How to Make Wine: Merlot Wine Kit

This video shows the steps involved with making a Master Vintner Winemaker's Reserve wine kit. This kit uses juice from California grown Merlot grapes. Follow along as I learn how to make wine from kits, including the video at the bottom of the page.

Equipment

Merlot Wine Kit https://amzn.to/37518d7

Full Starter Kit https://amzn.to/2u6wKR4

6.5 Gallon Big Mouth Bubbler https://amzn.to/3aqcLgX

6 Gallon Glass Carboy Link https://amzn.to/2twXN87

Wine Thief https://amzn.to/2R1IeOH

Wine Bottle Corker https://amzn.to/2TA9028

Buon Vino Mini Jet Filtering System https://amzn.to/2NDY93s

Primary Fermentation

A constant during the process is cleaning and sanitation of anything that will touch the wine. That is probably most time consuming part of the process but not a place to take shortcuts. We’ll start off the kit by adding a variety of ingredients including the juice and water to get up to 6 gallons in the primary fermenter. Then we need to check the specific gravity to make sure we are within the expected range at this step. The yeast is added next and it’s very satisfying watching the bubbles during fermentation!

Secondary Fermentation

We’ll rack(move) the wine to the secondary fermenter with the oak chips. We will rack it again to leave the sediment behind and monitor the specific gravity. The wine becomes much more clear during this stage.

Degas

It’s critical to degas it well which is why I use a drill to help the process. We added a few more ingredients during this stage to continue refining the wine. Rack it again and continue reducing the sediment in the wine.

Bottling

Bottling is pretty straighforward. Again make sure everything is clean and sanitized. The bottle fillers will stop the flow into the bottles when they are lifted off the bottom of the bottle. The corker I used in the video is much easier to use than the cheap ones that require a lot of hand force to push the corks in the bottles.

Summary

I have enjoyed each of the wine kits I’ve done. This one was no exception. After this kit, I began using a wine filter to further reduce residue/sediment in the wine. I haven’t noticed a taste difference, but it will prevent residue built up on the bottom of the bottles when in storage. The kit produced about 30 bottles of wine so have some storage space ready, then enjoy your wine!