Wine without Yeast

Im making wine this coming fall with wine grapes juice already in 5 gallon buckets ready to make. I have a friend that syphons it into a carboy, puts a airlock on it and leaves it alone for 8 months and it tastes amazing every spring. I want to do this but i have no clue how it works without ANY additives or yeast. Has anyone ever herd of this method????

DSochBrewing said:

Im making wine this coming fall with wine grapes juice already in 5 gallon buckets ready to make. I have a friend that syphons it into a carboy, puts a airlock on it and leaves it alone for 8 months and it tastes amazing every spring. I want to do this but i have no clue how it works without ANY additives or yeast. Has anyone ever herd of this method????

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Sure! But he's not doing it without yeast. He's using the natural wild yeast that is already on the grapes.

The bucket has the yeast already added and is kept cool enough so the yeast stays dormant. My friend buys those buckets all the time

I've seen those in Canada but not the US And I've never used one.
pre mixed Refrigerated must bucket kits.


I've done wild yeast cider. just ground and pressed apples, the wild yeast is on the skin, but I was never comfortable with it and stressed out so I use known yeast now

In northeast Ohio, we get refrigerated pails of juice from California and Chile. I usually add a packet of yeast anyways. I just finished up Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and it turned out great.

I have an accidental wild yeast wine going. Just welches white grape peach juice that had a bit of water and sugar added that I was using to top off a must after adding in the real peaches. I left the left over top off juice sealed in the plastic half gal container and 3 weeks later there is a bloated container with obvious yeast lees at the bottom. 2 months now and it's starting to smell good but I'm still scared to try it.

If it smells good, try it. It can't be as bad as the cider that fermented on me last fall.... It's an understatement that it was awful.