As we'll see soon, homemade wines can be made from countless ingredients – Flowers, Fruit, Seeds, Honey, leaves and vegetables. However, experience teaches, that the best result is usually achieved, applying the recipe, which includes fruits (otherwise, the finished product may lose its characteristic wine taste). You can enter other components later, but at the beginning you should get to know the craft well, to experiment in the future and freely combine products.
In the UK, homemade wines from available fruit, vegetables and other crops of the earth, sweetened with honey, is a centuries-old tradition. However, the first signs of the disappearance of this tradition have been observed, when the Bordeaux region came under British rule and for many years French wines dominated the market, what caused, that home-made production has become the domain of poorer social strata. Then they began to import wines from Portugal, with which the United Kingdom has concluded a trade agreement. In the 18th century, sugar imports resulted in a significant drop in prices for alcoholic products and their greater availability for the working class. This, in turn, was associated with a reduction in honey production and a significant increase in the supply of malt beer. In the face of a very significant decline in domestic wine production, it is really a great happiness, that our ancestors kept their old recipes, which gave rise to the production of many types of modern wines.
Many of you may have heard stories about developed wine traditions in the times of your great-grandfathers. It's not true! Modern yeast varieties and technologies are much more advanced today than they used to be. Simply the low price of spirits in the past allowed brandy to be fortified. These times, however, are over, so if we want, that our wines are as strong as they used to be, we have to take care of it ourselves, by carefully controlling the sugar content and using appropriately selected varieties of yeast, to keep production costs low.
The wine industry has grown enormously in the last thirty years. New varieties of yeast were bred, clarification and filtering methods have improved; thanks to better equipment and greater knowledge of alcohol content control in beverages, we can produce the so-called. wines for a specific purpose, for example. aperitify, table wines, Dessert, sparkling, and even liqueurs.
The beginnings of wine production
Before I move on to discussing the equipment I need, I would like to mention briefly the beginnings of the art of wine making. I guarantee, that it will be interesting knowledge, although not necessarily checked. I'm not going to discuss the term, that wine is the greatest gift from God, because, indeed, drunk in reasonable amounts supports digestion and provides the body with many valuable ingredients.
According to legend, the first king of the Persians Jamshed, grandson of Noah, he was very fond of grapes. When he got old and lost all his teeth, commanded his servants, to squeeze the juice out of them, which he could delight in. He also wanted to drink juice during the winter months., so he ordered it to be kept in large vats. However, after a few days he found, that his favorite drink changed color and taste – he became bitter. He was very sad, for he thought, that the juice has gone bad and become poisonous. So that no one drinks it anymore, he ordered the vats to be put in the basement, lock the door and label "poison".
Soon after, his favorite maid fell ill. She suffered from severe headaches, which kept her awake and made her sleep, that she wanted to die, just to get rid of them. She thought, that he poisons himself with juice, and sneaked into the basement. But after drinking a few glasses, she felt relaxed, and the pain stopped bothering her. The more she drank, this made her merrier; finally, drugged, fell asleep. When the absence of a woman was noticed, they started looking for her, until she was finally found sleeping in the basement. The woman was moved to the palace, where she slept for two more days – probably from exhaustion after so many sleepless nights. When the maid awoke, with surprise, she said, that the king himself bends over the bed, concerned about her condition. She told everyone, that her suffering was over and that she never felt better. The king was so happy, that he himself decided to try the "poison". It also cheers up the drink. He called it "the drug of kings".