Date: Aug-Sep 2018
Your First Lug of Grapes
FREEBuying your first lug of grapes can be intimidating, but it does not need to be. Get some pointers before committing to your first box of grapes.
Dealing with Excessive Heat in the Vineyard
MEMBERS ONLYRelentless heat can be an anxious time for winegrape growers. But the worry of vineyard heat stress doesn’t need to cause stress in the grape-grower’s life. Two professional winemakers discuss dealing with excessive heat in your own vineyard.
Versatile Viognier
MEMBERS ONLYIt was not long ago that Viognier was almost an extinct grape varietal. Luckily for wine fans, both grape growers and winemakers have learned some tricks to unlock this grape’s true potential.
Meet the Blue Bulls Wine Co.
FREEMeet the Blue Bulls Wine Company, a group of New Jersey-based career first responders who also like to dabble in the art of winemaking. If you mess with these bulls, you may get a horn . . . of wine?
Cherry Picking Grapes
MEMBERS ONLYA good grape sorter is fast, efficient, and always with a keen eye towards prioritizing what grapes to use and what grapes to discard. Alex Russan walks winemakers through some of the crucial keys to being a good sorter.
Crushing Grapes
FREESupposedly there are many ways to skin a cat, but we’re not familiar with any of them. Luckily for winemakers, Bob Peak knows many ways to crush a grape, and is willing to explain.
Cabernet Sauvignon: Master Class
MEMBERS ONLYGrab a seat, take out your pencil, and get ready for an introduction into the master class on the world’s most popular grape. Guest lecturers include three experts on making Cabernet wines.
Making the Cut
FREEPress cuts give the winemaker more blending options to create a wine precisely as it was envisioned. Learn if, and when, press cuts may benefit your winemaking.
2018 WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition Recap
FREEAn overview of this year’s competition, which included 2,299 entries from winemakers in six countries, 48 American states, and 5 Canadian provinces.
A Walk Alongside Ripeness
MEMBERS ONLYHow ripe your grapes are when picked is one of the most important factors in determining what your wine will taste like. Here is a closer look at how a grape’s development affects the resulting wine.
Sniffing The Cork, Screwcap Closures and the Facts About Wine Headaches
MEMBERS ONLYInterestingly, a cork may smell “tainted” and the wine below it might be just fine, or, better said the wine in the bottle may be below your TCA threshold.
The Facts About Wine Headaches
FREEI’ve seen a few of these kinds of articles (ahem, I mean advertisements) floating around on the internet and it always results in an epic Wine Wizard “facepalm” upon reading. For starters,
Screwcap Closures
MEMBERS ONLYThose are all great questions, let me see which order I’ll tackle them in. Firstly, we discuss corks for the most part on the pages of WineMaker Magazine not because they’re the only closure choice out there available to winemakers but because they’re simply the easiest closure for home winemakers, i.e. winemakers that typically bottle
Sniffing The Cork
FREEYou are more in the right here than your brother; when buying wine at a restaurant you really just smell and taste the wine. If the wine smells and tastes fine to