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A friend of mine calls me to tell me his father bought a hotel and with it came a wine cellar. His father wanted to sell it and I happened to be starting out in the wine business. I really didn’t know much about wine but my partner did he was a teacher at the local college, he taught wine classes.

So we took a trip to the hotel to check out the cellar. He was like a kid in a candy shop it was nuts 1967 Mondavi Reserve Cab, 1969 Beringer Private Reserve Cab, all kinds of crazy bottles, you wouldn’t believe how many cases were there and the new owner of the hotel didn’t really want it. So we took some to see if there was a market for it. The problem we ran into is that we didn’t know how to price it and this was in the late 80’s and early 90’s there was no ebay to look it up. The only way you could get the value was to look at auctions. But then we couldn’t certify that the wine was stored correctly, so we really couldn’t sell any. Another issue was sadly enough the clients were almost scared to buy it, they just did not know enough about it, they simply had never seen it before. Any store or restaurant operator that takes the effort to sell aged wines is doing a great job, they are taking the extra steo to give the best product they can. So buy them all of them if you can afford it.

Making money is a huge thing but if there was one thing I was happy about it was not selling those wines. My friends and I would play monopoly drinking Mondavi Reserve from 1967 by the case!! We would have parties with wine when most people were buying kegs, I mean we were 21 when was the last time you heard 21 year olds getting a case of wine to hang out(and we aren’t talking about the 2 for $5.00 bottled) those days made wine lovers out of my friends and I for ever.

What is a shame is that aged wines aren’t more accessible in retail outlets and especially in restaurants. You can buy these wines on Ebay or other sites around the web, they are more accessible now but people need to try them so they understand how great a bottle of wine could be. The wine does not have to be an expensive bottle to age, you can buy $10.00 bottles and put them in the basement for five years, have a blind tasting and I bet you those bottles beat out anything that isn’t aged no matter the price. Please do yourself and the grapes a favor and get some wine no matter the price store it in the basement, or anywhere where there isn’t to much light and temperature changes. Then just forget about them for five years, you will thank me, believe me and don’t forget to have your monopoly board handy.

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Sugar and acid levels are 2 important parts to making a great batch of wine, so adjustments to the process are based on those tests. As you are already aware, the sugar level is critical as the yeast must feed on it to make the alcohol. The amount of sugar that you start your batch with will ultimately determine the level of alcohol that will be in the final batch but in order to run these tests you’ll have to own a hydrometer.

The hydrometer lets you accurately tests as well as measure the sugar that is contained in the juice and the amount of alcohol that can come from the sugar. Because of that you can also measure how much additional sugar you may need to add to the juice.

A hydrometer is basically a glass tube with a weight on one end that will float. You can test sugar levels by reading how low or high it ultimately floats with almost all hydrometers having and it’s scale gives us an estimate of the alcohol content. The scale is readable when the fermentation process begins to let you know if you need to use more sugar depending on how much alcohol that you want to be present in the final wine.

If you determine that you should alter the sugar level to increase the amout on alcohol you probably want to know what sort of sugar you should use. You need to keep in mind that every type of sugar will display different characteristics. [Corn sugar and cane sugar are usually the cheapest] and the most available, though, there’s nothing to stop you from experimenting with other sugar options if you have them available.

You’ll need to do tests and possibly adjust the acid level. Bear in mind that a proper acid level will give your wine character, and balance and render assistance for the fermentation process because it’s important that your remember that the level of acid changes in different fruits.

The best way you can test acidity is through the use of a titration kit, which will help you determine how the wine will actually taste. For example, if there is too much acid the end result will be bitter whereas, if it does not have a sufficient acid content, it’ll be flash. By utilizing what you’ve just read, you will know whether or not you should modify the acidity level of your wine. If you find that you require to make adjustments you can accomplish it using one of three different fruit acids: citric, tartaric and malic fruit acids.

Some ways to change the flavor of your wine when you bottle it include mixing it with other wines, incorporating spices, or oak chips, body enhances or flavor enhances. You may even fortify it with something such as simple grain alcohol. The most critical rule that should be followed while making final adjustments is to make certain that you adjust in small amounts, so basically, always play with small portions as opposed to the whole amount you’ve made.

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