Learn winemaking, one batch at a time
Each batch adds one new skill to the last. Start at the top; the wine is the exercise.
24 lessons across 4 stages. Each one is a real batch chosen because it introduces exactly one new idea — so that when a wine disappoints you, you know which change was responsible.
Your first batch
First timeSix lessons that take you from an empty bucket to bottles on a shelf. Nothing here needs equipment beyond a fermenter, an airlock and a hydrometer.
- 01
Sanitising
Most wine that goes wrong was not unlucky. It was made in a bucket that was not clean, and no later step recovers it.
You have got it when: You have made a batch start to finish without an off smell developing in the first week.
- 02
Reading a hydrometer
The hydrometer is the only instrument that tells you what is actually happening. Without it, 'is it finished?' is a guess, and bottling a wine that is not finished is how bottles burst.
You have got it when: You have logged a starting gravity and a finishing gravity for the same batch.
Make one of these
- 03
Pitching yeast
Which yeast you choose, and the temperature you pitch it at, shapes the wine more than most makers expect.
You have got it when: You have recorded a pitch with the strain named, and seen the gravity fall over the following days.
Make one of these
- 04
The airlock and headspace
Air is the enemy after fermentation, not during it. Learning when a vessel should be full and when it should not is the difference between wine and vinegar.
You have got it when: You have moved a finished wine into a vessel it fills, leaving no air gap.
Make one of these
- 05
Racking off the lees
Leaving a wine on its dead yeast too long gives it a savoury, sometimes sulphurous character. Racking is how a wine gets clean and bright.
You have got it when: You have racked a batch at least once and logged the date.
Make one of these
Read first
- 06
Knowing when it is finished
A stable gravity over several days is the only reliable answer. Time in the bucket is not evidence, and neither is the airlock going quiet.
You have got it when: You have three readings at the same gravity, several days apart, on one batch.
Make one of these
- 07
Bottling
The last chance to introduce a fault, and the easiest place to undo months of care.
You have got it when: You have bottled a batch and recorded how many bottles it made.
Make one of these
Handling fruit properly
First timeThe same six steps, now with fruit that fights back. Each of these solves a specific problem you will have already met.
- 08
Pectic enzyme
Soft fruit is full of pectin, and a pectin haze never clears no matter how long you wait. The enzyme has to go in while the must is cool.
You have got it when: You have made a soft-fruit wine that fell bright on its own.
Make one of these
- 09
Feeding the yeast
Fruit and honey musts are often short of nitrogen. A starved ferment is slow, smells of rotten egg, and may stop altogether.
You have got it when: You have made a batch with nutrient added and compared how it ran to one without.
Make one of these
- 10
Knowing when to dilute
Some fruit is too intense to ferment neat. Judging how far to take it down is a skill, and getting it wrong makes a wine nobody finishes.
You have got it when: You have made a wine from a strongly flavoured fruit that is balanced rather than overwhelming.
Make one of these
- 11
Straining awkward fruit
Some fruit carries fine hairs or grit that will stay in the wine for good if it gets past the first straining.
You have got it when: You have made a wine from an awkward fruit with no sediment you could feel on the tongue.
Make one of these
- 12
Stone fruit
Stones and their kernels carry compounds you do not want in quantity, and stone fruit browns quickly once cut.
You have got it when: You have made a stone-fruit wine that kept its colour and its fruit character.
Make one of these
Taking control
Getting confidentAdjusting a wine rather than accepting what you get. Every lesson here is a measurement first and an addition second.
- 13
Sulphite, and why
Sulphite protects a wine from oxidation and spoilage organisms. The dose depends on pH, and guessing it means either no protection or a wine that smells of a struck match.
You have got it when: You have added sulphite to a batch at a dose you calculated rather than copied.
Make one of these
- 14
Adjusting acid
Acid is what makes a wine taste like wine rather than like sweet fruit juice. It is also the adjustment most easily overdone.
You have got it when: You have measured acidity on a batch and adjusted it towards a target.
Make one of these
- 15
Fining a stubborn haze
Time clears most wines. For the ones it does not, the right fining agent depends on what the haze actually is.
You have got it when: You have cleared a wine with a fining agent chosen for the type of haze.
Make one of these
- 16
Back-sweetening safely
Sugar added to a wine with live yeast and no stabiliser restarts fermentation in the bottle. This is the lesson that prevents broken glass.
You have got it when: You have sweetened a finished wine and it stayed still in the bottle.
Make one of these
- 17
Getting colour out of the skins
Colour and tannin live in the skins, and how long you leave them decides both. Too long is as wrong as too short.
You have got it when: You have made a red with the colour you intended rather than the colour you got.
Make one of these
Read first
- 18
Tannin
Tannin gives a wine grip and helps it age. Country wines are usually short of it, and adding it is a judgement, not a recipe.
You have got it when: You have made a wine with structure that holds up after six months.
Make one of these
Craft
ExperiencedThings worth doing once you can reliably make a clean, balanced wine. None of these rescue a poor batch; they make a good one better.
- 19
Blending
Two wines that are each wrong in a different direction can make one that is right. Blending is the cheapest way to improve what you already have.
You have got it when: You have made a blend that you preferred to either of its parts in a side-by-side tasting.
Make one of these
- 20
Oak
Oak adds flavour and lets a wine take in oxygen slowly. It is very easy to overdo, and it cannot be taken back out.
You have got it when: You have oaked a wine and stopped at the point you meant to.
Make one of these
- 21
Mead, and patience
Honey has almost no nitrogen and mead is famously slow. It teaches staged feeding and it teaches waiting.
You have got it when: You have a mead that has been in the vessel for at least six months.
Make one of these
- 22
Making it sparkle
A second fermentation in the bottle, on purpose and measured. The same arithmetic that makes bubbles makes bottle bombs if it is wrong.
You have got it when: You have opened a bottle you primed and it foamed rather than exploded.
Make one of these
- 23
Wines that need years
Some wines are unpleasant at a year and very good at four. Knowing which is which stops you throwing away the best thing you have made.
You have got it when: You have kept a batch for two years and tasted it against a note you wrote at bottling.
Make one of these
- 24
Delicate flowers and leaves
Aromatic ingredients give up their character quickly and lose it just as fast. Heat and time are both against you.
You have got it when: You have made a floral wine that still smelled of the flower at bottling.