If you’re looking for new ways to increase productivity and profits in Stardew Valley, wine-making is certainly a good path to follow. Wine-making not only increases the productivity of your farm, but it also gives you a new layer of intricacies in the game. Wine-make, while straightforward, takes time to get into a rhythm.
The profitability of wine-making offers a clear-cut way to expand your farming empire. If you’ve been at it for a while or brand new to the game, harvesting your fruits and transforming them into wine can drastically boost your income and give you more enjoyment out of the game. Without further ado, let’s jump into everything you need to know to transform your farm into a profitable powerhouse.
How To Make Wine in Stardew Valley
1. Reach Farming Level 8
Let’s not put the cart before the horse. Before you do anything, you need to make sure you’ve reached Farming Level 8. Reaching level 8 can be done by consistently tending to your farm; watering plants daily, taking care of animals and harvesting crops.
2. Craft a Keg
Once you’ve reached level 8, you’ll be given the recipe for crafting a keg. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 30 Wood: Chop down trees or stumps to collect enough wood.
- 1 Copper Bar: Smelt copper ore found in the mines in a furnace.
- 1 Iron Bar: Smelt iron ore from the mines in a furnace.
- 1 Oak Resin: Tap an oak tree with a Tapper, this can take 7-8 days to collect.
Once you’ve gathered all the necessary materials, you can open your crafting menu (ESC on PC & Inventory Menu on Console) and craft the keg.
3. Place fruit into the Keg
Once you have the keg crafted and ready to rock and roll, you’ll have the option to interact with it while holding any fruit. Any fruit can be used for the fermentation process and should yield a value 3x the base value of the fruit itself.
| Fruit | How To Get | Profitability | Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient Fruit | Ancient Seeds from Seed Maker, Artifact Spots | Very High | All Seasons |
| Apple | Apple Tree | Moderate | Fall |
| Apricot | Apricot Tree | Good | Spring |
| Banana | Banana Tree | Good | Summer |
| Blackberry | Foraged in Fall | Low | Fall |
| Blueberries | Seeds from Pierre's or JojaMart | Moderate | Summer |
| Cactus Fruit | Collected from Cactus Plants in Desert or Greenhouse | Moderate | Summer |
| Cherry | Cherry Tree | Moderate | Spring |
| Cranberries | Seed from Pierre's or JojaMart | Moderate | Fall |
| Grape | Grown in Summer/Fall from Seeds | Moderate | Summer/Fall |
| Mango | Mango Tree | Good | Summer |
| Melon | Seed from Pierre's or JojaMart | High | Summer |
| Orange | Orange Tree | Good | Summer |
| Peach | Peach Tree | Good | Summer |
| Pomegranate | Pomegranate Tree | Mid-To-High | Fall |
| Salmonberry | Foraged in Spring | Low | Spring |
| Starfruit | Bought From Oasis Shop in Deserts | Very High | Summer |
| Strawberries | Seeds Bought During Egg Festival | High | Spring |
4. Wait 7 days
The fermentation process takes 7 in-game days so use this time to distract yourself with other chores around the farm while you wait. You’ll soon be able to make some additional profits once your wine is finished and you can reap the benefits of increased productivity.
How to make Aged Wine
1. Unlock the Cellar
Before you can make aged wine, you’ll need to upgrade your farmhouse to it’s final and third upgrade. The final upgrade costs 100,000g and adds a cellar to your house so if you see a lot of wine sales in your future, start saving now.
2. Place Wine in a Cask
With the cellar upgrade, you’ll have access to casks. These casks can be used to create different qualities of win like silver, gold, and iridium. Each quality level takes a different amount of time to generate, here’s a breakdown of how long you’ll have to wait for each tier:
- Silver quality: 14 days
- Gold quality: 28 days
- Iridium quality: 56 days
Once it reaches iridium quality, the wine will sell for a much higher price. If you want to make more casks to speed up the production process, you can make additional ones for 20 wood and 1 hardwood each.
Stardew Valley Wine making tips
Invest in Kegs Early: It goes without saying that kegs are essential for making wine. The more you have, the more wine you can make. Having overlapping fermentation times can help keep a consistent flow of wine for your to sell.
Use the Artisan Profession: If you use the Artisan profession, you’ll be able to get a 40% bonus on artisan goods once you reach level 10, boosting profits.
Use Profitable Fruits: Ancient Fruits, Startfruit, Cranberries, and Melons make the most profitable wines.
Grow High-Yield Crops: To make sure you have a steady supply of fruits, focus on crops that yield multiple harvests per season like cranberries.
Turning Wine into profits
Making wine in Stardew Valley is a rewarding journey in both gameplay and in-game profitability. As long as you take a systematic approach and with a little bit of patience, you will soon be flush with a cellar full of wine ready to hit the market. Wine making forces you to control your time in the game a little more but adds a new layer of skill to your farming journey.