Vines

Roy Boy wrote: My question is what is the best

Hi..well you could start by reading this page...

.......very simply laid out on that site......Andy j.

My experience is that when a wine tastes that good young, it may not age very well. Nothing wrong with this, just keep it in mind. Drink it while it is good and do not put to many bottles back for long term storage. It really sad when you realize that your wine is past prime and you still have

If you want to make more wine from your own grapes, get a different type of grape so you can have more than one type of wine. You could also try planting clippings or learn how to graft your vines onto good root stock.

As far as your dog is concerned, note whether he chases away enough squirrels and other varmints that would steal fruit to justify loosing some to him. If not .... The decision is yours.

As far as jelly is concerned, the best grape jelly is made from grapes that are too acid to make wine or eat either. Wild grapes do the best. Don't waste your good wine grapes making jelly!

All in my humble opinion! ;o)

Ray

Notice also that she sadi that he had a grape vine, not vines.

I also make jelly from wine grapes (zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon), and no 'wasting' of good wine grapes... cuz I extract the pomace to get my 'juice' for jelly. This Wine Jelly tastes better than any grape jelly I've ever tasted.

After pressing, I put the pomace in a double-boiler configuration, 8 quart stainless steel spaghetti cooker (with the insert being a perforated 'colander'). I put about 1/2 cup of water in the pot, fill the colander with pomace, put on the lid, bring to a boil, then simmer on lowest heat for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour. The gentle steam extraction of the pomace from a 7 gallon fermentation batch yields 4-8 cups of wine-flavor extract. It does such a good job extracting the flavor that the pomace tastes pretty bland after extraction.

While making the wine grape jelly from this extract, I add lemon juice to bring up the acid to where I want it. To maximize the flavor in the jelly, I sweeten less. I use about 2/3 the sugar compared to 'standard' recipe, and I double up the amount of pectin to get it to jell (there's not enough sugar to get it to jell without extra pectin). Typically I use a box of Sure-Jell plus a box of pectin to guarantee that it will jell, but I've also had success using two boxes of pectin (occasionally I get a 'spread' rather than a 'jelly' when I only use pectin).

The extract also makes great tasting wine sorbet. And the extract makes a pretty good syrup to pour on pancakes or ice cream.

Regards, Gene

Ray Calvert wrote:

quote....... plus what my dog would eat

...watch what your dog eats...as I recall,grapes in certain amounts are highly toxic to dogs.the same as they are poisoned by chocolate and onions...andy j

quote....... plus what my dog would eat

hi again ....I found this... FYI

Grape and raisin poisonings in Dogs

Recently, there was a letter in the AVMA Journal from Dr. Gwaltney-Brant and others at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center discussing grape and raisin poisoning in dogs. Apparently, grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs when ingested in large quantities.

The grapes and raisins came from varied sources, including being eaten off the vine directly. The dogs exhibited gastrointestinal signs including vomiting and diarrhea and then signs of kidney failure with an onset of severe kidney signs starting about 24 hours after ingestion of the grapes or raisins. The amount of grapes eaten varied between

I have fed my dogs a few grapes every now and then for years, so I don't think there is a need to panic if a dog eats three or four grapes but if the whole bunch is missing from the table one day, it would be good to think about watching for any signs of a toxic reaction.

No, 5+ gallons from a single vine.

Yeah, that is a lot. An average vine will produce around 1 gallon worth of juice. Maybe you are overcropping it...even then that is excessive.