Harvesting grapes is a tradition that is as old as mankind. Grapes are used for many different things but the most popular are wine and jelly. The harvest is usually early fall but there are some grapes that will mature late fall. The late fall grapes tend to make some of the best and sweetest wine.

Picking grapes is a tedious process where grapes are picked in bunches and handled carefully to avoid bruising. Most pickers have buckets and scissors that are used to cut grape bunches off the vine. After the grapes are picked they are often taken to a pressing area where they will be processed for their destination.

When grapes are pressed they are placed into a presser that takes the grapes and smashes them into small pieces. In years passed this method was done by workers using their bare feet to stomp the grapes to extract the juice. Some places in the world still use this old tradition but for sanitary reasons most places now use a grape presser to extract the pulp and the juice Workers will line the bottom of a grape press with sackcloth to make sure they get all of the juice extracted without all of the seeds and pulp getting into the juice.

There are many different types of grape pressers but they all achieve the same thing. The ultimate goal of pressing is to get as much of the juice out of the grapes as possible.

Juiced grapes are very similar to those that are pressed. The home winemaker probably will not own a very elaborate grape press because of the expense involved. The press is usually found in wineries where large quantities of grapes are pressed. The home juicer may use something as simple as a potato masher to get the juice out of the grapes. There are also home pressers that will extract the juice and leave the pulp, seeds, and skin behind. These are usually cranked by hand and can become quite tedious if there is a large quantity of grapes to be juiced. It is a great way for the home winemaker to get the most juice out of the grapes.

Pressing grapes at home will allow you to get the full benefit of the pressed juice without all of the additives that come in a kit. Kits are a great way for somebody to get started and learn what they are doing but kits are rarely natural and have additives and preservatives that are not found in juiced grapes at home. When you juice your own grapes you have complete control of the ingredients you put into the juice.

Winemaking is a fun hobby and offers some great benefits for the home winemaker. By making your wine at home you will have a healthy alternative to the processed wines that are found in stores. Most people also agree that wine made at home just tastes better than wine bought from a vendor.

In this clip John Iszard discusses the 2009 home winemaking season at Fulkerson Winery on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. For a “how to” on home winemaking, check out our 5 part series with Steven Fulkerson.

Winemaking from Kennebec Home Brew Supplies

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of home made wines is grapes. How can we not associate wine with grapes when all you see on the shelves of liquor stores are countless wines produced by Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and other types of grapes? There are, however, other fruits that can make a great wine. Since home making wine has become a popular hobby it has become more and more inexpensive and easy to make a creative wine all on your own. These wines can be made of affordable fresh fruits possibly from your own backyard. No matter where you live in the world, you are a short walk or car ride away from edible plants, berries and fruits which can easily make a great tasting creative wine. Many plants bear fruit that can be made into a delicious wine to suit your individual taste.

The list of fruits which can be used to make creative home wines is endless. To get a small taste of suitable, inexpensive fruits, you can choose from strawberries, watermelons, peaches, blackberries, plums, grapefruits, pears and pineapples to name just a few. To further assist you in your creative home wine making, I have compiled a list of very inexpensive, creative fruits and other surprising foods that can be made into wines that will leave you wanting more and more. Some of these will be quite shocking for you to see in the context of wine. However, they are assured to be delicious. Almonds, apple cider, apricots, bananas, carrots, cherries, cranberries, dates, figs, garlic, ginger, honeysuckle, jelly, kiwi, mint, melons, onions, pea pods, pumpkin, raspberries, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelons and zucchinis are some suggestions to tasty, inexpensive yet creative wines that can be made at home. As with any wine, you must first evaluate the fruit. A wine is only as good as the fruit used to make it. To achieve the most superior wine, carefully choose each piece of fruit used. Be sure that molds and bruises are minimal. You should also thoroughly clean the fruit before crushing it. It is best to use fruits that are fully ripe. When attempting to use a fruit before it is fully ripe, it has a tendency to take away from the taste and richness of the wine.

Fruit wines are usually diluted with water before starting the wine making process. This is done because many fruits are very strong in flavor or too high in acid. This would greatly affect the outcome of the wine’s taste.

