Why Start a Wine Making Club?

Home wine making is a great hobby to undertake individually, but I believe the most fun can be attained by sharing wine making experiences with others. As a result, I would recommend that you gather a group of friends together and form a 'wine club' to make wine.

Some advantages of making wine as a group:

• Making large batches of wine (>15 gallons) can be much work--sharing the work with several friends can make it much easier and much more enjoyable.
• It is often useful to get several 'experts' opinions during the wine making process to 'trouble- shoot' and provide insight into the wine making process.
• Others may suggest that you make wine varieties that you never would have tried on your own. You may find that experimental wine are actually quite good.
• Participating in a common economic investment or interest, and having a common end goal (the making of fine wine), is a great way to build friendships.
• It gives you an excuse to 'get out of the house' four to five times a year for wine racking, fermentations, etc..
• Forming wine as a group helps to educate other about the wine making process. Often, an individual that is new to the hobby or process will have great interest in making wine, but not much experience. By joining a group, the eager apprentice can learn from the more experienced 'master' wine makers. In a few years, the apprentice wine maker may be a master, and start additional wine clubs--educating others in the process.
• If wine clubs are formed with your neighbors and members of your local community, your local community will be strengthened--as you will get to know your neighbors much better, and your neighborhood will be better off for it.

Tips for forming a wine making group

• It is really convenient to include members in your group that live within walking distance from your house...That way they can walk home after 'working' on the wine.
• Try and have at least one person in the group that has some experience with making wine... That way the others can learn from the more experienced member. If all members are novices, that is OK--all can learn together.
• Make sure that all members of the wine making group are really committed to the group and willing to help out with all wine making events. It is no fun (or fair) when one member of the group does not show up to help make the wine throughout the year, and then shows up at bottling to collect his/her wine.
• I would recommend that no-more than four people form a group. My experience has found that more than four per group can become 'too cumbersome' to manage.
• Go in together on a barrel (or used oak barrel)--sharing the cost among the group. An oak barrel is typically 50-60 gallons. New oak barrels can cost $300 to $500 dollars, while a used oak whiskey barrel can cost about $80. Splitting the cost four ways can make the oak barrel affordable, and economical to the group. In addition, working with a barrel is probably too much work for a single person to do alone (as at least two people are needed to lift and move the barrel).
• Combine your wine club meetings an racking with a dinner. Make working on your wine an 'event'. Invite the families and significant others of your club over for dinner and wine tasting of the 'batch' that you are working on. It is much fun, and everyone feels like they are part of the process.

How much work is it make wine as a group?

• The answer is highly dependent on how much wine you choose to make but in general.....
• Making wine will probably require 6-7 'meetings' a year with the group. These include:
  • A planning session to determine the wine that the group will make
  • Trips to obtain the juice / grapes
  • Performing primary fermentation
  • Putting wine in barrel / carbouy after primary fermentation
  • 3-4 Wine Rackings
  • Wine bottling
• Most of the work will occur in the fall when the group will be bottling the wine from last year, and making the wine for the new year. Throughout the rest of the year, the wine will mostly just age, with a minimal amount of work necessary for the group. During this time period, three or four meetings will be needed over the course of the year to rack the wine.

Other Cool Tips

• Keep a journal to record your wine making. As the years progress, you may find that it is fun to keep a written record of all that you have made, recording what wines worked well, and what wine may not have worked as well.