How Many Grapes to Make Wine?
If you decided to enter in the magical world of winemaking, you will soon realize that there is always some new information to add to your knowledge, some new technique to learn or something to improve in the way you’re making your wine.
To become an expert in this field, you must stay in close contact with the news of this ever-expanding industry. And while some might consider wine and winemaking just a subject of pleasant conversation, others consider winemaking a true passion that is fueled by the acquisition of information, knowledge, and experience.
Nevertheless, when you decide to become a winemaker, you will find yourself standing in the middle of a maze of questions about winemaking techniques. One of the most frequent questions is: how many grapes to make wine? Let’s discover the importance of quantities, doses and numbers.
How Many Grapes to Make Wine?
Nowadays, oenology goes hand in hand with technology and the winemaking changes with the passage of time. But if the winemaking industry doesn’t remain insensitive to the new technological innovations, there are some facts that will never change.
One of these facts is the purchase or production of grapes for winemaking.
It is a common mistake, especially for the newbies, to overlook the importance of quantities and doses. But the fact is that the precise quantities and proportions will let you stay within the established parameters of the desired wine production.
As it is easy to imagine, to each quantity of grapes corresponds a certain quantity of wine. In other words, these quantities correspond to a yield. This term refers to the exact proportion of grapes relative to wine production.
So, how many grapes to make wine? This is a crucial question and you will not need years of experience to understand that the answer is not universal, but depends on the type of grapes you’re going to use.
There are many varieties of grapes, and each of these varieties has a specific yield. There are juicy or less juicy varieties. The juicy ones will have a higher yield compared to the less juicy varieties and it is impossible to establish a yield valid for all those types.
The yield is also influenced by the other organoleptic characteristics of the grapes, such as sugar content and water percentage. So, let’s understand more about the yield.
The Grapes-Wine Yield
Although it is impossible to determine exact quantities, there are some benchmarks that will give you an idea on how to establish how many grapes are needed to make a certain quantity of wine.
In general, regardless of the wine you want to make, the yield is 70%. This means that from 22lbs. of grapes you should get about 1.8 gallons of wine. However, it is not possible to absolutize this proportion, so you can get more or less, depending on the grapes used.
For instance, if you use a less sweet and less juicy variety of grapes, the yield could be 65%. On the contrary, you can have a yield of 75% if the grapes are juicy and sweet. However, no matter what variety of grapes you decide to use, the yield will be close to these numbers. It is very unlikely to have a yield lower than 60% or higher than 85%. If you do, then something might be wrong with your winemaking technique.
Even if the grapes-wine yield might seem unimportant to you, know that it is one of the most fascinating things in the wine production. In fact, many experienced winemakers are firmly convinced that one can understand how much wine can be made from a certain quantity of grapes by simply squeezing the grape.
So, if you’re just starting to approach the world of winemaking, take this valid advice: do everything you can to learn as much as possible about the grapes-wine yield. In this way, you will be able to become a great winemaker and acquire an almost complete mastery in this field.
Have you ever used the grapes-wine yield during winemaking? What variety of grapes do you use and how much wine do you produce from a given quantity of grapes? If you have any questions, tips or advice, please write a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.
And don’t forget, next time you make winedetermine the yield. In this way, you will know what quantity of grapes you need to produce the desired quantity of wine.
Resources:
1. Growing Grapes and Making Homemade Wine - Motherearthnews.com