Some other great examples of inexpensive yet creative wines are Dandelion Wine, Crabapple Wine and Tea Wine. Although cultivated for food, herbs and tea for long periods of time, most Americans see dandelions as weeds and look to remove them from their gardens. However, the flower petals on dandelions can be used to make wine. Dandelion wine is typically a light wine with little body. When using dandelions to make wine, pick the flowers just before starting to make the wine, to assure freshness. There are different forms of dandelion wine, one recipe is as follows: 2 qts dandelion flowers, 3 lbs granulated sugar 4 oranges, 1 gallon water, yeast and nutrient. Dandelion wine is well suited to make into a sparkling wine.

Crabapple wine is another option for an inexpensive, creative wine that can be made by yourself. You can leave the peeling on the apples, but should remove the seeds. As always, thoroughly wash the fruit. A recipe for crabapple wine is 4lbs ripe crabapples, 2 lbs granulated sugar, 1/4 tsp tannin, ½ tsp acid blend, ½ tsp peetie enzyme, 1 tsp yeast nutrient 7 ½ pts water, 1 crushed Campden tablet and champagne wine yeast.

Yet another affordable wine that can be made at home is tea wine. You can use a variety of teas, such as black tea or green tea. The recipe for black tea wine calls for 4 tablespoons bulk black tea, 1 11oz can frozen red or white grape concentrate, 2 lbs sugar, 2 tsp citric acid, 6 pts water, 1 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 pkt wine yeast.

Regardless of what type of wine you choose to make, be creative and have fun. Don’t be afraid to try new things. By making your own wine at home can possibly create a new and delicious wine that will dazzle you and your friends.

Making wine on a budget can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience, provided that one knows what one is doing. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from gathering all of your own fruit and grapes, then processing them into wine; the novice vintner may find it very efficient and more cost effective to invest money into a winemaking kit for their first few batches.

Most winemaking websites and supply stores have these kits for purchase, and they will include all you need to successfully make a good batch of wine. There are even kits available for mead, specialty and herbal wines. This way is a great way to begin a good batch with all of your ingredients together in place.

If you want to get your fruit and other ingredients in your own area of the country, farmer’s markets are an ideal place to save a ton of money. These markets are a place for local farmers and fruit growers to come sell their produce and are very popular during the summer months.

Since you are not paying for the supply chain and other cost associated with chain grocery stores, you can get a lot of fruit for pennies on the dollar as opposed to what you pay at a store. This is also a great way to support the local community of farmers in your area.

In my own area, I have seen a number of people who start their home winemaking operation by ordering their supplies online. While this is highly convenient, it is probably not the most cost effective way of acquiring fruit and supplies. At a local store, you can find most of the supplies you need without having to pay shipping costs, and it’s much easier to shop in your local area and find good deals.

There are numerous ways to save money by doing the above steps. Wine making in this way is not only fulfilling, fun and give one a lot of satisfaction, it also provides for cost effective solutions in wine making that most people would either overlook or not see when making their own wine at home.

This article provides for tips as to how ferment your own wine at home. The actual fermentation process that is involved in wine making is based around a chemical reaction which occurs when turning raw grape juice into an alcoholic beverage called wine. Some consideration should be taken into account when considering the exact timing and lengths of the fermentation process prior to beginning. This is mainly a way to protect the final integrity of the product and the wine itself.

A seasoned vintner will have a specific plan in motion before starting the process. Yeast will interact with natural sugars in the fruit juice during the fermentation process creating ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol. It also creates carbon dioxide as off product. The temperature and timing of the fermentation process is of great importance when fermenting the wine. Great care should be taken to avoid risks of stuck fermentation. It causes a delay in the fermentation process. When stuck fermentation happens it usually delays the process anywhere from five to fifteen days time. This is crucial for the home made wine maker in making a quality product. It could change the entire batch of wine and could produce vinegar if left unchecked.

This drawback of stuck fermentation is usually caused by a number of influences. It happens due to a lack of nutrient content needed in order for yeast to complete its fermentation process. Another cause of this is often low temperatures, or fluctuating temperature changes  causing the yeast to stop fermenting early. Finally the alcohol percentage rate could have grown too high as a result of the type of yeast selected to be used in the fermentation process.

