Date: Apr-May 2013

Barbera frequently comes in with high acidity but, with the right winemaking approach, it makes a food-friendly red for people who drink wine every day.

The short answer to your question: yes, if you dilute your wine sample before running a Ripper analysis for SO2, you then need to multiply your result by the dilution factor you

Wow, can I fly to the Philippines for a little research and equipment-scouting trip? We can sample some of your wine, do a little research into tropical fruit winemaking, go see what

Well well, what do you know? That’s a question I’ve never been asked before in all my years of writing this column! The spirit of the vintage laws for commercial wine is

I suspect you’ve got a fatty acid issue caused by your stuck/sluggish fermentation. S. cerevisiae can emit fatty acids when under fermentive stress . . .

Tim Vandergrift on you, the “connoisseur.”

Vineyard vigor and how to keep it under control to grow the best grapes possible.

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,

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

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

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

Alsace vineyards are tucked into the predominantly east facing slopes of the Vosges Mountains . . .

Though tough to define as it can smell different to everyone, there is unfortunately no wine lab analysis panel you can run that says, “Yessir, you’ve got an over-abundance of Ivory Soap

One of the biggest challenges to growing grapes — commercially or recreationally — is controlling vine growth, which is known as vigor. If the vines are too productive, or not productive enough,

An introduction into volatile acidity (VA) and how to avoid it.

Grapes want to be wine. That may be oversimplified, but the fact is that the vast majority of commercial wines — and most homemade wines — use winegrapes as their base. The