What is a wine on premise?

It's a place where you can make your own wine. You use our equipment and supplies. Best of all, we clean it all up.

There are a number of reasons patrons would take advantage of wine on premise:

* Help: Customers require no experience. The WineMakers Guild will instruct patrons on making wine.

* Special conditions: The WineMakers Guild will keep wine at the optimum temperature for fermentation and for storage.

* Cost: Patrons do not need to invest in wine-making equipment.

* Clean up: Like any cooking project, wine making creates a mess. The WineMakers Guild will clean up!

* Quantity: U.S. citizens can make up to 100 gallons (or 200 gallons per household) a year.

* Sociability: Customers can make wine with a friend, or come alone and meet other winemakers.

* Savings: The cost per bottle of wine (depending of the quality) ranges from $3.83 to $5.83. And these wines are comparable to commercially purchased wines from $6 to $19.

The Wine On Premise Experience

You determine what wine you'd like to make. This is done either by tasting some wine at the winery, or by choosing wines you have had in the past that you enjoyed.

You fill out a Wine On Premise Worksheet. The sheet includes what bottle style you want, label design, wording and capsule.

With the worksheet and wine kit we will go into the winemaking area of the winery.

We then check the wine kit to be sure everything is there. Later a label will be printed to accompany your wine throughout its journey.

We mix bentonite with warm water in a must 7.9 gallon primary fermentor. The must(grape juice and/or grape concentrate) is then added . Depending on the type of kit being used, an amount of water is added to bring the total amount of liquid up to approximately 6 US gallons. The must is then mixed thoroughly with the water to allow the specific gravity to be accurately measured. with a hydrometer. This reading is recorded on the label mentioned above.

The next step is to add the yeast to begin the fermentation process. At this point the mixture is considered to be wine.

The primary fermentor is then sealed with an air tight cover and an air lock is installed to keep out the outside air and allow the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is produced by the fermentation to escape. This is done to retard oxidation and avoid contamination by any bacteria which could ruin the wine. The sealed fermentor is now placed in our fermenting room, which is kept at approximately 70 degrees F. to allow for the production of yeast. This will continue until the air is gone in the fermentor and the conversion of sugar to alcohol begins.

We will take s.g. readings every 7 days. When the readings right, we will begin the "racking" which is merely moving the wine from one container to another. This needs to be done to get the wine into a new container that will not allow the passage of air into the wine and prevent oxidation of the wine. We also want to remove the lees or sediment that forms at the bottom of the primary fermentor. The lees if left in too long, can create hydrogen sulfide and damage the wine. We are looking for a s.g. of approximately 1.010. Once we get the proper reading we transfer the wine into a secondary fermentor.

When the s.g. reaches 0.996 or less, we (in about 10 days) we will add stabilizers and a fining agent.

Eight to ten days later the wine is racked again into a sterilized carboy for the final time. This is when esterfication takes place. This step is skipped when making some wines.

After 30 to 60 days all wine is filtered and it is ready to bottle our wine!

We have all of the state of the art equipment to sterilize bottles, filter the wine, fill your bottles, cork your bottles, and label your wine right here at the winery! You can take your wine home and drink it or, as we recommend, allow it to age a little more in the bottles for some of the best tasting wine you've ever had...... After all YOU made it!