The majority of fermentation is often done in stainless steel tanks, open wooden vats, inside wine barrels, or inside the wine bottle itself as seen in the production of many types of sparkling and brut wines. For the home making vintner, these concerns are not large concerns. But often fermenting wine at home will mean a little bit more effort and work from the maker and usually this work is crucial to making a quality wine product.

In making home made wine, there are certain necessary preparations that must be followed in order to make a quality wine. Within these preparations are seven easy steps one must follow in making home made wine and for success to occur.

1. Prepare the wine making fruit or materials by cutting up the larger fruit, bursting the skins on the fruit, chopping up fruits such as currents, and bruising heavily any ingredients like birch root, etc. Any large pits in the fruit of course should be removed.

2. Stir up all of the wine making ingredients, except for yeast, into what is called the primary fermenter. Collect any fruit pulp in a fermentation sack and submerge the sack into the wine making mixture. Add water to equal the batch to 5 gallons.

3. Cover the fermenter with a thin, clean towel or cheesecloth and wait 24 hours.

4. Lightly sprinkle wine yeast over the surface of the juice and then cover with a thin, clean towel. Allow this mixture to ferment for 5 to 7 days. This step cannot be overlooked.

5. After 5 to 7 days of fermenting, take out the pulp from the fermenter and throw away. Siphon the wine into a secondary fermenter very carefully, leaving all the sediment behind in the primary fermenter.

6. Attach the wine making air-lock and fill approximately half-way with clean water. Allow the juice to ferment an additional 4 to 6 week period or until the mixture turns completely clear.

7. Once the wine becomes completely clear, siphon it off of the sediment again. Stir in five Campden Tables found at your local wine making store that have been crushed and then bottle. When siphoning off sediment, unlike the first time you siphoned the wine, you want to leave all sediment behind, even if you lose a little wine.

These steps when followed correctly can and will produce a quality wine that you will surely enjoy. However, during the actual wine making process, it is extremely important to keep fermentation temperatures stable between 70 and 75 degrees F. Fermenting cool could and will result in the fermentation stopping before all the alcohol is made. Getting the fermentation too warm could result in off-flavors in the wine.

Wine often changes over time. Itís very important to produce desirable changes to avoid harmful ones. You can do this by exercising control over many physical changes in the wine itself. Nothing spoils wine faster than excess air. This excess air not only causes the wine to lose freshness but it also causes the wine to oxidize. The result often create premature aging and before long, you have vinegar instead of wine. Fortunately, glass does not allow air into the wine stored and a good corking will keep the air exchange to a minimum for years to come.

To ensure that proper aging occurs in the wine, wine has some air in the bottle to start with. It is very important to make sure that the cork remains moist so that no additional air is allowed to enter the bottle. It is advised that you store your wine horizontally to keep the cork from cracking or shrinking, thus letting in the unwanted air your wine does not need.

Proper temperature storage is vital to ensure that the wine stays drinkable before you open it. If a wine is stored in conditions that are too cold, it causes the cork to shrink allowing air to enter the bottle. If the conditions are too warm, the wine will age faster than it normally should.

The optimum temperature for storing wine is generally fifty to fifty five ∞F (10-12∞C). Any constant temperature within forty-sixty-five ∞F (5-18∞C) is normally acceptable. The rate of the temperature change also plays an important role. A ten degree change over a season is usually harmless, but rapid changes can severely damage wine, even when stored within the desired temperature.

Along with controlling temperature and humidity, light exposure should be kept to a bare minimum. Often darkness is preferred by wine growers. Though modern bottles come with a good UV filter, light can still penetrate leading to a condition called ‘light struck’. This shows up as an unpleasant air in the wine itself. Incandescent bulbs produce less ultraviolet light than fluorescents so make sure you use the correct lighting in the process.

Vibrations also interferes with aging and stirs up unwanted sediment. Try to avoid moving any bottles until they are ready to be served. Bottle size also plays a part in storing your wine. A larger bottle actually has a smaller ratio of air to wine so as a rule, always use a large bottle. Once the bottle has been opened and you don’t expect to drink the rest in a few days, it’s important that you transfer the leftover to a small bottle. Generally, if you’re a casual drinker and drink your wine within one year after purchase, you can store wine just about anywhere that is not exposed to light or heat. That usually ensures that wine stays wine and your wine is protected and safe.

Making labels for your wine bottles can be a fun and wonderful experience. This usually involves possibly coming up with a label that says something about the grower, the way it was made, the kind of wine, etc.

