Date: Feb-Mar 2007
Ozone Sanitation and Filtering Facts
MEMBERS ONLYQ I’ve heard that a lot of wineries are using ozone for their sanitation programs. I make about ten barrels of wine a year — should I buy an ozonator machine? Bernice MichelFillmore, California A Though ozone is an excellent tool for winery sanitation, the short answer is that unless you’ve got over fifty barrels
Mulled Wines: That Warm Fuzzy Feeling
FREEAs autumn rolls into winter, the average person’s appetite for a chilled white wine, ice-cold beer or slushy blender drink wanes. A hearty red wine with deep fruit and nice tannins can
I really want to filter my Chardonnay like the big wineries do. Are there small-scale filters for people who only make a barrel of wine?
MEMBERS ONLYWine 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 membrane filters that will exclude tiny things like yeast and bacteria cells, home winemakers can now filter like the big guys. Check online
I’ve heard that a lot of wineries are using ozone for their sanitation programs…
MEMBERS ONLYWine 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 probably are better off leaving the expensive machines to those that can justify the expense. The machines that generate ozonated water run in
Degassing Wine Kits with a Vacuum Pump
MEMBERS ONLYWhat could vacuums have to do with wine kits? While there have been times when a wet/dry vacuum would have been very helpful in my wine cellar, there is a specific benefit a bit of vacuum can have for kit winemakers. In commercial wineries, it usually takes a year or more to get wine ready
Alternate Degassing for Wine Kits
MEMBERS ONLYWhat could vacuums have to do with wine kits? While there have been times when a wet/dry vacuum would have been very helpful in my wine cellar, there is a specific benefit a bit of vacuum can have for kit winemakers. Regular readers will recall my article “Degassing Your Kit Wines,” in the October-November 2005
A Home Winemaker Turns Pro…At Home
MEMBERS ONLYI’m sure many a home winemaker has thought, “I wonder what it would be like to make this a full-time job?” Well, I took the plunge and that’s exactly what I did. I had been making wine for quite some time, but not in any real capacity. Sure there’s the stain on the ceiling of
The Biology of Malolactic “Bugs”
FREEIn this excerpt from the technical binder “Malolactic Fermentation in Wine” (Lallemand, 2005) written for commercial winemakers, researchers at Lallemand, Inc. offer an insider’s view of the more technical aspects of malolactic