Recycled and sanitized 30 - 750 ml appropriate glass wine bottles.

  • 30 wine corks

  • Corking machine

  • Assorted colored PVC wine capsules.

   OUR FIVE IRREVOCABLE GUIDING PRINCIPLES WHEN MAKING EUGENE WINE!

I.         We always adhere to strict  hand-crafting procedures – from fermentation to corking – including, but not limited to; sanitizing everything used in our processes, using time-tested high quality controls and continuous wine tasting and testing.

II.       We passionately make every small batch of wine with a dedication to our mission.

III.     No wine is bottled before its time.

IV.     We remain committed to buying only the finest premium ingredients thereby avoiding anything sub-standard that might compromise the quality of our final wine or the love we put into producing it.

V.      Before corking the bottles we make a final stringent test of each batch against our high standards.

SANITATION AND QUALITY CONTROL

Sanitation is very important. All equipment items and tools used in making Eugene Wine is always sanitized prior to use with “sulfites”  such as Potassium (meta) bisulfite. The odor of sulfite solutions is very strong, and since it is an anti-oxidant we have to be careful not to breath in the fumes.

After each use, we after-clean and sanitize all equipment, tools and items we use will again, before we put it in contact with the next batch of our wine.

STEP ONE IN WINE MAKING - FERMENTATION

Using a 6.5 gallon fermenter, the initial fermenting begins by us making a Bentonite solution by thoroughly dissolving 2 tablespoon of Bentonite with a gallon of warm spring water. Bentonite will eventually remove proteins and other haze causing particles in the wine, leaving it clear and stable.

After the Bentonite is fully dissolved we carefully pour the premium wine (grape) juice from the kit manufacturer's bladder bag into the 6.5 gallon fermenter.

If oak chips and/or appropriate grape skins are required by the recipe, we now add them into the must (grape juice where yeast has not been added is called “must”).

NOTE: Grape skins will be placed into a gauze straining bag.
The bag will be tied and dropped into the must.

IV.   We now top the fermenter off to the 6.5 gallon mark using pure spring water. We adjust the temperature of the water with ice or hot water to 68ºF to 75 F.

V.    We now use the wine thief, to take a sample of the must and place it into the sanitized test jar. We then place a sanitized hydrometer into the test jar and record the original specific gravity reading (the percentage of sugar in the must) from the hydrometer for later use. For most Eugene Wines the reading will be between 1.080 and 1.100. VI.    We now sprinkle the specified yeast onto the top of the wine. It is not stirred.

NOTE: Because yeast has just been added to the “must,
the liquid batch’s name now changes from “must” to “wine.”

WII.  We now place the sanitized lid and drilled bung onto the white plastic tub and press down to seal it. Or if it’s a glass fermenter we just insert the drilled bung into the neck. Then we place a sanitized and filled with water airlock into the bung to keep bugs and oxygen from contaminating the wine while the airlock’s  design lets CO2 escape.

VIII. We place the fermenter in a dark out of the way place, with the temperature between 68ºF to 75 F.

IX.   Fermentation usually start in 12 to 24 hours. We check the airlock to see if it’s bubbling which tells us  that the wine is being converted from grape juice to alcohol. We now wait for about 14 more days when we will take a second hydrometer reading.

STEP TWO – STABILIZING AND CLEARING

I.   The hydrometer reading is the most accurate determination for fermentation. So, on or about day 14 we take another hydrometer reading. We look for to read, 0.998 or lower because that means the wine is ready to be racked to get rid of the sediment caused by the initial fermentation. If it hasn’t dropped to that 0.998 level we will wait seven more days to take another reading. If it still reads the initial specific gravity level (see E.-V. above) it means the fermentation is stuck, and how we successfully unstick it is beyond the scope of this document.

II. If the hydrometer reading is 0.998 or lower, the wine in the fermenter is ready to be transferred (“racked”) into a sanitized 6-gallon glass carboy.  If grape skins were used we tightly squeeze the gauze straining bag containing the skins letting its juice go into the wine.