This can be an interesting process since it says a lot about the wine you have made and what kind wine the person drinking it will experience. Under the assumption that you will want to create several labels all at once instead of making them one at a time by hand, as hand crafted and fun as that process can be, its often easier to mass produce them using modern methods. Here is a list of items that you will need and use to make your own wine labels for your wines. A computer, a printer, plain or gummed paper, label stock, software that has graphics and labels, scissors and a paper cutter. A scanner and a digital camera are also useful.

Normally, most people own a personal computer. It doesn’t have to be one that has all the bells and whistles. Both a windows machine or a mac machine will run well for this simple task. Now, the biggest question is whether you want colored labels or black and white labels. If you have black and white printer, that could be something you would use without spending any money. But you would be surprised how little a new color ink jet printer costs in today’s market. Price them out and buy what you want.

Using a color laser jet printer is the ideal choice since the toner is heated onto the paper and makes a permanent image. The ink will also not run when its wet and it will be a better value when printing large print runs. This is an important factor for many people when choosing a good printer.

Deciding which type of label paper to use will be the most important single decision you’ll make for your wine label project. The cheaper the stock, the cheaper it will look. Its often better to use good quality paper stock that is bound so that you get a good print job and quality looking labels that say something about you, the wine grower and what your home made wine is all about.

Here are some basic tips for bottling and aging your wine at home. First, a cool environment for storing wines would be ideal because it reduces the effects that oxidation will have on the wine. This is the main reason why you need cool temperatures to store your wines, and why many experts in how to make wine from the home recommend that you store your bottled wine completely out of direct sunlight. You may have noticed that even commercial wineries often store bottled wine in dark cellars or basements. This lessens the incidences of oxygen production in the bottled wine that could alter the taste, often for the worst.

Follow this important rule but don’t get too worried about simple changes in the  temperatures where your wine is being stored. A few degrees higher or lower in the temperature scale will have minute effects on your bottled wine that would not be discernible. But, when learning how to make wine from home, it is important to prepare a storage area in advance so that you are not wasting time fretting around for a cool place to store your wine.

It should be quite obvious to you that temperature fluctuations can really be harmful to your bottled wine. This means that a room with a 65 degrees Fahrenheit stable temperature is always preferable to a room whose temperatures are indeed cooler than 65 degrees but will fluctuate from 65 down to 50 then back up again to 65.

Insane temperature fluctuations like this are a challenge for the home wine maker because often it is difficult to find storage at home where cooler temperatures can be controlled to a stable range. Therefore, it is important when undertaking how to make homemade wine that will be good to taste, to prepare the storage area in advance.

Rapid changes in temperature will change the flavors quite significantly. The aromas will wear down, the wine will taste bland, and maybe your bottled wine will lose that character you were seeking for that bottled wine variant. Though your bottled wine may be able to put up with one night of temperature fluctuations, when the temperature flux occurs over a longer period, the stored bottled wine will eventually wear down under these kind of stresses.

When the temperature rises, the wine itself will expand and so in turn, will the wine bottle itself. You will not notice this change because the wine bottle will not balloon out of phase. But natural physics tells us they both will indeed react this way to higher temperatures. When temperature falls, the wine and bottle will then contract. The wine does not expand and contract at the same rate as the bottle though they are subjected to the same temperature in the room. The wine itself tends to expand and contract more than the bottle it is in.

For many people, the art of home wine making is a true art form. Home wine making can be not only satisfying and fun but also a great culinary learning experience for those who want to try their hand at making their own vintages.

You may have heard that the actual word “wine” could be only used to describe grape juice that has been fermented and stored. In actuality, many home wine makers ferment wines of fantastic quality from other fruits; sometimes even using flowers and vegetables in the process as well.

There is a large difference in the price between home wines and wines made by commercial wineries. You can actually make six bottles of wine for the price of one bottle you would normally buy at a spirits store. The main reason home wine making is such a great idea comes from the fact that there is a real satisfaction in creating an enjoyable wine through your own efforts.

Home made wines are called “country wines”, because they use ingredients from tree and plants found in the country. Many fruits are used in the wine making process. Elderberries, sloes, blackberries, loganberries, rosehips, plums and so on are primary ingredients of home-made wine. Surprising as it is, home made wines can also be made out of ordinary plants found in any backyard. Flower petals are also used in home made wine making, the most well-known flower being the elderflower.

