Instead of running to the store for a bottle of wine, a growing number of Villagers are choosing to make their own under the guidance of an Ocala winemaker.
The Corkscrew Winery, started last December by Joe and Kelli Carvalho, supervises the recipe, fermentation and bottling. But stirring, mixing of the yeast and insertion of corks is done by the customers. The Carvalhos plan to open a second location in The Villages next year.
This is not your grandfather’s homemade dandelion wine. The winery imports grape juices from around the world and offers varieties such as Australian shiraz, New Zealand pinor noir and South African savignon blanc. Customers say the quality rivals store-bought brands.
Nelson and Dolores Carlson of the Village of Amelia recently bottled a batch of Chilean merlot and they said the process was easy and fun.
“We had no idea what it was going to entail, but they talked us through everything,” Nelson Carlson said. “It was just a great experience.”
He said they were in Ocala to shop and eat at a downtown restaurant when they discovered the winery. When they went inside, a customer was in the process of bottling wine. They watched and were impressed enough to schedule their own wine-making visit.
We just couldn’t get over how much fun it was,” Dolores Carlson said, adding that they were pleased with the taste of their wine, but will wait to drink more because it needs to age to reach full flavor.
When she told other women about the experience at her exercise class, Dolores said several of them scheduled appointments to make wine and a neighbor also is interested.
The process involves two visits of about an hour each. On the first visit, bentonite and oak, if desired, are added to the grape juice. Water also is added if the alcohol content will be too high. Yeast then is folded into the mixture and it is set aside for 30 to 60 days during fermentation. During this period, the fledgling wine is monitored by the winery’s proprietors, who remove sediment and change containers when needed.
At the second visit, the wine is poured into bottles, corked and a foil seal is affixed to the top. Labels also are applied. These can be custom labels or the The Corkscrew Winery brand.
The cost is $150 to $300 for 28 to 30 bottles of wine. Custom labels are $1 to $2 a bottle, depending on the label size.
The biggest bargain likely is Italian amarone, a high-end red wine similar to cabernet savignon that starts at $45 to $50 a bottle in stores. At The Corkscrew Winery, it costs $300 to make 28 to 30 bottles. A downside of this wine is that it needs about a year of aging before it reaches full flavor.
Kelli Carvalho is from central Florida while Joe is from Canada, where do-it-yourself wine making became popular due to high prices of imported wine. When the couple lived in Canada, they bottled their own wedding wine. Many of their Ocala customers bottle wine for special events.
Kelli said Joe has been making his own wine since 2000 and he also built the furniture in their shop.
Now, the couple balances caring for their daughter, 3, and son, 1, with the demands of running the business, including the possible expansion to The Villages next year.
“That is our hope,” Kelli said. “We’ve been talking with the real estate office to get that up and started. But we want to focus on Christmas first.”
Similar do-it-yourself wineries, such as Brewer Cellars in Winter Springs, often use pre-assembled kits, which guarantee the same result each time. But Kelli said not using the kits allows them to customize each batch, such as offering several kinds of oak flavoring. They take detailed notes during the process so customers remember the variations they have made in the recipe.
Besides offering juice for the most popular wines, Kelli said the winery also stocks varieties that are specialties of a particular country such as Argentinian malbec.
Diane Carter was introduced to the wine making process at The Corkscrew Winery when her Red Hat group made a batch of New Zealand pinot noir. Then she and several friends went back to mix green apple reisling, which will be bottled at the end of October.
“We just had a blast,” she said. “It was a lot of fun going with the girls.”
Carter, a village of Springdale resident who came to The Villages a decade ago, said she also will be bottling a batch of cabernet savignon with relatives. She said the quality is excellent.
“I’d say it’s pretty much up there with the quality of wine that I buy,” she said.
Carter also said the process is simple.
“They make it so easy,” she said. “You don’t need to have all of your ingredients and your own process. They just step you right through it.”
Custom labels, Carter said, are part of the fun. The Red Hat group called their wine Rouge Chapeaus, which means red hats in French.
