Articles

Ethanol may be the most prominent and well-known alcohol in wine, but it is not the only one to play a large role in a wine’s character. Learn about the various alcohols in wine.

The king of the white wines, Chardonnay can be expressed in a wide array of styles. Chik Brenneman takes readers on a journey through this grape’s story and tips to creating his favorite version of wine from Chardonnay grapes.

Get some pointers and considerations a winemaker needs to keep in mind when topping off your aging wine vessels. The Wizard also answers questions on fining agents and malolactic fermentation after cold stabilizing a wine.

Bird netting is essential to protect your precious grapes form birds after veraison. However, anyone with their own backyard vineyard knows how difficult it can be to apply the netting and also role it up compactly for storage after harvest. With that in mind, a home winemaker came up with two DIYs to make the tasks easier.

Live Chat with Pat Henderson, which took place on May 26, 2021.

Aging wines on the lees can add aromatic complexity, soften tannins, enrich mouthfeel, protect it from oxygen, feed malolactic bacteria, and add longterm stability. Learn how to get the most from sur lie aging, and techniques for removing, storing, and reusing lees.

A common sight in the coastal communities throughout the northeastern part of the U.S. and Canada, rugosa roses produce a rosehip that is commonly made into jam. One adventurous spirit opted to try making wine with it.

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, just lacking a desired characteristic. That’s when it is time to intervene. Qualities like flavor, aroma, body, color, or even tannins can all be improved with a little help.

Pétillant-naturel sparkling wines — which are bottled prior to the conclusion of fermentation — are having a moment. Without any required riddling, disgorging, or extended aging, pét-nats are a perfect fit for home winemakers to try when getting into sparkling wines.

Fruit wines are generally the first thing to come to mind when we hear “country wine,” however the term is much more encompassing than that. We share seven recipes from Jack B. Keller Jr.’s new book release Home Winemaking: The Simple Way to Make Delicious Wine that illustrate just how broad an array of ingredients the term includes.

If you make your own wine, no matter what kind, the concept of malolactic fermentation (MLF) should be well embedded in your mind. Learn some of the basics of MLF.

Elmer Swenson’s grape breeding program has had a profound effect on the North American wine scene. One such grape to come from his program is Brianna, a grape that required an estimated 93 crosses to produce. Learn about this grape’s heritage as well as how to best work with it.

Oxidation is one of the most common faults among homemade wines. The Wiz has some tips for minimizing exposure during racking along with advice for how to read fermentation temperature, reducing reductive stink with copper, and carbonating a dessert wine.

Video Live Chat with Wes Hagen, which took place on April 22, 2021.

Video Live Chat roundtable with four award-winning amateur winemakers, which took place on March 24, 2021.

Everyone misses in-person wine events and club meetings. However, the rise of virtual event and gathering platforms comes with some unique benefits. One winemaking club offers advice to other clubs after a year of hosting virtual events and fun, virtual get-togethers.

More commonly associated by the wine it produces, Melon de Bourgogne is the grape varietal behind Muscadet wines and the sur lie aging technique. But its mystique doesn’t stop there. Learn more about this old grape varietal known by many names.

Not everyone loves a buttery Chardonnay but for those that seek out this characteristic the Wine Wizard has some sage fermentation advice to achieve buttery bliss. Also, one reader wonders about adding pectic enzymes in a red wine and another is perplexed by the numbers in his recently purchased juice.

Learn about the fundamentals of nitrogen levels in your winemaking as well as how, when, and what additions are needed

Volatile thiols are delicate but powerful aromatic compounds released during fermentation. Through careful techniques and yeast selection, these thiols can be both preserved and enhanced to create an aromatic wine that pleases the senses.

Wine barrels are constantly changing. Each time one is filled it will lose some characteristics and, eventually after enough uses, it will go neutral. How you use a barrel should change over time also. 

Early in my winemaking career I had the good fortune to work with one of the founders of Kenwood Vineyards, Mike Lee, who really knew how to blend wines to make them

After dedicating as much time as we do making a batch of wine, the final step of putting a closure on the bottle can’t be overlooked. There are many options from natural, agglomerated, colmated, and synthetic corks, to screw caps, to name a few. Learn the pros of each option to ensure you find the right closure to fit your next batch of bottles.

Video Live Chat with Jason Phelps, which took place on February 17, 2021.

This blending template was created by Pat Henderson and is available for download here: