Article

Pressing Rosé, Creamy Chardonnay, & Oak Origins

The Wine Wizard answers a number of reader questions.

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Over-Oaked Chardonnay, Choosing Yeast, Hard Water, & Stuck Ferments

Always start small with additions — it’s much easier to add more than to take something out later. That said, the Wine Wizard shares adv

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Performing Benchtop Trials

When changes to aroma or structure are desired to achieve a more balanced, pleasing wine, you should always start with benchtop trials to di

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Maximizing Color Extraction, Wine Aging Temps, a Need for Decating, & Taming Tannins

The Wiz offers advice on maximizing color extraction and shares the impact temperature plays in it. Plus: How cold is too cold to age wine,

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Taming Tartness, Adding Body, & Non-Alcoholic Wine

The Wine Wiz offers her wizdom to bring a tart wine into balance, as well as ways to add body to a wine and why non-alcoholic wine productio

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Racking in Moonlight, Acetobacter, Fermenting “dry,” and White Winemaking

While there are a lot of urban myths surrounding winemaking, the one about racking under a full moon isn’t totally hogwash. Plus, what to

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It’s Always a Good Time to Assess Your Wine

Making small adjustments to a wine the moment they are needed, as opposed to one large adjustment prior to bottling, will result in a more c

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Understanding and Controlling Brettanomyces

It is both a spoilage yeast and the heart of many great wines of Bordeaux. We share what you need to understand about Brettanomyces, the com

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Causes and Treatments for Volatile Acidity

Winemakers always need to pay special attention to the possibility of rising volatile acidity and ways to stem its effects.

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Whose Fault Was It?

Phil Plummer was one of the experienced judges at the 2022 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. After three days of judging he

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Maturation Intervention

No matter how much attention we give a wine, sometimes it will disappoint when tasted for the first time during aging. It may not be faulted

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Bench Trials and Tribulations

A home winemaker details the four bench trials he conducted to adjust the acidity of a low-pH Sauvignon Blanc to show how the process is don

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The Tale of the Stuck Fermentations

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Less-Common Winemaking Pitfalls

A look at the causes and corrections winemakers can make for some of the less common, but still serious, winemaking faults.

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Benefit From Judge Feedback

Having your homemade wines judged by experts is a great way to get feedback and improve your winemaking. In order to do so, however, you nee

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Pressure in the Home Vineyard: How to measure and mitigate fungal disease

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When Wines Go Bad

Get to know the most common wine faults, their causes, and fixes you can try to alleviate them.

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Reconfiguring the Palate & Properly Adding Acid to a Barrel

The Wizard explores the many sensations that tasters experience as a wine goes from grapes, through fermentation, and into the early stages

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Copper Sulfate Solutions: Wine Wizard

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Prevent Volatile Acidity

Volatile acidity (VA) is a flaw that can ruin the aroma of a wine. Explore what exactly VA is, why it is such a problem, and techniques to a

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The Sulfite Blues, Curing A Stuck Fermentation and Freezing Grapes

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Vineyard Queries: A Year of Questions and Answers

This past year brought challenges and rewards for home vineyardists — and also a lot of questions for our vineyard expert Wes Hagen.

Volatile Acidity

An introduction into volatile acidity (VA) and how to avoid it.

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Grape Growing Q&A

Grape growing questions answered!

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Brettanomyces

If you’ve ever tasted a wine that had a funky “barnyard” quality to it, you already know what Brettanomyces can do. Find out how to pr