For those who live in the center of a busy city or town, home made wine making with these kinds of materials is easy and fun; there are several home winemaking stores which supply wine making equipment, canned and dried ingredients, as well as helpful advice. This is a real benefit and another plus for people who really don’t know how to make wines and just want to make small batches and try their hand at wine making. Its also fascinating for the wine maker, because he or she could add other fruits and vegetables to augment the certain textures, characters and blends to taste for the finished product.

Making wine at home is a fun and creative hobby, that being the most important good idea. It is a hobby which provides extreme satisfaction and one that has very few limitations.

Experienced vintners will often stress the importance of sanitizing equipment and work areas for wine production in making their wines and vintages. There is so much that the new vintner might be concerned about whether they have done a good enough job before starting their winemaking process. One must keep in mind that sterilization is not a necessary requirement, that is where every micro-organism is killed and nothing can live on the surfaces of our equipment and work areas.

Indeed, sterilization is impossible under normal circumstances and definitely undesirable when producing wine. Sanitization on the other hand is the process of making our equipment unfavorable to bacteria growth. Bacteria, as a rule, can be very harmful. The acid bacteria of the damaging kind will turn wine into vinegar, and that’s what we as wine growers don’t want.

In essence there are numerous kinds of products available to winemakers for sanitation purposes, one really needs to just keep things very simple and use only one product for sanitation. In doing so, becoming distracted about what products that are being used or use one when you really actually meant to use another can be tricky. Potassium metabisulfite is used to stabilize and protect wines as an additive. It can also be used to make a sanitizing solution with water. It works, so why purchase other ingredients to do exactly what potassium metabisulfite accomplishes.

To make things easy and fast for home winemaking, one must make up a complete solution in a one gallon jug that has a tight fitting top lid. The accepted ratio is 3 tablespoons of potassium metabisulfite to one gallon of water. You can usually make the solution somewhat stronger. If you use five tablespoons, this will do, because the solution gradually can lose some of it’s strength over time, especially when stored above 65 degrees.

One can also use a small spray bottle that you can fill with the solution of water and potassium metabisulfite. For sanitizing the surfaces of airlocks, bungs and the plastic spoons, you can simply spray those surfaces with the solution using the spray bottle. Rinse with water, and you are done. The spray bottle is also helpful in sanitizing work areas such as counter tops and work areas. Using these three tips will help you sanitize your equipment and work area fast and efficiently, moreso than if you didn’t have them.

If you have given some thought to the idea of making wine at home but just haven’t quite gotten around to it yet, there is no reason to delay any longer. Thousands of people around the world happily enjoy the benefits and rewards of making their own wine. While certain equipment is required, you do not need to make a prohibitive investment or even have a large space in order to enjoy a hobby that can be quite rewarding.

In reality, making wine at home is much easier than you might at first think. The entire process really only involves combining concentrate or fruit with a few simple other ingredients, placing it into the container and then letting it go to work. The resulting process is actually quite natural and will not require a lot of interaction from you. In fact, it could be said that all you really need to do is make sure that the proper proportions of ingredients are combined and then provided with an environment that is suitable and stable.

Before you begin making wine you will need to decide on a recipe. This part might actually be one of the hardest steps because there are so many home winemaking recipes from which you can choose. If you purchase a winemaking kit, the kit will probably contain at least one recipe you can use to get started. Even without a kit there are numerous winemaking recipes available online as well as in winemaking books.

You will also need to give some thought to the type of fruit that you want to use in your wine. Most wine varieties are made with grapes; however, there are also many wine recipes that call for the use of a wide array of fruits including strawberries, blackberries, apples and much more.

Beyond making wine from fruit, another option would be to make wine from concentrated juice. Wine juice concentrated can be easily purchased in a home brewing store as well as online. In fact, you will generally find that most concentrates contain directions and recipes on the package, so it is easy to get started even if it is your first batch. Many beginning winemakers prefer to use concentrated wine juices for their first batches because they are so easy to use. They are also available throughout the year, unlike fruit which may only be available during certain times of the year.

