Articles

Watch the playback of our March 2024 Live Video Chat with Ken and Leah Stafford here.

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 cohesive wine. A couple of award-winning home winemakers share when you should assess your wine and what to look for.

It can be difficult to fill time between batches of wine once you have been bitten by the fermentation bug. How about trying a new kind of fermentation? Derek Dellinger lived on nothing but fermented foods for a year, and he’s here to share how to make your own.

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 common misconceptions, and methods to tame this wild yeast.

The Wine Wizard offers steps to increase aroma for aromatic white wines. Plus, how to remove stains from glass carboys, whether high-proof alcohol is a match for mycoderma, and why the combination of sulfur dioxide and citric acid works well for sanitation.

Most readers are likely familiar with Amarone wines made from drying grapes to concentrate the flavors and sugars prior to fermentation, but have you heard of Sagrantino? This Italian variety known for its huge tannins makes similar passito wines, in addition to table wines worth cellaring.

A home winemaker sets out to explore just how versatile Grenache can be by making five different wines from it in a single vintage, including red, pink, and white versions.

Watch the replay of WineMaker’s Live Video Chat with Gary Correia, who wrote the piece in the February-March 2024 issue on aging wine on mahogany wood.

It’s a legendary grape with a storied history and one of the most revered in the wine world. But it is also a cantankerous grape to grow and make wine with. Chik Brenneman shares some best practices for handling Pinot Noir in the winery.

In the face of a cool growing season, contending with underripe grapes can be a challenge. The Wiz has some ideas for one grape grower who just couldn’t get their Syrah to full maturity. Also, get some pointers for a healthy malolactic fermentation and alcoholic fermentation.

When a harsh cold snap occurs in the middle of winter, there is little a grape grower can do in the moment . . . it’s all about being prepared ahead of time. Make sure you are making smart decisions before and after the chill.

Aging bottled wine properly is key to let certain wine styles to fully develop. Make sure the conditions you are providing are right.

A New York City gentleman who recently retired found himself the owner of a country home in Italy with hundreds of Moscato grape vines. Having never made wine before, the learning curve was steep. But after several harvests and tons of research, he’s making a splash in the local scene.

A lot of thought and planning should be done before you begin designing a home winery. Whether building a new space or refurbishing an existing area, you want to make the winery as conducive to your needs as possible. From accessibility to temperature control, we lay out what you need to know.

We share our favorite labels from the hundreds of entries submitted in the annual WineMaker Label Contest.

A home winemaker and woodworker got the idea that mahogany may lend itself nicely to wine in place of oak. This simple idea led him on a years-long string of experiments. Now, he’s ready to share the results, which may surprise you.

Get the most from your wine cellar by maximizing the space you have. Two keys to this are leveraging vertical space and mobility.

Get tips on how to properly taste and evaluate your homemade wines.

We recap and share pictures from a recent trip in which WineMaker’s publisher and a group of readers explored Portugal’s diverse wine culture.

We share the 100 best-performing wine kits in the 2023 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition.

Acid is a critical building block in a wine’s structure. Learn how to balance acidity by testing, adjusting, and most importantly, tasting.

A lot of work goes into formulating a wine kit long before it goes to market. Learn how kits are developed, the contents of kits and the role each plays, and what separates one kit from another.

A winemaker reflects back on the humble beginnings of his winemaking journey, one that started in his father-in-law’s garage and has since grown into his own backyard vineyard and a passion for making the best wine possible.

While it may not look like a white wine grape, Gewürztraminer is well known to produce world-class white wines. Learn some best practices to work with this grape varietal that can thrive when grown in cooler climates.

Citrus fruits contain a lot of interesting flavors, but making wine with them can be a challenge. Get advice on removing the bitterness that comes with the rinds as well as micro-oxygenation advice for small-scale winemakers, and how to best deacidify a wine.