personal chef service
***THIS SERVICE IS LIMITED TO
NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS ONLY AT THIS TIME.***
CAN YOU REALLY MAKE WINE AT HOME? YES!
IS IT LEGAL? ABSOLUTELY!
In the United States, home winemaking is permitted in Title 27, part 24.75 of the Code of Federal Regulations (citation: 27 CFR 24.75). These regulations permit you to make 100 gallons of wine per year per adult per household, up to a maximum of 200 gallons per year per household.
In New Jersey, the New Jersey Administrative Code provides for home winemaking in Title 13, Chapter 2, Subchapter 12 (citation: NJAC 13.2.12). In New Jersey, you must have a permit to make wine at home. This permit is issued by the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control in Trenton. The cost of the permit is $15 per year.
THE FIRST STEP
If you want to make wine at home, the first step is to obtain the proper permit. The permit can be downloaded here: http://www.nj.gov/oag/abc/downloads/hwmp.pdf
SERVICES RELATED TO HOME WINEMAKING
After you obtain your permit, Dinners Your Way can help you make wine at home. We will provide equipment, juices, materials, and consultation to coach you step-by-step through the process of fermentation, stabilization and clearing, and bottling. At this time we will use wine grape juices in the Original Selection Series produced by Winexpert (www.winexpert.com), one of the top companies in the world that produces wine grape juices for home wine makers. Their products have also been used by commercial wineries in various parts of the United States and Canada. Winexpert offers wine juices that are both more expensive and less expensive than the Original Selection Series. I believe the Original Selection Series to be the best value for the money you will spend. Juices from other producers may be added at a later date.
The wines available in Winexpert's Original Selection Series are the following:
Red Wines: White Wines: Blush Wines:
Barolo Style Chardonnay/Semillon White Merlot
Cabernet Franc Gewurztraminer White Zinfandel
Cabernet Sauvignon Johannisberg Dry Riesling
Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot Liebfraumilch Style
Chianti Style Luna Bianca
Luna Rossa Piesporter Style
Merlot Sauvignon Blanc
Pinot Noir Symphony
Valpolicella Style Viognier
Vieux Chateau Du Roi
During the course of your home winemaking, you will be doing the work. I will provide the equipment and materials needed along the way, as well as consultation and direction. This will include four visits to your home to help you through the process. Each visit should take between 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Visit 1: General Consultation
- Visit 2: Start Fermentation
- Visit 3: Transfer wine to carboy for stabilization and clearing.
- Visit 4: Filtering (if white or blush wine), and bottling.
Winexpert's Original Selection Series wines start as 4 gallons of slightly condensed juice that is reconstituted to 6 gallons for fermentation. You will have approximately 25 to 30 standard-sized (750-ml) bottles of your own wine at the completion of the home winemaking process.
My fee for this service is $375 per single, 6-gallon batch of wine from the list above.
EXPERIENCE
My wife, Beth, and I have been making wine at home since 2002. We have made wine from grape juices, fruit juices, fresh grapes, fresh fruits, and honey. We even fermented chocolate covered cherries a couple of years ago to make a dessert wine.
Our favorite wines? Beth likes sweet wines. She's quite partial to a sweet Niagara wine we make. I enjoy dry white wines with little or no oak. Symphony is my favorite white wine. The Luna Rossa (from the list above) is a great red wine. If I want something sweet, I prefer mead (fermented honey) or port.
We have entered our wines in various amateur wine competitions around the country. Below is a picture of our wines that have been awarded medals or ribbons. The awards have ranged from Bronze to Best-Of-Show.
2002 Cranberry
Gold – 2004 Virginia State Fair
Gold – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2003 Italian Bardolino
Silver – 2005 Winemaker International Amateur Wine Competition
2003 Apple-Peach
Gold – 2004 Virginia State Fair
Silver – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Bronze – 2005 Country Wines Competition
2003 Kiwi Gewurztraminer
Silver – 2003 Winemaker International Amateur Wine Competition
2003 Strawberry
Bronze – 2003 Winemaker International Amateur Wine Competition
Silver – 2004 Virginia State Fair
2003 Coteau-Sur-Mer
Bronze – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
2003 Virginia Pinot Gris
Bronze – 2004 Virginia State Fair
Bronze – 2005 Home Wine & Beer Trade Association Competition
Gold – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Sack Mead
35 of 50 points ("Very Good" Ranking) – 2006 International Mead Festival
Silver – 2007 Newport (OR) Seafood & Wine Festival
Silver – 2008 Winepress.US Annual Conference Competition
2004 Virginia Blackberry
Bronze – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Bronze – 2005 Home Wine & Beer Trade Association Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
Silver – 2006 Cowie Wine Cellars Competition
Silver – 2006 Country Wines Competition
2004 French Cabernet Sauvignon
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Pinot Blanc
Silver – 2004 Virginia State Fair
Silver – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Bergamais
Bronze – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Liebfraumilch
Bronze – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Chardonnay
Bronze – 2005 Cellarmasters 31st Annual Amateur Wine Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
Bronze – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
2004 Cranberry Chianti
Bronze – 2006 Country Wines Competition
2004 Gewurztraminer
Bronze – 2005 Home Wine & Beer Trade Association Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
2004 Zinfandel Blush
Bronze – 2005 Home Wine & Beer Trade Association Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
Silver – 2006 Cowie Wine Cellars Competition
Best-of-Class – 2006 Cowie Wine Cellars Competition
2005 Bordailles Blanc
Bronze – 2008 Winepress.US Annual Conference Competition
Silver – 2008 Missouri Wine making Society Competition
2005 and 2006 Concord
Gold – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
Best-of-Class – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
Gold – 2005 New Jersey State Fair
Gold – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
Bronze – 2006 Silver Coast Winery (NC) Competition
Bronze – 2006 Cowie Wine Cellars Competition
Bronze – 2006 Indiana State Fair
Bronze – 2006 Winepress.US Annual Conference Competition
2005, 2006, and 2007 Niagara
Gold – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
Best-of-Class – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
Best-of-Show – 2005 Montgomery County (MD) Agricultural Fair
Bronze – 2005 Virginia State Fair
Bronze – 2005 New Jersey State Fair
Bronze – 2005 Country Wines Competition
Silver – 2005 Sons of Italy (Paulsboro, NJ)
Bronze – 2006 Indiana State Fair
Silver – 2006 Silver Coast Winery (NC) Competition
Silver – 2006 Winepress.US Annual Conference Competition
Best-of-Show (White) – 2006 Winepress.US Annual Conference Competition
Silver – 2008 Missouri Wine Making Society Competition
Gold – 2006 Cowie Wine Cellars Competition
***THIS SERVICE IS LIMITED TO
NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS ONLY AT THIS TIME.***
