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Sémillon
MEMBERS ONLYAmerican wine consumers tend to believe if a white wine has been bottled then it is ready to drink. But not all white wines are meant to only be enjoyed young. Let us introduce you to Sémillon.
Clearing A 23-Year-Old Concord Wine
MEMBERS ONLYSince 1992 (over 20 years) is quite a long time to store bottled wine. If you go to a supermarket or liquor store, you’ll notice that most red wines currently on the shelf date from 2013, 2012 or at the very oldest 2011. Yes, it’s true that American wine consumers don’t tend to age their
Award-Winning Kit Winemakers Roundtable
MEMBERS ONLYHow do you make the best possible homemade wine from a kit? You know, something truly great that can stand out in a crowded competition and go toe-to-toe with a fresh grape wine? I reached out to four kit winemakers who all won multiple medals in the 2015 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition for their
Make Hard Cider & Apple Wine
FREEGet tips to make your own hard cider or apple wine this fall.
Re-Fermentation Issues
MEMBERS ONLYLet me put on my thinking cap. Indeed I think you are facing a re-fermentation and I’d bet that it is due to your 1% residual sugar, but perhaps secondarily to a re-fermentation of residual malic acid in the wine. Free sulfur dioxide concentration diminishes in the bottle over time and after a year levels
Grand Champion: Dry Finish
FREEMichael Rinker’s 100% Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon was named Grand Champion at the 2015 WineMaker Magazine Amateur Wine Competition. The grapes were sourced less than 15 miles (24 km) from his home
Make Wines to Age
FREEIt starts with great fruit, but to make age-worthy red wine the winemaker must also consider acidity, tannins, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, cellaring conditions, and how all of these factors (and others) relate to each other.
Wild Fermentations
MEMBERS ONLYWell, I would’ve inoculated right off the bat if I didn’t see anything happening within 24 to 48 hours. Contrary to popular belief, yeast cells that can carry out a complete alcoholic fermentation rarely come in on the fruit from the vineyard. The species that do are typically those kinds that can only ferment to
Tropical Winemaking: Dry Finish
FREEMany, many years ago when my five siblings and I were very little, my mother, Alma, tried to make homemade wine. We lived in the Santa Cruz valley of the Caribbean island
Selecting Yeast Roundtable
FREEAs illustrated in the WineMaker Yeast Chart, there are many commercial yeast strains available for home winemakers to choose from. And that list doesn’t even count the numerous other strains marketed and packaged
Wine Grotto: Dry Finish
FREEIn January 2013 my wife, Carole, and I moved from our rural Maryland house to a 17th floor condo in “The Century” — a new 41-story structure in Century City, Los Angeles.
Inside the Vineyard Toolshed: Backyard Vines
MEMBERS ONLYThe essential tools any home viticulturist will need to stay on top of their backyard vineyard.
Understanding “Degree Days”
FREEThe “Winkler Scale” or “UC Davis Heat Summation Scale,” which measures what are dubbed “degree days,” is only a rough guide to which varietals will thrive in which areas and is solely
Making Melon Wine
FREEWith few exceptions, melons conjure up memories of juicy, succulent sweetness that satisfies the senses on a warm summer day. Any winemaker enjoying a fully ripened culinary melon will naturally envision a
A Century of Wine: Dry Finish
FREEOne of my first memories as a child was following my maternal great-grandmother, Maggie, around in her orchard and vineyard in western Pennsylvania. It was fascinating for me as a 6 year
Expire Dates
MEMBERS ONLYOf course the best thing you can do is check expiration dates on packages, boxes and vials. If you buy bulk loose powders (like tartaric acid in baggies from a larger sack) from your home winemaking or homebrewing supply store, be sure to ask the store owners when they opened the larger batches from which
Petite Sirah
MEMBERS ONLYWhen I was first introduced to wine in the 1980s, I was certainly overwhelmed about how complex the subject of wine could be. I had some friends that had enrolled in a wine tasting course at the local adult education center and were eager to share what they learned and I was eager to soak
Japanese Beetles
MEMBERS ONLYWow, that’s quite something! Though you seem to have been able to identify the insects on sight, your picture definitely shows the tell-tale “lacy” cutout pattern on the leaves that are the hallmark of the voracious “Japanese Beetle” (Popilia japonica). These little half-inch long bugs tend to be present in the Midwest and eastern United
Troubleshooting Wine Kit Aroma
MEMBERS ONLYBefore we finish shooting smelly troubles in wine kits we need to do a quick recap of the basics of troubleshooting: Almost all of these issues can be avoided if you carefully follow the instructions that came with your wine kit. Kits sometimes have procedures that contradict accepted techniques for fresh grape/fresh juice winemaking. There
New World Winemaking Decisions
MEMBERS ONLYThere are competing images in the story of fine wine. One version goes something like, “get the best grapes you can and get out of the way.” It’s great advice and it often makes excellent wine. On the other hand, not every lot of grapes is wonderful and we now have techniques and products that
High Alcohol Wine
MEMBERS ONLYFrom personal experience I can tell you that red grapes from the warm (sometimes downright hot!) and dry region of Paso Robles always seem to “soak up” to a higher Brix then they sample in the field. For example, if I sample the vineyard the day before at 26.0 °Brix, I always assume that there
Troubleshooting Visual Defects in Wine Kits
MEMBERS ONLYThe old truism of the commercial wine industry is that people drink with their eyes first. This is natural since you’ll see your glass as it’s coming to your lips. No matter how a wine tastes, if it’s hazy, cloudy or (even worse!) lumpy, it’s not going to please the drinker. Wines made from kits
A Taste of the Tropics
FREEMaking wine from tropical fruits, with a little know-how, is just as easy as making wine from traditional fruits and berries.
2015 WineMaker Competition Results
FREEWineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition Results: Download Full Results With 2,825 entries, the event is once again the largest wine competition of its kind in the world! Wines were judged on April
Yeast Trials With Wine Kits
MEMBERS ONLYJust because your wine kit comes with a certain yeast, that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with other options.