We will use the vacuum pump attachment, with its hoses, clamp and racking cane to rack the pure wine and leave the dead yeast and other sediment particles any oak chips and/or the fully squeezed grape skin gauze bag on the bottom of the fermenter.

III. Once the transfer has been completed, we now will use the vacuum pump's de-gassing set-up and de-gass the wine for 10 to 20 minutes to remove the CO2 gas still in the wine. We wait untill the gas bubbles are minisculel. When this has been done the wine will clear easier.

We then add anti-oxidants to minimize browning, promote clarity and add stabilizing agents to prevent any additional fermentation in the bottle that would cause carbonation that will push the cork out of the bottle. We stir the wine for several minutes to mix these ingredients and the sediment on the bottom of the fermenter.

Finally, we place a sanitized bung and airlock into the neck of the receiving sanitized carboy and place the carboy into a dark out of the way place, with the temperature between 68ºF to 75 F. We will let it sit there to let the wine further ferment – for about another 14 days.

IV. If the premium grape juice kit has and/or needs a bag of finishing blend or sweetening blend, we will add it now.

V. We now measure and calculate the alcohol content of this batch. By subtracting the ending specific gravity from its original specific gravity and multiplying the difference by 1.31  we get what the alcohol content will be in the bottle. Example: Original S.G. of 1.086 less final S.G. of 0.996 = .090.  Multiply the .090 X 1.31 = .1179% or 11% alcohol

NOTE: During these last14 days the fermentation should be over and have little or no sediment on the bottom of the carboy, and the wine will be clear.

    STEP THREE - FINAL RACKING AND FILTERING PRIOR TO BOTTLING

We place the correct sanitized wine filter number (#1 for white wine and # 5 for red wine) into the sanitized wine filter housing and screw housing closed until it seals. Then correctly attach a set of sanitized hoses, one hose goes from the filled glass carboy to the filter’s "IN" T-connector fitting that has a hose going to the vacuum pump. A third sanitized hose will go from the T-connector to the receiving carboy.

When the vacuum pump is turned on, the entire sanitized set-up is free of outside oxygen which is the enemy of finished wine. After the transfer is finished, we let the receiving carboy with the finished wine sit in a quiet, dark place to clarify and rid itself of any residue CO2.

Since if left alone, the wine will successfully age in the carboy, in about 14 days we will decide if we should wait to bottle, or proceed to bottle it now.

STEP FOUR - FINALLY, THE WINE GETS BOTTLED

NOTE: Eugene Wine is an upscale, premium wine made for savvy wine connoisseurs. That is why Eugene Wine does NOT recycle or ever use screw top bottles or synthetic plastic corks. Furthermore, because, screw top bottles and/or wine in bottles sealed with synthetic corks are designed to be consumed in a few months – NOT long-term aged. Even if a screw top bottle is closed, the wine in the bottle or wine in a bottle sealed with a synthetic cork is subject to soon become oxidized and undrinkable.

All premium Eugene Wine is therefore bottled in correctly shaped, sanitized bottles and sealed with  sanitized natural corks, not synthetic and they too will be sanitized prior to being inserted into the neck of the bottle. The final touch are the colored shrink capsules that helps to rapidly identify different types of Eugene Wine, but also keeps dust and other particles from forming on the cork.

If desired by the user, sanitized bottles and natural corks allows the wine to further age in the bottle by setting the bottle on its side or upside down to keep the cork moist and sealed. It’s a known fact that many factors are involved but, if Eugene Wine is aged for at least a year or more, flavors and body will improve. In general, wines with higher alcohol levels, higher acid levels, and higher tannin levels require more aging, and taste better older.

Store your wine in their appropriate temperatures. The eugenewine.com website gives the recommended  storage temperatures for each wine type we make.

   SEE OUR YOUTUBE VIDEO/SLIDE SHOW ON THE MAKING OF EUGENE WINE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcQCoGhlBk

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