For many, the thought of winemaking evokes images of sunny vineyards in California or stacks of large oak barrels in the wineries of Europe.

Yet without the pretension and stateliness of famous wine company names, a local family is creating wines that are popular among friends and family, and all from their farmhouse basement in Winfield Township.

The matriarch of this home, Linda Mathias, has been making wine since 1998, though the roots of her craft stretch far into her history.

"I stood for hours with (my grandmother) every summer," said Mathias, recalling how as a child she learned to preserve fruits and vegetables harvested from her family's farm.

Her grandmother, who lived through the Great Depression, taught Mathias never to waste the food they had grown.

"Making wine is kind of a natural extension of the preserving," she said. "You don't waste anything."

Mathias, her husband, Kevin, and two children moved back to her family's farm in 1996 and have maintained the same traditions she remembers from childhood.

After each harvest, Mathias has canned the vegetables and fruits of the season to enjoy year round. The produce of a century-old grapevine is used to produce jelly for family and friends.

Yet, in 1998, a harvest of 25 bushels of grapes left the family with more than enough fruit for their small jelly production.

Using a book on winemaking left behind by a family friend years ago, the Mathiases decided to try their hand at making their own wine.

Pleased with the results of their first attempt, Mathias and her husband now use about 15 types of grapes and a variety of other fruits to create wines for themselves, family members and friends.

Though an inherited vineyard inspired Mathias to make wine, farming skills are not a necessity.Dr. Dennis Keyes of Karns City, who has been making his own wine for about 12 years, buys grapes and grape juice from regional vendors who sell grapes grown in California.Mathias, who admits the Butler area climate makes it challenging to grow good wine grapes, also treats herself to purchased grapes once in a while, often from the Lake Erie region.In addition to being an enjoyable hobby, Keyes views winemaking as a money-saving opportunity."You can make a product that's as good or better than what you'll find in a liquor store for a whole lot less money," Keyes said. For less than $5, he can create bottles of wine that sell for $20 to $30 in a liquor store, he said.

Many home winemakers begin with a kit, which gives exact recipes, equipment and grapes or juice to be used in the production.For Mathias, however, using her own grapes was a bigger challenge. She had to learn to measure the sweetness of her grapes and to understand the fermentation process in order to create a palatable wine.Acquiring equipment through catalog companies, Mathias set up her winemaking workshop with equipment reminiscent of a high school chemistry lab.After removing stems and putting her grapes through a press, Mathias pours her grape juice into large glass jugs called carboys. To the juice she adds yeast and sugar to begin the fermentation process.Before the wine can ferment, Mathias must test the levels of acid and sugar in the juice to guarantee a good blend.To measure the sweetness of her grapes, she uses a refractometer, which refracts light through drops of grape juice to determine the percentage of sugar.To determine the acidity of the juice, she uses a titration kit, which reacts with the juice, changing its color. Acidity is judged by how much of the chemical it takes to change the juice's color.After the right ratio of acid and sugar is reached, the carboys are sealed with an airlock, a twisted plastic tube that allows the fermenting wine to release gasses, while remaining protected from outside elements.Water in the airlocks bubbles as gasses are released, allowing Mathias to see that the fermentation is taking place.

Depending on the type of fruit or the wine recipe, the juice may go through one or two fermentation processes.While the dark red wines maintain their dark appearance throughout the process, lighter-colored wines fermenting in Mathias' basement, such as white wines and peach wines, go through a visibly dramatic transformation.While fermenting, the juices become cloudy, almost opaque, an unappetizing sight to the uneducated viewer.Yet over time, the liquid clears, and excess proteins and dead yeast settle to the bottom of the containers.This settling process necessitates that the moving and bottling of wine be done with great care.Using a siphoning tube, Mathias draws wine out of the carboys and into various wine bottles.By using the siphon, Mathias avoids moving the carboys and stirring up the sediments created over time. The tube also prevents the wine from coming into contact with too much air, which may cause it to sour.Mathias also uses a filtering machine to give her wines more clarity. Though she said it's not necessary, filtering wine gives it the clear appearance found in store-bought bottles.Corks are then soaked and pushed into bottle openings using a corking stand. Then Mathias labels each bottle with computer-printed designs she made herself.Behind a series of shelves that hold a rainbow of canned tomatoes, peaches, beans and other produce, the Mathias family stores the wine that will be used for dinners, gifts and parties.

After creating her first wine enjoyed by family and friends, Mathias began to experiment, adjusting levels of sugar and the types of grapes."It's fun because it's very calculated but on the other hand it's very artistic," she said.Although she tests the progress of her wine throughout the process, Mathias will not taste the end results of her wine until about a year after harvest.In order to remember which recipes worked well and which need improvement, Mathias records the ingredients of each wine in a notebook. The notebook has grown over the years with details about the dates and times juices were bottled, the amounts of each ingredient added and the results, whether pleasing or disappointing.Like Mathias, Keyes has developed his own style for creating wine over the years. By interacting with other local winemakers, his appreciation and love of the craft has blossomed."There's a lot of fun in the process," he said. "There's mystery and magic."