Import Source: Quark
Table Wine Kits
This article we’ll be discussing immediate and intermediate strategies for making table wines that can be consumed very young while still delivering the full and delightful wine experience. Strategy one: go cheap
Going Pro RoundTable
How do you break into the wine industry? Do you volunteer to help out at a local vineyard for a vintage? Do you go to winemaking school? Do you start out as
Top 100 Wine Kits 2012
Over 50 experienced judges evaluated a total of 2,552 wine kit entries as part of the 2012 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the
How Wine Kits are Made
Unless you work in the industry, you’ll likely never have seen the inside of a wine kit manufacturer’s facility. For liability reasons, they don’t give tours to civilians. There’s something about running
Wine Blending Partners
Blending accomplishes several goals in winemaking. It can be done to improve flavor, mouthfeel, cover a defect, balance the chemical profile, adjust the alcohol content, emulate a commercial wine you enjoy or
Late Malolactic
To shed light on your query, the Wine Wiz consulted the Winemaking Magic 8 Ball™ and the answer that floated to the top was, “Outlook not good.” If your 2010 Zinfandel still
Meadmaking: Tips from the Pros
Meadmaking — like winemaking — has been around for thousands of years. And if you make wine you can also make mead using much of the same equipment. In this issue, two
Your First Mead
Tips for brewing your firs batch of mead.
Home Winery Names
What’s in a name? If it’s a homewinery, it could be almost anything. Home winemakers explain their winery’s name.
Rosé Wine Kits
In a recent study commissioned in the UK, researchers studied the sociological data of people who expressed a preference for either red or white wine. In addition to mundane facts (red wine
Using Winemaking Enzymes
Many winemakers shun the use of additives, including enzymes, to respect the wine’s “naturalness.” But juice is laden with natural enzymes, and once inoculated with yeast, fermenting wine is under the control
Red Wine Color Stability
Keep the color in your reds by learning about color stability and how to achieve it.
Making Port Style Wine from Mustang Grapes
By far, the most prolific wild grape in Texas is the widely distributed Vitis mustangensis, or Mustang grape. It was historically the major wine grape of early settlers and remains a dominant
Your First Wine Barrel
After 15 years of making wine, I am finally embarking upon the use of barrels and it is very exciting. Just having the barrels in my homewinery creates an ambiance that is
Making Riesling Roundtable
Ask any wine expert and they will tell you — Riesling deserves its day in the sun. Long touted as one of the most food-friendly wines available, it’s versatility in the winery
Small-Space Home Winemaking
You can make wine even if you live in a small space. Here are some winemakers who do just that.
Cabernet Sauvignon: The king of red wine grapes
Cabernet Sauvignon is known for making some of the world’s most robust red wines.
Overspiced Wine Situation
There’s nothing like a wine with what I call “the elbows sticking out” to ruin one’s mood. Especially frustrating is when one has followed a recipe or kit instructions to the letter
Growing Riesling Grapes: Tips from the Pros
If you live in a place with cooler weather and want to grow a versatile vinifera varietal, Riesling might be your best bet. Think Germany and Austria when you think of a
You, the Connoisseur
Tim Vandergrift on you, the “connoisseur.”
Vigor in the Backyard
Vineyard vigor and how to keep it under control to grow the best grapes possible.
Understanding Oxygen and Oxidation in Winemaking
As budding winemakers, one important principle we heed is protecting juice (must) and wine from oxygen’s baneful effects. But then we learn that yeast needs a “little” oxygen for a good fermentation,
Small Scale Vineyard Spraying
This article will provide the backyard grape grower with a pragmatic guide to the use of pesticides on a small scale. I will cover an approach to developing a spray program for
Chardonnay Winemaking Tips from Burgundy
Being a lover of Pinot Noir, I am intrigued and mystified by Burgundy. During my visit to Burgundy as part of a film crew working on a television series about wine, I
Aging Country Fruit Wines
Wine is a dynamic chemical soup, constantly changing, evolving, reducing and oxidizing. From the moment it is made, its fate is sealed. Yes, it will improve, mature, reach a peak, and then