Table of Contents:
Introduction to making your own wine from grapes
Hi, my name is Tom Deseyn and I am a hobby winemaker, teacher in viticulture and co-owner of Plukkers.com, the website and webshop for people who enjoy craft hobbies such as gardening, baking bread and yes ... also making wine.
In 2015 I started in my vineyard and in 2019 I made wine for the first time, or at least that was the intention. The wine I made was not tasty. For example, it was oxidized because I had not performed a number of steps correctly.
That wine was substandard but had caused something. A seed had been planted in my head, an urge to master winemaking. I soon joined the Wijnbouwers Oost-West (Wow) where I got to know winemakers through information evenings and was able to gain a lot of information. I also watched all the winemaking videos on YouTube and read a lot of books.
Every year I learned something new by trial and error. And my hunger is still not satisfied. I try to get better every year. My big dream is that one of my wines will one day be served in a top restaurant. I am not there yet, but it is nice to have a goal.
I get a lot of satisfaction from teaching beginning winegrowers.
In a moment I will teach you how to make wine in 12 steps or phases, but first I will give you some tips that are of paramount importance before you start making wine.
Some tips to help you avoid mistakes when making wine
In the past years I have made many mistakes in making wine. The quality of the wine is not the sum of all efforts. The result is the product of all efforts. What I mean is, 1 time 0 out of 10 can mean the end of your wine. 1 mistake, forgetfulness, wrong choice, ... and your wine is wrong. And wrong wine goes to the sewer with me or I bottle a few bottles to teach my students how not to do it.
Making your own white wine - the biggest lesson came through Joseph
This is going to be a long article about making wine, maybe an E-book someday. Grab something to drink and make yourself comfortable. First I'll tell you a story about the first time I made wine, I learned an important lesson.
It was July 2019, my daughter Ella had turned 1 and I received from Joseph, my aunt Georgette's boyfriend, the harvest of Johanniter grapes from a row of 8 vines from his vineyard. Joseph was 89 or 90 years old at the time. He no longer had the energy to make wine himself. And why did he have to? He had been making wine from his own hobby vineyard for 50 years. I actually got to know him too late. My uncle, my aunt's husband, died in the 2000s. I knew that my aunt had a boyfriend but I never had much contact with her. It was only when my aunt heard that I also had vines in my garden that she put me in touch with Joseph. Joseph spoke slowly and after every sentence he had to recover and catch his breath to say his next sentence.
Even though I already knew a lot about making wine, I still learned a lot. 2019 was the first year that I had grapes myself. What a difference my grapes were compared to Joseph's. My grapes had every vineyard pest that ever existed, I think. My Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes had a white sheen ( mildew ) and many berries had burst open and/or dried out ( downy mildew ). I didn't have botrytis, but that must have been a coincidence or a bit too early in the year :) (the photos below are from September 6, 2019)
My Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes became chicken feed.
The Johanniter bunches of grapes that Joseph allowed me to harvest, they were exactly gold nuggets. Intense yellow bunches with beautiful dots on them. And there I learned the most important lesson I ever learned about making wine: Making good wine starts with healthy and quality fruit.
In March 2020, Joseph sadly passed away at the age of 90. I dug up his 55 vines on the advice of the family and planted them with me. At least 30 survived.
(update: in 2024 all 100 vines in my vineyard in Waregem were uprooted and in 2025 100 new vines of the disease-tolerant varieties Pinotin and Souvignier Gris were planted).
Making wine is a passion but don't do it for the romance
Many people travel to the sun. And where there is sun, beautiful vineyards are usually not far away. The decision to start making wine often arises for many people when they see those beautiful rolling rows of grape vines. There is something romantic and calming about it, but ...
In practice, wine making is often:
- Keep a close eye on the weather forecast and take action in case of frost (frost damage), heavy rain (diseases) or extremely high temperatures in combination with sun (sunburn).
- Prune your vineyard on your knees or bent over, defoliate, thin out shoots, ...
- Walk through the rows with a backpack sprayer to keep your grapes healthy.
- Hang nets to protect your grapes from birds, wasps or drosophila suzukii flies.
- Lugging crates of grapes to the place where you process your grapes.
- Cleaning, disinfecting, washing, polishing, rinsing, disinfecting, ... more than you like.
- Measure, measure and measure again.
- Pumping and siphoning.
- Be constantly alert and maintain good planning.
- You can't travel just any time.
I hope I am not discouraging you from embarking on a winemaking adventure. However, your passion for winemaking should trump all the less romantic things mentioned above. I myself love being outside in my vineyard or trying out certain things in my vinification room.
My sommelier training from 2012-2013 has made me very critical of wine. I get annoyed when a wine is mediocre to bad. My peak moment is when I taste my own wine and am moved by good quality. I admit that I have had to miss that feeling for many years. For example, 2024 was a very bad year in the vineyard and I hardly made any wine from my own grapes.
