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The Basics of Sulfite

Learn the basics of what sulfur dioxide is, as well as when and how to use sulfite in your winemaking.

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Adding Sparkle To Your Wines, Bottle Sediments, and Reducing Acidity

To maximize your chances of a successful in-the-bottle fermentation you need to prepare a starter culture.

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Measuring Brix in Fermentation, Drinking From Brass, and Yeast Options

I would argue that the rapidity with which the sugar is consumed (and the density is lowered) is almost as important as the level of sugar i

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Red Wine Sediment and What To Consider When Selecting A Yeast

What you’re experiencing is the precipitation over time of all sorts of complex tannins and colored compounds.

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Tartrate Crystals, Blending Stuck Wine, Malolactic Timing

In my experience, doing a traditional cold stability where you chill the wine down and then filter off any precipitation won’t shift the a

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Understanding Bentonite, Refractometers vs. Hydrometers, and Mellowing A Big Wine

Most folks I talk to say that sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite are interchangeable in winemaking.

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Malolactic Problems and Cleaning with Chlorine

Some of the SO₂ gas created by the sulfur wick certainly will transfer into the wine as sulfur dioxide.

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Wine Press Mold Growth and Magnesium Sulfate Vineyard Sprays

It’s very possible this mold bloom was caused by a change in the weather or a change in your cellar environment.

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First-Time Barrel Soaking, Wine Flower and High Brix Grapes

It is entirely normal for the first soaking of a barrel to produce a dark-colored water.

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Sniffing The Cork, Screwcap Closures and the Facts About Wine Headaches

Interestingly, a cork may smell “tainted” and the wine below it might be just fine, or, better said the wine in the bottle may be below

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What’s This? and Calculating Proper Yeast Pitching

To quote one of my favorite UC-Davis professors, the newly-retired Dr. Linda Bisson, “No human pathogen can survive in wine.”

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Submerge Those Oak Chips, Wine Yields and a Copper Problem

I actually prefer using a sock or some kind of bag rather than just having chips float loose on the surface.

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Some Reductive Resolutions, Using Essential Oils, and Residual Sugar

You might want to try gradually introducing a little more oxygen into your winemaking process, especially early on when wines are more resil

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Red Wine Stabilization and Making White Zinfandel

Oxidation, whether microbial (metabolically), chemical (directly reacting with environmental oxygen), or enzymatic can degrade color and cau

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Bottling & Aging Wine

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Country Wine: Non-grape winemaking

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Making Wine From Grapes

Now that we’ve covered the science behind the winemaking process, you are ready to gather some grapes and start making wine from scratch.

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Wine Science 101

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Kit Wine Section

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Introduction to Winemaking

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Top 100 Wine Kits of 2016

Here’s the top 100 wine kits from the 2016 WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition

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A Year in a the Life of a Wine: Part II (Grape Processing)

A look at processing grapes after harvest.

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Amarone: A Taste of Valpolicella

Find out how to replicate the method of making Amarone — the famed red “straw wine” from the Valpolicella zone of Italy’s Veneto province

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High Acids, Low Tannins: Barbera

Barbera is a favorite among winemakers because its high acidity makes it a useful grape for blending and also a unique varietal wine. Get ti

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Making Pear Cider/Perry

Hard cider doesn’t have to be made from apples. Try making a pear cider (perry) this summer!