Make my own wine? I'll drink to that FORGET dodgy brews in the garden shed, home-made plonk has gone surprisingly upmarket, discovers our writer Alice Smellie has discovered how to make home made plonk [JONATHAN BUCKMASTER]A vat of bubbling red liquid is sitting in my kitchen sink. Every couple of hours I lift the lid and recoil at the sour smell of fermenting alcohol.Some of it has oozed over the edge of the bucket and appears to be staining the pristine white enamel. Not for the first time I start to wonder why I ever thought making my own wine would be a good idea.I am determined, however, to continue for two reasons. Last year an incredible three million corks were sold for at-home use. Secondly and more importantly, it's going to save me hundreds of pounds every year.Wine is one of my favourite things.Many of the happiest events in my life have associations with the grape; my wedding, the birth of children (afterwards) and family reunions.No pleasure compares to that first glass with my husband on a Friday night after the children have gone to bed.

One of my favourite combinations is a rich blue cheese with a good full-bodied red.I have never thought twice about the cost. wine and food ticketsAt least that's how it used to be.wine and food ticketsOver the past few years I have noticed that wine appears to be getting more expensive. the best red wine for dinnerIt used to set us back £15 a week for three bottles but now it's more like £25 a week, or even more, which is well over £1,000 annually.top 5 red wine brands in indiaChateau Smellie is syphoned into Alice's old wine bottles [JONATHAN BUCKMASTER]There's no doubt wine is becoming more pricey. best wine to drink with meat

Last year for the first time the average bottle cost more than £5 and well over £2 of that is tax.best french white wine 2013And of course as I get older I want better quality wine and that is also contributing to the higher cost. best sweet wine to order at a restaurantI just can't drink Chateau Hangover any more.good wine bars central londonThat extra tenner a week is a significant sum, enough for a family holiday once it's added up over a year.best wine funds There's a new generation of wine-makers out there, discerning and successful people aged 35 plus I started to wonder whether there might be an alternative. (You'll notice that there is no question of simply not drinking.)"

I'll make my own," I announced to my husband over a particularly pleasant bottle of cabernet sauvignon. I have to admit I have a famously short attention span for this sort of project.I also had my doubts about people who make wine at home. Don't they all wear tie-dye T-shirts and weave baskets for fun? We are well aware of the image of wine-making at home," says Mike Hobby, who runs wine kit manufacturer The Micro Winery Company."People assume it's some beardy person mixing up parsnips in a shed but nothing could be further from the truth."The firm has developed a range of fine wines to make at home at a massively reduced cost. "You can make a decent merlot for £1.80 a bottle rather than £6 or £7," Mike says."There's a new generation of wine-makers out there, discerning and successful people aged 35 plus who want to drink good wine but object to paying inflated prices," he says of their clients.The firm's wine takes 28 days to make, the whites can be drunk within a few weeks but the reds are best if laid down for three to six months.

Bearing in mind my short attention span (and the strong suspicion that I will somehow mess it up) I decided to invest in a home kit for just over a tenner from Tesco which will make six bottles in a week at a cost of around £1.70 a bottle.Alice Smellie raises a glass to her own red wine [JONATHAN BUCKMASTER]The packaging was lovely and covered in pictures of jolly looking wine bottles but my heart sank as I surveyed the enclosed kit.There were two white buckets filled with what appeared to be surgical equipment and something resembling a small bag of blood. The instructions were thankfully just one sheet of A3. Surely it couldn't be that complicated?All wine making, whether it's at a top French vineyard or in my kitchen, has three basic stages. First of all yeast is added to the grape juice (the red liquid), along with 900g of sugar and water.Fermentation breaks down the sugars in the fruit and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. So the bubbling witch's cauldron effect was just a by-product of fermenting sugar.

I left the wine to ferment for six days, much to the disgust of the rest of my household. "How long is this going to mess up the kitchen?" asked my husband crossly as he tried to fill up the kettle around (to be fair) what looked like an entire bucket of blood.I checked that the fermentation stage was complete with a gadget called a hydrometer. It looked like a thermometer and had to float at just the right level within the bucket of wine. It indicated that all the sugars had turned to alcohol.The second stage is called clearing, where you add a gel to the liquid to get rid of floating yeast and cloudiness.I left the wine standing for another 24 hours then checked it was clear by siphoning it from one bucket to another. I was delighted to notice it was a rich ruby colour. The final stage is bottling. I carefully washed out some old wine bottles and siphoned my wine into them using the long length of plastic tubing which is supplied with the kit.Smelling only faintly vinegary, Chateau Smellie was launched.