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Mulled Wines: That Warm Fuzzy Feeling
FREEAs autumn rolls into winter, the average person’s appetite for a chilled white wine, ice-cold beer or slushy blender drink wanes. A hearty red wine with deep fruit and nice tannins can
Savoring Wine: Dry Finish
FREEThere are many wines in Greece, but only one way to drink it. That, in any event, is what I was told on my first visit. Athens was chaotic and noisy, but
Bench Trials: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYGet tips on performing bench trials at home from three pros who utilize bench trials at their day jobs.
Wine Filtration 101
MEMBERS ONLYYou want to start a heated and emotionally charged discussion on a controversial topic? Ask a group of amateur winemakers for their thoughts on the impact of filtration on wine. Chances are you will get diametrically opposed views on the pros and cons of filtration, and, quite often, those views and opinions are not necessarily
10 Tips for a Successful Harvest Day
MEMBERS ONLYFor the home vineyardist, harvest day is the most important — or at least the busiest — day of the year. Planning and preparation is critical in order for everything to run smoothly. Let our harvest day tips guide you to great grape picking . . . and wonderful wine. Harvest comes once per year
Determining Ripeness
FREEDetermining when grapes are ready to harvest is one of the most important decisions of the entire vintage. Here’s what to look for.
Making Wine From Juice
FREEYou may be curious about a way of making wine intermediate between using fresh fruit and making kit wines. Increasingly popular, the hobby of making wine from grape juice comes in two
Cheesemaking: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYYou make your own wine, but have you tried making cheese to go with it?
Your First Wine from Fresh Grapes
FREENothing feels as satisfying and authentic as making your first batch of wine from fresh grapes. And there’s no better time to try it than in early autumn, when grapes all over
Your First Wine from a Kit
FREEA few months ago, I decided to open a bottle from my collection of homemade wines. I selected an Austrian red and pulled the cork. The wine was healthy, almost vibrant. It
Reductive Resolutions
MEMBERS ONLYYour question about how to avoid a swampy, reductive odor in your Chardonnay after bottling is an interesting one. For readers who may not be aware, “reductive” is a non-exact sensory term often used to signal rotten egg or hydrogen sulfide-type aromas. Hydrogen sulfide in wine can be caused by a few different things but
Wines, Naturally
MEMBERS ONLYMany wine experts are very skeptical about natural winemaking techniques. They say natural fermentations lead to unreliable or stuck ferments and regard doing away with sulfite additions — a requirement of certified organic wines in the United States — as handing over the wine to spoilage microbes. But in recent years, a small but growing
Home Wine Lab Testing: Tips from the Pros
FREELaboratory equipment for winemakers can be fiscally daunting, especially for beginning winemakers. That doesn’t mean that vital testing should be avoided. We asked two laboratory experts in wine lab services companies about
Wine Yields From a Vineyard
MEMBERS ONLYAs one of my vineyard manager co-workers famously says just about every other day whenever he answers a question like this, “It depends.” However, before I dive into all of the prevarications and provisos, here are some basic conversion assumptions for grape growing and wine production. These are handy facts to memorize so hopefully you
Impact of Oxygen on Winemaking
MEMBERS ONLYOxygen’s presence or absence at the various stages of winemaking can have extraordinarily important and lasting effects on what our wines taste like. Too much and you risk oxidation damage, too little and you risk reduction stink. The effects of oxygen on wine, much more so with red wines, may be the most complex and
Confessions: Revealing a secret to my success
MEMBERS ONLYA California winemaker confesses his secret to making a good wine blend great through the use of his secret weapon.
What’s This?
MEMBERS ONLYThanks so much for sending over the pictures, they are very helpful. Even though it’s impossible for me to diagnose down to the organism just based on images, I’d wager you’ve got a very thick colony of spoilage yeast growing on top of your gallon jugs. Sometimes called “film yeast” and similar to the classic
Let’s Bottle!
MEMBERS ONLYFrom cleaners to corkers, there are many options on the market for the home winemaker for the home winemaker when it comes time to get your wine into the bottle.
Birthday Planning: Dry Finish
FREEAs many Texans can attest, wine is not something that tourists have historically flocked to Texas for in the past. Yet, with the recent expansion of Texas vineyards, this has recently begun
Wine Flower
MEMBERS ONLYI agree with your local winery supply store employee; it’s most likely a surface yeast or “flor” yeast of some kind, forming a floating plaque on top of your wine. Sometimes referred to as “wine flower” (or the Spanish word, flor), these yeast aren’t turning sugar into alcohol, they’re actually eating alcohol and oxidizing it
Wine Grape Cold Soaking Success
MEMBERS ONLYIf you have ever researched how to make Pinot Noir, you have no doubt come across the term “pre-fermentation cold maceration” or simply “cold soak.” Although a cold soak is used on other grape varietals, lowering the temperatures prior to fermentation is primarily done to coax more color out of Pinot Noir, which tends to
How Wine Yeast Works
MEMBERS ONLYIn addition to alcoholic fermentation, the yeast used to ferment wine also metabolize other substances into byproducts. Learn more about how wine yeast works.
Black Spanish
MEMBERS ONLYWill the real Black Spanish stand up? I have to admit, when we first decided on this variety as a topic, I had never thought I had made wine from it. However, this grape actually has many synonyms. Renowned wine author Jancis Robinson reports that depending on your location, it is referred to as Cigar
One Step Cleaning
MEMBERS ONLYOne Step is a proprietary cleaning (and somewhat sanitizing) solution that is a secret formula; even the Wine Wizard will never know exactly what it’s made out of. From what I can find out, though, it sounds very similar to products I’ve used in my wineries which often go by trade names like Peroxycarb. Essentially,
Propagating Grapevines
MEMBERS ONLYWhether you want to grow grapevines for winemaking, fresh eating, or just decoration, they can be propagated at home simply by taking a few cuttings and rooting them. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can create a micro-vineyard of your own.
