Jul 2, 2009 2:35 pm US/Eastern
Learn How To Make Your Own Wine
DORCHESTER (WBZ) ―
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Making your own barrel of wine at Boston Winery costs about $3,500, but that's about 300 bottles.
WBZ
Many of us enjoy drinking an occasional glass of wine, but how about actually making it?
Now there's a spot in Boston where you can find a little piece of Italy to just that.
Ralph Bruno runs Boston Winery in the Neponset area of Dorchester. It's the only place in New England where you can make your own wine.
Bruno explained, "We use the best grapes possible, buying directly from the vineyards."
CRUSH THE GRAPES
Those grapes arrive from California in the fall. Customers crush them--first in a machine that separates the fruit from the stems, and then manually with a device that looks like an over sized potato masher.
The juice is then put into 250 gallon vats. Bruno says, "As it ferments, it forms a crust on the top and it rises, and we push it down twice a day so the skins are always wet."
STORE IN BARRELS
Enough wine to fill 288 bottles is then stored in oak barrels until the following summer. At that point, it is put into bottles by the amateur wine makers, who have been involved every step of the way.
Tish Green of Braintree has really enjoyed meeting all kinds of new people as she comes in to work on her wine.
Andrea Zangla of South Boston says, "It's definitely educational. You learn a lot, and it's a skill and it's fun."
The wine isn't all the same. You can actually tailor it to taste the way you like it.
Bruno says "If you want to have a certain taste, we sit down and start blending the wines and have some food with it, pair it with something, until you get 'this is outstanding'."
At that moment, Bruno knows he's done his job. He also knows when he teaches someone else to appreciate life the way he does. He says when people come to the winery, it clears their heads and they forget all their problems.
'HUG YOUR BARREL'
He calls some of his wine makers in the morning and tells them to come "hug their barrel." Although it doesn't seem to make sense, Bruno has his own logic.
"If you hug your wife or your girlfriend, they are going to ask you for money or they are going to tell you all the problems you are both having, so come here and hug your barrel, and the barrel is not going to answer you back," he said.
It's a little of the magic you can capture when you go from grape to glass, just like winemakers have for centuries.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Making your own barrel of wine costs about $3,500, but Bruno says that's about 300 bottles of wine and you can split a barrel with family and friends.
To learn more about the Boston Winery,
visit their web site.
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