Import Source: Quark
Bottling & Aging Wine
FREEFill It Up With all the preparatory work — rinsing, sanitizing and more rinsing — bottling can become overwhelming as one’s production increases. That can quickly turn into many hours of bottling
Country Wine: Non-grape winemaking
FREECountry wine is the informal term that has been used for years to define fermented beverages made from ingredients other than grapes. This can include fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. Wine made
Making Wine From Grapes
FREEGrape Wine Ah yes . . . 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. From
Wine Science 101
FREEA Brief Glossary of Some Key Terms Brix: A scale of measuring sugar concentration in grapes, juice, must and wine. Instruments such as refractometers and hydrometers are used to measure degrees Brix
Kit Wine Section
FREEKit Wine by Jeff ChorniakA typical wine kit contains only a few ingredients: A bag of preserved grape concentrate, yeast and the additives you need to make wine. Not all kits include
Introduction to Winemaking
FREEWelcome winemakers! Although you’ve entered a part of the website labeled our “Beginner’s Guide,” we purposely designed it to incorporate the essential skills and knowledge that successful winemakers of all levels must
Swamp Donkey Vineyards: Growing Grapes in New England
MEMBERS ONLYA reader starts a vineyard in New England. “It is great to wake up in the morning, make a cup of coffee and walk out to the vineyard to check on the vines, training off shoots as I go along.”
Vineyard Queries: A Year of Questions and Answers
MEMBERS ONLYThis past year brought challenges and rewards for home vineyardists — and also a lot of questions for our vineyard expert Wes Hagen.
Cold Climate Grape Growing
MEMBERS ONLYIndeed, for 4–6 months of the year, the frigid and snowy landscape hardly seems like a great place to plant a vineyard. Temperatures in January and February drop sufficiently low to kill dormant buds in most cultivated grapevines. Nonetheless, our best kept secret is our mild summers marked by long warm days and cool nights.
Pinotage: The Red Grape of South Africa
MEMBERS ONLYPinotage is the most recognized — though not the most widely grown — South African red wine grape.
Evaporation Clarification
MEMBERS ONLYThanks for clarifying your question a little bit. I am glad to hear you regularly top off your barrels, it’s a practice all of us need to do. Alcohol and water definitely do evaporate out of barrels (along with small amounts of other volatile aroma constituents of wine) and the resulting headspace does need to
Blending Basics
FREEIn this article, Michael Larner discusses the wines of the Rhône region of France, and one of the most important winemaking parts of Rhône winemaking is blending. Learn about the basics of
Harrogate Wine Club: A Love For Wine Doesn’t Age
FREEWhen we are together bottling, corking and labeling the wine, we are all eager and happy to complete the project at hand, so we can enjoy the finished product.
Quest For The Big Red: Growing Red Grapes For Color and Impact
MEMBERS ONLYWant to make a big smashmouth red wine with grapes from your home vineyard? Then you’ll need to grow big or go home.
Making Sherry-Style Wines
MEMBERS ONLYSherry is the fortified wine from Jerez, Spain, made in soleras and conditioned with flor yeast.
Big Reds: How To Make A Blockbuster Wine
MEMBERS ONLY. . .lurking inside the heads of many home winemakers is the urge to make an absolute blockbuster, a jaw-dropping, mind-bending, 800-pound gorilla of a wine.
Yeast Nutrient Strategies
MEMBERS ONLYGrape juice is a pretty tough environment if you’re a yeast cell. The pH is low, there’s high osmotic stress (stress from the environmental conditions being such that the flow of water out of the cell is favored), and often, essential nutrients are limited. The abundance of fermentable sugars, however, makes life in these challenging
Using South American Grapes for a Second Winemaking Season
MEMBERS ONLYAnd you thought there was only one time each year to make wine from fresh grapes; in the autumn season. But, surprise, there is another whole world south of the Equator. As it turns out, the four seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are shifted six months compared to the Northern Hemisphere. The peak heat of
La Crescent: Cold-Climate Hybrid
MEMBERS ONLYLooking for a cold-hardy white to grow in a colder northern clime? Meet the University of Minnesota’s La Crescent.
Making La Crescent Wine: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYThanks to the University of Minnesota, wine grapes can thrive in some of the coldest climates in North America (and beyond). In this issue, two winemakers discuss making wine with the Minnesota-bred, cold-hardy hybrid, La Crescent. Scott Prom, Winemaker at Shelburne Vineyard in Shelburne, Vermont. Scott’s interest in wine started in 1985 while living in
Fermentation Temperature Control
FREEFor those that would like to start getting a better handle on the fermentation temperature of their wines, you’ve found the right spot.
Keys to a Healthy Canopy
MEMBERS ONLY“Grapevine Canopy: The above ground portion of the grapevine formed by the shoot system. It includes shoots (leaves, petioles, shoot stems, shoot tips, lateral shoots and tendrils) and the fruit, trunk and cordon canes. Dense or crowded canopies have excess leaf area and the fruit inside is heavily shaded. Open or low density canopies are
Simple Sulfite Wine Chemistry
MEMBERS ONLYThere is no denying: Sulfur dioxide (SO2) can be a source of headaches for winemakers — even without drinking any wine. Why does SO2 continue to be such a perplexing and confusing topic? All too often I am asked to help out with problems that seem completely unrelated to sulfite additions, though these are at
Modifying Wine Kits
MEMBERS ONLYThe two changes we are going to discuss in this article are alcohol levels and tannin. It’s important to remember before we start that any change you make is completely interconnected to the character of the wine in what can be very subtle ways.
Build a Wine Barrel Table
MEMBERS ONLYMaterials for Project: 1.) sand paper grits 40, 80, 120, 240 2.) matte black paint 3.) 3 or 4 coach bolts with washers and nuts 4.) drill and drill bits 5.) 3 or 4 wood screws 6.) small nail or tacks 7.) hammer 8.) jig saw (reciprocating saw) 9.) clean rags 10.) your favorite timber