Making Wine at Home - Wine Calendar

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Wine Making Seasons:

The best wine makers time their activities to coincide with those of the grapes. That's why we take our holidays in February and July when the grapes are budding and ripening respectively.

The guide below shows what fruit/vegetables are at their best for making wine each month.

 

January
  • Oriental Fruits: figs and dates
  • Barley
  • Citrus: grapefruit
  • Maize
  • Dried Fruit: raisins and prunes
February

Grapes: Bud Break

  • Tinned Fruit: peach, nectarine
  • Nuts: coffee or almond
  • Citrus Fruits: orange, tangerine
  • Parsnips
March
  • Carribean Fruits: bananas and pineapples
  • Peaches
  • Rice
April
  • Flowers: dandelion, gorse and primrose
  • 'Bees' Wine (this is not made with honey, rather bees refers to the type of yeast used)
May
Grapes: Vine Flowering
  • Hedgerow Flowers: hawthorn, elderflower, nettle
  • Mead
  • Vanilla
June
Grapes :Fruit Setting
  • Currants: blackcurrant, redcurrant
  • Gooseberries
  • Herbs: parsley, sage
July
Grapes : Veraison
  • Cherries
  • Flowers: honeysuckle, marigold
  • Vegetables: marrow
August
Grapes :Ripening
  • Berries: strawberry, raspberry, plum
  • Rose petals
  • Root vegetables: carrots
  • Green Fruits: gooseberry, greengage
  • Ginger Beer
September

Grapes : Harvesting

  • Berries: raspberry, blackberry, loganberry
  • Sparkling Mead
  • Apples & Pears
  • Rose hips
October

Grapes: Destemming

  • Berries: hawthornberry, bilberry, mulberry
November
  • Berries: cranberry, sloe
  • Sloe Gin
  • Port
  • Winter Vegetables: celery,ginger, parsnips
  • Hops
December 
  • Spices: Ginger, spiced beetroot
  • Mulled Wine