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The Joys of Blending

Blending different grape varieties to make a better finished wine is a bedrock practice in the commercial wine world — and one often overl

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Tasting Wine with Dr. Olmo: Dry Finish

A former student recalls spending time and learning from the great grape breeder and professor Dr. Harold Olmo at UC-Davis.

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Build a Filter Clamp: Projects

This DIY clamp allows you to change filter pads more quickly and with less effort, and costs less than $20 to make.

Avoiding Kit Pitfalls

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Riesling: Varietal Focus

Riesling is known for its potential longevity and ability to develop characteristics of individual vineyard sites without losing traditional

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Grape Breeding 101

Learn what goes into breeding a new grape variety.

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Plan Your First Vineyard

Detailed steps every home viticulturist should take before planting their first vineyard.

Pick Your Grapes

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My Backyard Vineyard

I take one last, inclusive look at the “backyard” of the home in Chicago Park, California. I see one-and-a-half acres of fertile land th

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Aging Gracefully

All of the factors that go into when and how to age a wine make this a topic worth spending time on.

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Home Harvest: Backyard Vines

Here are ten steps you can take in late Summer and early Fall to grow great wine.

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Who Wants to be a Winemaker?

Take out a pencil and test your winemaking knowledge using this fun quiz. Let’s play “Who Wants to be a Winemaker?”

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Mid-Season Vineyard Tips

Wes Hagen runs through some common wine faults that are a result of vineyard practices and how to avoid them.

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Seyval Blanc: Varietal Focus

Seyval Blanc produces abundant crops in cold climates and offers the winemaker an opportunity to make a variety of wines from one grape.

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Making Country Wines: Tips from the Pros

Two pros who make fruit country wines give their tips for making these non-grape wines.

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Keep It Clean

Cleaning and sanitizing is the boring, dull part of the process. Never mind that this is the most important part of winemaking. It is a lot

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pHiguring out pH

Get an understanding of pH, why it’s important, how to measure pH, and how to correct it.

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Best of Show

Enter a competition and you will receive valuable feedback on how to improve your technique, or even win a major award.

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Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blueberry!

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Blending Batches: Tips from the Pros

Pros share that blending is all about running tests, comparing flavors, and finding the perfect ratio before you commit to the final blend.

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Solving the Sulfite Puzzle

Let’s try to demystify sulfite by reviewing some fundamental chemistry. This will help us understand how sulfite protects wine and how muc

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Pruning Tips: Backyard Vines

Learn when you should prune your vines, ways to do it, and why these decisions are so important to wine quality.

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Sauvignon Blanc: Varietal Focus

From a winemaker’s standpoint, Sauvignon Blanc is one of the easiest wines to make.

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2000 WineMaker Label Contest Winners

The winning amateur and professional winemaking labels from WineMaker’s 2000 Label Contest.

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Put a Cork in It!

Wine closures include a range of possibilities: Traditional wooden corks, synthetic cork imitations; hybrids of plastic and cork; screw caps