Articles

Dear Wine Wizard, I came back from Australia six months ago and was fortunate enough to visit the Hunter Valley. I brought back some wine and among the bottles was a Chardonnay/Verdelho

An invasive cactus plant native to the Americas has caused decades of massive economic hardships for many pastoralists of Kenya. Explore how one permaculturalist turned this scourge of the region into a nascent wine industry.

Dear Wine Wizard, I am planning to brew my first mead this weekend. I will be using a recipe that calls for “yeast extract,” which I take to be the same as

It’s been a few years since we’ve run a Backyard Vines Q&A. Wes Hagen answers several hobby vineyardists’ questions. Learn about tackling black rot, sunburnt grapes, and hedging vines.

Fresh off her winemakermag.com Live Chat, the Wiz continues to dish out advice on a wide array of topics including a misbehaving corker, barrel size considerations, malolactic advice, and troubleshooting off-odors in a Viognier.

Balance is often the key to producing a winning wine. This means knowing how to measure and adjust acidity if needed. Learn the basics of wine acids.

The grape of North America, Concord has come to dominate the grape juice and jelly markets, but making a solid wine with it can require a little more care than most vinifera grapes. Chik Brenneman digs deep to come up with a solid game plan to making a worthy wine from this grape variety.

Looking for fresh grapes this harvest season? Here is a list of select fresh grape vendors you can purchase grapes from.

Live Chat with Christina Musto, which took place on August 14, 2019.

Dear Wine Wizard, I’ve been making wine for about a year now and I’m wondering if you’d be willing to help me out with a wrap-up of some of your winemaking wisdom.

Dear Wine Wizard, I’ve heard both “yes” and “no” on soaking corks before bottling. All of the commercial wineries I’ve visited don’t soak their corks before bottling. Can you set us straight

QI have made 2.5-gallon batches of pin cherry wine. Without a recipe to go by, I used my old standby: Chokecherry recipe of 20 plus years. It makes excellent wine with a

Dear Wine Wizard, I made a Concord wine about nine months ago and bottled it for Christmas. I put gelatin in it twice to remove sediment and to clear up my wine.

Live Chat with Alison Crowe, which took place on July 24, 2019.

Hundreds of hobby winemakers came to Traverse City, Michigan from May 16 to 19 for our 12th annual WineMaker Magazine Conference. The conference featured local professional Northern Michigan winemakers, WineMaker writers, industry

The best wine cellars offer home winemakers, wine collectors, or anyone else stockpiling wine a stable, secure, chilly space that exists in complete darkness 99.9% of the time. Get some construction options that a homeowner might consider when designing a wine cellar.

Whether it is just the basics (Brix, pH, etc.) or more advanced (free SO2, yeast assimilable nitrogen, etc.) all home winemakers should perform some tests to monitor their wines.

From April 12 to 14, 2019, a total of 2,305 different wines were judged at the Grand Summit Lodge and Conference Center at Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, Vermont. This year’s

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 need to understand what the judges are trying to tell you and apply it to your next wine.

Live Chat with Jack Keller, which took place on June 25, 2019.

, QMy pear wine is watery and flat, I have already bottled it. Is there anyway to save it? It was my first attempt at winemaking and I don’t know what went

A vineyard located in the middle of Manhattan? We had to investigate. Learn about Latif Jiji and the unique vineyard that he planted and has managed now for 42 years in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Get some basic pointers for making hard cider or apple wine.

Towards the end of the fall 2018 harvest I was looking for a little respite in my calendar, and I came across an appointment scheduled for a Friday night in late November

QI’ve got a red Bordeaux-style blend with the following stats: Aged 28 months in French and American oak, with these numbers: Alcohol — 13.8%; Free SO2 — 37 mg/L; Total SO2 —