Wine Wizard

Is the salmonella (commonly associated with eggs) a problem to consider when fining with egg whites? Bob McKee Tucker, Georgia Egg whites are an ancient, traditional and natural additive and are sometimes

Dry ice can be a tremendous help for small-lot winemakers in the grape or must stage. Dry ice is really just frozen carbon dioxide gas and will cool the air (or liquid)

First off, one should never burn a sulfur wick in a wet barrel; only do this (which releases the antimicrobial SO2 gas, which we want) when your barrel is well dried-out. This

  Wine barrel testing My barrels are American oak, repeatedly used for wine, and about five years old. When empty, I fill them with water containing a strong solution of potassium metabisulfite

For readers who don’t know, adding a solution of egg whites to wine does a nice job of pulling out excess tannins and phenolics that might cause your wine to be overly

A dear professor of mine in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California at Davis used to say, while pointing down at his wooden podium, “Technically, you can ferment

Here’s a simple rule of thumb to keep handy when using any kind of enzyme in winemaking. Enzymes are proteins and proteins don’t mix well with bentonite or with sulfur dioxide. Always

Dear Wine Wizard, Though most of us think “grapes” when we think wine, I live in Michigan and can’t help but notice that wineries out here make wine out of a lot

Hmm . . . this is a good question and one that more people should ask when getting into a hobby. It also serves as a natural follow-up to my previous mistakes

That’s a great request. Sometimes I forget to really distill what I believe when it comes to fine winemaking. Just like anything in life, having a concentrated, bullet-pointed list of the essence

Wine Wizard replies: Absolutely. There are an increasing number of filters out there for the small-scale producer. From rough filters that’ll just knock out large, visible particles all the way down to

Wine Wizard replies: Though ozone is an excellent tool for winery sanitation, the short answer is that unless you’ve got over fifty barrels of wine and sell it for a living, you

The Acid Test I crushed and sulfited my Cab grapes. In doing the initial tests I got the following readings. Brix was 23.5 (+.22 temp correction) = 23.7, S.G. 1.099 (+.013 temp

The Zin of Blending Since I can’t taste your wine and so don’t know the profile of each individual component, it’s hard to give you “the right” answer. And I would hazard

Bringing up tannins I have been making wine kits for three years and want to boost complexity and tannin levels. I have added some complexity by blending different kits and using French

Nip in the bud? I purchased and planted a few Nero d’Avola vines last December and have been carefully taking care of them ever since. I read that in order for the

Yeast-free wine? I am a wine lover, but unfortunately I have an intolerance to yeast. Is there a yeast-free or low-yeast wine? John via email Though I’m no medical doctor (I limit

MLF malfunction As the weather warmed in May 2007, several of the wines in my basement started working again, similar in appearance to a MLF fermentation. I also noticed renewed fermentation in

What’s with the fizz? I bottled an Amarone from juice about six months ago. I have been trying it every couple of months to see how it is coming along. I opened

It seems like you already have the acidity-adjusting situation well in hand — this is often one of the areas in which non-grape wines meet their downfall. As you already have realized,

What you describe, reusing commercial screwcap wine bottles for subsequent bottlings, is something no commercial winery would ever do. Once the cap is twisted off and the threads detach (the “clicking” sound

Great question. MLF (malolactic fermentation) can be a bit confusing for some because it’s called a “fermentation” but it’s certainly not as active, visible, smell-able and in your face as your primary

Bottle quest I have a few batches of wine under my belt. I have been plagued with either cheap, flat bottom bottles or stuck collecting and cleaning out empties. Where do wineries

High pH and Low TA in a Chardonnay I have a batch of 2006 Chardonnay that has completed primary and secondary fermentation. It tasted flabby so I had it tested for pH

Grape varieties for dry climates I live in an area that gets about 10” of rain a year. I have read that Grenache and Mourvèdre do well in hot and dry climates