Table of Contents:
Introduction to making your own wine from grapes
Hi, my name is Tom Deseyn and I'm a hobby winemaker, viticulture instructor, and co-owner of Plukkers.com, the website and online store for people who enjoy craft hobbies like gardening, bread baking, and yes... winemaking too.
In 2015, I started working in my vineyard, and in 2019, I made wine for the first time—or at least, that was my intention. The wine I made wasn't good. It was oxidized, for example, because I hadn't performed several steps correctly.
That wine was subpar, but it had certainly sparked something. A seed had been planted in my mind, a desire to master winemaking. I soon joined the Winegrowers East-West (Wow), where I met winegrowers through information evenings and was able to gain a wealth of knowledge. I also watched all the winemaking videos on YouTube and read countless books.
Every year I learned something new through trial and error. And my hunger still isn't satisfied. I try to improve every year. My biggest dream is for one of my wines to one day be served in a top restaurant. I'm not there yet, but it's nice to have a goal.
I get a lot of satisfaction from teaching beginning winemakers.
I'll soon teach you how to make wine in 12 steps or phases, but first I'll give you some tips that are crucial before you start making wine.
Some tips to help you avoid mistakes when making wine
Over the years, I've made a lot of mistakes myself when making wine. The quality of a wine isn't the sum of all the efforts. The result is the product of all the efforts. What I mean is, one 0 out of 10 can mean the end of your wine. One mistake, one oversight, one bad choice... and your wine is bad. And bad wine goes down the drain, or I bottle a few bottles to teach my students what not to do.
Making your own white wine - the biggest lesson came through Joseph
This is going to be a long article about making wine, perhaps even an e-book someday. Grab something to drink and make it easy. First, I'll tell you a story about the first time I made wine; I learned an important lesson back then.
It was July 2019, my daughter Ella had turned one, and Joseph, my aunt Georgette's boyfriend, gave me the harvest of Johanniter grapes from a row of eight vines in his vineyard. Joseph was 89 or 90 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 met him too late. My uncle, my aunt's husband, died in the early 2000s. I knew my aunt had a boyfriend, but I never had much contact with her. Only when my aunt heard I also had vines in my garden did she introduce me to Joseph. Joseph spoke slowly, and after each sentence, he had to calm down and catch his breath before delivering the next sentence.
Even though I already knew quite a bit about winemaking, I still learned a great deal. 2019 was the first year I had my own grapes. What a difference my grapes were compared to Joseph's! My grapes had every vineyard pest ever, I think. My Pinot Noir and Chardonnay had a white cast ( mildew ), and many berries had burst open and/or dried out ( downy mildew ). I didn't have botrytis, but that might 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 grape bunches Joseph allowed me to harvest were like little gold nuggets. Intense yellow bunches with beautiful speckles. And there I learned the most important lesson I've ever learned about winemaking: Good winemaking starts with healthy, high-quality fruit.
Sadly, Joseph passed away in March 2020 at the age of 90. At his family's suggestion, I dug up his 55 vines and planted them at my place. 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 sunny destinations. And where there's sunshine, beautiful vineyards are usually nearby. The decision to start making wine often comes to many people when they see those beautiful, rolling rows of grapevines. There's something romantic and peaceful 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).
- Pruning your vineyard on your knees or bent over, defoliating, thinning 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'd 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'm not discouraging you from embarking on a winemaking adventure. However, your passion for winemaking should trump all the less romantic aspects mentioned above. I personally love working outdoors in my vineyard or experimenting with things in my winery.
My sommelier training from 2012-2013 has left me with a very critical eye for wine. I get frustrated when a wine is mediocre to bad. My best moment is when I taste my own wine and am moved by its good quality. I admit I've been missing 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.
