Home winemaking, more than commercial winemaking, is an endless struggle with the elements, with the physical realities of temperature, space, and time. Temperature is particularly key during the first fermentation. Too hot, and the yeasts that make wine from the grape juice die off. Later, wine is often chilled to stabilize it or to crystallize the tartaric acids for removal. Commercial wineries place their wine in stainless-steel tanks and run glycol through the double walls of the tank to bring the wine close to freezing.
Space is another troubling issue.
But many winemakers are in Anderson's shoes, with a garage that has to hold both the wine and the washing machine. I just don't have the space for that. You have to get your friends to store your wine or you've got to carry it around with you, and you have to store it at a reasonable temperature, which is just about impossible in rentals. Older enologists have had more time to get ahead, and their winemaking establishments show it. Otis Holt has been custom-building an estate home designed around his winemaking operations on 10 acres in Sebastopol.