Instructions

1. Prepare the zinfandel grapes for crushing. At a minimum, this will mean giving them a good rinsing with clean water. If you do not have a crushing machine with an automatic de-stemmer, it will also mean cutting away the woody central stem of the grape bunches.

2. Crush the zinfandel grapes. This can be done with a crushing machine or by one of the old fashioned methods: a press or stomping with bare feet.

3. Put the grape juice, skins and small twig-like stem bits into plastic or stainless steel vats to start primary fermentation. Henceforth, this material will be referred to as "must."

4. Use the tools in your winemaker's testing kit to establish the sweetness (Brix) and acidity (pH) of the must. The exact tools used will vary with the kit purchased, so follow the manufacturer's directions closely.

5. Adjust Brix scores below twenty by adding table sugar. For a home winemaker, the simplest rule to follow on how much sugar to add is one pound for every gallon and every two points below a Brix of twenty. So, a five gallon vat that has a Brix of 19 would need seven and one-half pounds of sugar (five pounds for the five gallons, plus two and one-half pounds for the Brix). This will rarely be a problem with zinfandel grapes, however, as they tend to be very sweet and a good harvest will usually have a Brix of 23 to 25.

6. Put sulfite-bearing Camden tablets into the must as dictated by the pH score. This will eliminate unwanted bacteria and yeasts. This will vary with the results. For example, a pH of 2.9 to 3.0 gets half a tablet per gallon, while 3.3 to 3.5 gets a full tablet.

7. Use a suitable object (a 2-by-4 or old paddle is good for big vats) to stir the must and then cover it with a lid, cloth or tarp and let it sit overnight.

8. Add yeast the next day. Winemaker's yeast comes in a variety of strains, some of which are tailored for use with zinfandel. The amount needed can vary a lot depending on the strain, so follow the maker's directions.

9. Come back twice a day, every day for the next week to stir the must and push down the "cap" of grape debris and foam that forms on the top.

10. Transfer and strain the must by pouring through a sieve into a new vat.

11. Use the testing kit to test for acidity again, but this time, the result needs to be in parts per thousand (ppt) tartic (as in tartic acid). Before racking the wine, it must be cut to below seven ppt tartic. The best way to do this is with an additive, such as calcium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate. A cheaper means is to use ordinary spring water. The home winemaker can get away with simply adding by trial and error until the ppt tartic is less than seven. Once this is done, the must is now "green wine."

12. Transfer the green wine to a suitable vessel for aging. The most expensive vessel is an oak barrel, and the cheaper alternative is a water carboy. However, zinfandel is a red that needs some oak to bring out its deep, dark qualities, so if you do age in carboys, put a layer of oak chips into the bottom of each one.

13. Stop up the aging vessels. For an oak barrel, this is done with a simple rubber bung. With a carboy, use a winemaker's airlock. Let them sit in secondary fermentation for three weeks.

14. Re-rack the wine. Secondary fermentation will result in the level of wine in the containers dropping and they will need to be topped up to age properly. Choose one vessel and use a siphon hose to transfer wine from it to fill up all the others. Then either discard the remainder or pour it into a smaller container.

15. Add sulfites to each vessel to kill unwanted microorganisms that will have invaded the wine during Step 14 and then stop them back up again.

16. Age the zinfandel wine for at least six months; two years will achieve the best results.