Articles

Wes Hagen lays out last-minute advice to maximize this make-or-break day as home viticulturists gear up for harvest.

Buying grapes from a supplier allows access to varieties from regions of the world that would otherwise be inaccessible to home winemakers. We lay out seven critical points to consider before making your purchase.

Going directly to the source to buy your grapes from local vineyards allows home winemakers to work with grapes harvested the same day, though it requires a lot of legwork at the quantities amateurs are after. Get advice to make the task easier.

Interested in trying a new type of fermentation? Try your hand at three easy-drinking, low-alcohol drinks that hit the spot in the summer sun or after a long day of harvesting: Tepache, ginger beer, and kefir soda.

Local wine professionals, industry experts, and top winemaking hobbyists gathered in the birthplace of American wine — Charlottesville, Virginia — to lead days of seminars and events at the 2024 WineMaker Magazine Conference.

The Wine Wizard fields questions on eliminating (and avoiding) browning in red wines, malolactic fermentation test strips, and techniques for making wine from maple sap.

Black Muscat first gained popularity in France and is gaining steam in California due to its great aromatics and versatility. Whether turning it into a red table wine, dry rosé, dessert wine, or even grappa, Black Muscat is a unique grape to consider.

Wine and coffee have a lot in common. Variety, growing conditions, terroir, and technique in the process of turning the raw material into the beverages we start our mornings with or end our evenings with play a huge role in the final outcome. Brothers who make wine and roast their own coffee found a unique way to combine the two with wine-infused coffee.

With so many wine certification programs available, how do you know which may be the best fit for you? We break down some of the differences in four of the most popular.

View the winners from the 2024 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition.

You can make wine from just about anything. From dandelions and roses to ferns and parsnips, we share advice and recipes for wine from flowers, ferns, and root vegetables.

Looking to enjoy some of your homemade wines a different way? Try using them as ingredients in wine-based cocktails! We share tips and recipes to make cocktails that are sure to be a hit at gatherings.

Pinot Grigio is often an introductory white wine for consumers — light, refreshing, though unremarkable. That doesn’t have to be the case, though! Learn from winemakers across the world how they craft Pinot Grigio that will rival any white wine’s complexity.

After pressing grapes for wine, a home winemaker decided seven years ago to add the pomace to their fresh-pressed apple juice to learn the impact it would have on cider production. They’ve continued this experiment every year since, with some variation, and are sharing the results.

The summer is a critical time in the home vineyard. Wes Hagen shares the physiological needs of mature vines in the summer and lays out a schedule for what growers should be doing in the warmest months.

Our newest columnist, Maureen Macdonald, shares her own experiences and advice for crafting a Frontenac Gris of any style in her first “Varietal Focus” column.

The Wine Wizard shares the signs to look for and ways to monitor malolactic fermentation, offers tips on adding supplemental grape skins to a red wine, and when to move a red wine’s fermentation from open containers to under an airlock.

We recap and share pictures from a recent WineMaker trip with readers to the wine regions of South Africa.

Looking to advance your winemaking knowledge? Check out these wine education programs to start your journey down the path to a higher education in winemaking and the business of wine.

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.