In addition, you will need to give some thought to whether you want to use a wine making starter kit. Many beginning winemakers do prefer these kits, at least in the beginning because they contain all of the ingredients and equipment that you need in order to make your first batch of wine. In addition, these kits will walk you step by step through the process. If you have delayed getting started making your own wine because you were intimidated by the process, these kits can help to demystify the process and guide you through the entire process with very little problems.

For your first batch of wine you will need a few basic ingredients. These ingredients are necessary whether you are making wine from fruit or concentrate.

Yeast nutrient is not yeast per se; instead it is a type of energy that is used to make sure the yeast starts the fermentation process. Pectic enzyme may be added to assist in the breakdown of the fruit during the fermentation process. Acid blend is used in controlling the amount of sharpness that is present in the wine. You may find in some cases that your wine seems somewhat flat. Acid blend can help to correct this problem. Wine tannin is the zest of fruit and is available in powder form. You may wish to add it to your wine in order to improve the wine’s character. Wine yeast is what actually starts the fermentation process by converting the sugar into alcohol. Campden tablets are typically added right before the fermentation and also before bottling. These tablets are used to make sure that the wine does not become spoiled.

The history of home wine making can actually be traced back, oddly enough, in biblical times to the story of Noah’s Ark. Noah fermented grapes after the great flood as a special present to his family for all the hardship they endured while on the boat. Wine has been treasured for centuries; by Greek sailors who brought their vintages across the waters; and then to the Romans working in the northern fields of Palermo producing house Italian delights to the specialized vineyards of Avignon, France where it has become a billion dollar industry dating back to the middle ages.

This process of home wine making came about often by chance and sometimes by coincidence. Usually from peasants and later hired hand workers crushing the grapes in over-sized oak vats, then transferring the juice to large oak barrels allowing the natural sugars to ferment thus creating the wine we know and love today.

This basic process was then refined by the Italians and the french who began using glass bottles to store the wine in, thus allowing the wine to ferment in the bottle in its natural state. They would very often mix certain grapes in the wine and try different natural fruit sugar combinations for the fermentation process. It was through this process that many of the different varieties of wines were made and discovered.

It was also through the use of different varieties of grapes that wine was often made, and this led to larger vineyards, mechanized production and the actual business of wineries and the wine trade grew into a billion dollar a year industry that exists today.

But the actual process of home made wine production has taken a turn for the better. Many are bored or dissatisfied with wines made by large vineyards as they churn out bottle after bottle every year. These people have taken up the practice of making wine at home and it has proved successful for them. You can make a quality wine product right at home with a few simple tools and the right ingredients. It often lies in the satisfaction of making a wine that suits the person’s palette, making a wine product that they are proud of and repeating the home wine making process with great success.

Home wine racks are specially designed for storing bottles of wines in a horizontal position, to help preserve the quality of the wine. Storing your bottles in a wine rack is a great way to prevent the corks from drying out. If this happens, the cork can shrink and let air in, resulting in oxidization, which will spoil the taste. Wine storage racks usually have separate compartments for holding individual bottles, allowing gaps between each one to allow air to circulate. Ideally, wines should be kept at a consistent temperature of around 55 degrees farenheit, with a relative humidity of 70%, away from light.

If your wine collection is growing rapidly and you don’t have a wine cellar, then there is a huge choice of wine racking that’s designed for home use. If you’d like to keep a few everyday bottles within easy reach, then wall mounted wine racks offer a solution. This type of rack is hung on the wall, which saves space, and allows you to always have a couple of bottles on display. Often, these racks come with built-in stemware holders, so you can conveniently keep your glasses in the same place. Wall wine racks are generally pretty cheap to buy, at around $40-$50.

Other types of rack include compact designs to fit on a counter top, or stackable towers to place on the floor, whose capacity can grow to meet your storage needs. Wooden wine racks are very popular, made from all sorts of wood, including pine, oak or mahogany. For a more contemporary look, a metal wine rack can be an attractive feature in itself, made from ornately crafted iron, stainless steel, chrome or aluminum. Whatever the style of your décor, there’s sure to be a wine rack design that fits in perfectly and provides you with a functional way to organize your wine collection.

Whether you’re after a DIY self-assembly kit, or a custom wine rack, online stores are full of all kinds of wine racks to suit your budget and your wine storage requirements.