Posts

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  White Kits to Gold Medals

  What does it take to turn a wine kit into an award-winning white wine? Amateur winemakers whose wines have found success at the judging tabl

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  What Two Jars Taught Me About Wine

  How much do the little things really matter when it comes to aging wine? From exposure to light and vibration to splash racking and even the

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  The Best Kits of 2026

  We share the top-scoring wine kits that were judged blind at the 2026 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition.

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  Taming Montepulciano

  Montepulciano has a reputation as a challenging grape for home winemakers, but with the right techniques, its deep color, dark-fruit charact

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  Your Recommended Reading List

  The relatively slow winter months in the vineyard are a great time to further your grape-growing education. Wes Hagen shares a list of books

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  My Vines Have Names

  Even a small backyard vineyard will have variation from one end to the other. Whether it’s due to sun exposure, soil, slopes, or something

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  Rkatsiteli

  Rkatsiteli is believed to be one of the oldest grape varieties in the world, hailing from the country of Georgia and having immense populari

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  Turn a Flawed Wine Into a Great Cocktail

  Before you pour a disappointing wine down the drain, consider whether it has potential for a second life in a wine cocktail. The key is iden

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  Precision Winemaking at Your Fingertips

  Winemaking is full of calculations, but they don’t have to be intimidating. A veteran winemaker shares his free online winemaking calculat

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  Cerasuolo Rosé

  Cerasuolo-style rosés extract greater color, flavor, tannin, and texture to bridge the gap between the refreshing acidity of white wine and

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  The Wild West of Winemaking

  We share a recap and photos from a recent trip WineMaker readers took to explore Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe wine region.

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  Chenin Blanc: A Chameleon Grape for Any Taste

  No matter your style preference for white wines, there is a good chance Chenin Blanc could produce an ideal wine for you. It’s a chameleon

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  Wine Mimosas

  A home winemaker shares how a failed batch early in her exploration of the hobby led to an unforgettable mixer. Who’s up for wine mimosas?

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  Pre-Fermentation Actions

  From performing cold soaks, running lab tests, or making adjustments, don’t overlook the time between harvesting your grapes and the start

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  Live Chat with Wes Hagen (2026)

  Watch the playback of our September-October 2026 Live Video Chat with “Backyard Vines” columnist Wes Hagen.

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  Preparing for Your Backyard Harvest

  Home viticulturists should begin preparing for harvest well in advance. From ongoing vineyard maintenance to ensuring equipment is cleaned a

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  Preparing Your Winery for Harvest

  Harvest season is the most important — and demanding — time of year for home winemakers, and it’s not something you want to leave to l

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  2026 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition Recap

  We share the top winners and highlights of this year’s wine competition, which received 1,043 entries from 40 U.S. states, 4 Canadian prov

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  Set a Foundation With Kit Concentrates

  Juice concentrate can be used for more than making kit wines. It is incredibly reliable, balanced, and easy to work with, which makes it a g

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  Much More Than Just Sauvignon Blanc

  We recap and share photos from a recent trip former WineMaker Publisher Brad Ring led readers on, visiting vineyards and winery tasting room

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  Sampling for Ripeness

  Harvest timing is the most important decision a winemaker will make, which means collecting accurate samples to base the decision on is crit

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  Oaking by Doing

  Oak plays an important role in many red wine styles, but it is also one of the easiest elements to overdo — especially on a small scale, w

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  Petit Verdot: Bordeaux’s Color Adjustor

  Petit Verdot is most commonly used as a blending tool to boost color in red wines, though this unique, thick-skinned French grape also makes

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  Live Chat with Dwayne Bershaw (2026)

  Watch the replay of our Live Q&A from August 2026 with WineMaker Author and Cornell Enology Lecturer Dwayne Bershaw.

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  Live Chat with Ken & Leah Stafford (2026)

  Watch the playback of our July 2026 live video chat with WineMaker authors Ken and Leah Stafford.