Spirits

Instant Pot Wine? It Was Even Made for a Texas Sommelier to Experience!

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Tony Maples Photography

 

For those of you who are unaware, a food blogger by the name of David Murphy has found a way to make wine with the help of an Instant Pot. After coming across a popular social media meme asking why someone hasn’t found a way to make wine in a crockpot, Murphy investigated the thought to see what might be behind it. The popularity of the Instant Pot as a home kitchen aide (he owned one himself for months prior to coming up with this brilliant idea) helped to spur his enthusiasm on the subject.

Reporting the outcome to Munchies, he stated that the Instant Pot has a “yogurt” function, allowing users to apply less heat to their cooking, which quickly got him more excited to experiment. He posted the details to his blog in February of this year, and part-time wine enthusiasts everywhere eagerly drank it up! (Pun intended). Since then, various users of the Instant Pot have no doubt followed Murphy’s directions in efforts to make their own wine, not the least of which was Sarah Blaskovich, a food writer for the Dallas Morning News, who went a step further in having a Texas wine sommelier taste-test her final product.

Blaskovich’s happy success (thanks to a sterilized pot and following Murphy’s instruction to a “T”), was toasted at the wine tasting which she shared on the Dallas Morning News YouTube channel in April of this year. According to the video caption, Blaskovich cooked “…Welch’s grape juice, sugar and yeast in an Instant Pot for two days, following blogger David Murphy’s viral recipe. Then, she let it rest for 19 days. And then Master Sommelier James Tidwell tasted the final product. Watch to see if this cheap, homemade wine is worth making yourself.” According to Tidwell’s reaction and sense of humor, the project was a success. In fact, he can be quoted from the video as saying, “I think this is a very well-made wine for what it is.”