Aug-Sep 2022
Live Chat with Clark Smith
Live chat with Clark Smith, which took place September 28, 2022.
Live Chat Roundtable with Frank and Christina Musto and Frank Renaldi
Live chat with Frank and Christina Musto and Frank Renaldi, which took place August 30, 2022.
Pressing Like the Pros: Tips from the Pros
Do you whole-cluster press? Separate free-run juice and press fractions? Maximize juice collection through high pressure? There are a lot of decisions to make while pressing that will have a big impact on the final outcome of your wine. We put the squeeze on three pro winemakers to share their pressing tips.
Determining Ripeness in Wine Grapes
There is no more critical step in winemaking than picking at the often-fleeting correct moment. Yet ripeness determination is poorly understood and the associated picking logistics are often incompetently executed.
2022 WineMaker Magazine Conference Recap
Hundreds of home winemakers gathered in San Luis Obispo, California for WineMaker’s conference, where they took part in educational seminars, hands-on workshops, and shared their passion for wine.
When Grapes Throw You for a Curve
No matter how much you plan, the grapes received at harvest are not always as expected. It’s time to adjust on the fly, and there’s also a plan for that!
Group Winemaking
A group of winemakers create eight wines from the same grapes to explore the impact of each process.
A Professional Hobby: Making wine in a dry county
When a young hobby winemaker finds out it is illegal to make wine at home in her city and county, she takes the next obvious step: She gets laws changed and starts her own commercial winery.
A Nitro Boost: Nitrogen’s role in primary fermentation
Wine was made for millennia with little intervention from humans. But let’s be honest, we have no idea how those wines tasted. Today we know that yeast create the wine and keeping them happy is crucial for producing good wine. Learn how nitrogen plays a pivotal role.
Harvest Checklist: Pre-planning for success
Why make harvest/crush day more stressful than it needs to be? With a solid game plan things should run smoothly. One of the best ways to get all your ducks in a row is to create a checklist so that no small details are overlooked.
Classic Catawba: America’s first true wine grape
Some people have called Zinfandel “America’s grape,” others say it should be Concord. Chik Brenneman is here to make the case for the first true North American wine grape variety: Catawba.
Bottling Tips and Checklist
I totally get it! There are some great articles about bottling in the WineMaker article archives at www.winemakermag.com. Though it’s a topic my fellow authors have covered before, I certainly can still
Learn Some Wine Judge Etiquette
Congrats on getting invited to your first ever wine judging! I’ve been judging wine competitions, both for home and commercial winemakers, for over 15 years now and they’re always a great way
Bottling Tips and Wine Judge Etiquette
Bottling is typically the final step towards producing wine where a winemaker can foul things up. Get some recommendations from the Wizard on when and how to bottle your wines. Also get some pointers on proper etiquette of being a wine judge.
Volatile Acidity Basics
It’s a dirty phrase in most winemaking circles, but volatile acidity is found in all wine and having a little can actually add complexity to a wine. Get the scoop on volatile acidity.
2022 WineMaker International Amateur Competition Results
From April 22-24, 2022, a total of 1,772 different wines were judged at the Mount Snow Grand Summit Lodge in West Dover, Vermont. This year’s competition was again the largest wine competition
