Oct-Nov 2025
Fine Wine in Less Time
When you want a finished wine quicker, there are techniques and products to help speed along the process of wine from grapes without sacrificing quality. It’s not cutting corners, it’s about working smarter.
Chaptalization — How Far Can You Go?
Adding sugar to bring up the Brix is necessary in parts of the world, especially during vintages with heavy rain. A Virginia winery did a study on the impact of adding different amounts and types of sugar, which home winemakers can take a page from when they have low-Brix grapes.
Lees: The Good, The Bad, & The Smelly
The benefits of aging white wine on the lees includes a softer mouthfeel, added weight and texture, added complexity, and a smoothing of the acids. However, if you aren’t careful it can also contribute to reductive qualities that can make a wine smell of rotten eggs.
Federweißer
Popular in parts of central Europe where it’s often sold from carts on the side of the road during a short period each fall, federweißer is a partially fermented, low-alcohol wine that is intended to be consumed before fermentation is complete.
Over-Oaked Chardonnay, Choosing Yeast, Hard Water, & Stuck Ferments
Always start small with additions — it’s much easier to add more than to take something out later. That said, the Wine Wizard shares advice for rescuing an over-oaked Chardonnay, along with tips on selecting yeast, managing hard water, and troubleshooting a stuck fermentation.
Jupiter: A table grape with BIG winemaking potential
Jupiter — a grape that gets its name from the girth of its berries — is often grown for eating, but the purple-skinned grape can also be turned into a lovely white or rosé wine.
Vintage Postmortem
With harvest behind us and our wines safely fermenting or in bulk storage, it’s time to reflect on the past year’s struggles and triumphs in the vineyard — and to take notes on what can be improved for next year.
School of Wine
We take you behind the scenes of a collegiate wine competition hosted by Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, with help from a local home winemaking club, where many schools with enology programs showcased their class-made wines.
Skin-Contact White Wines
Orange wine is made by treating white grapes in a similar manner to red wine production, with fermentation conducted on the skins. Even if orange wine isn’t the goal, allowing some skin contact with your white wines can enhance their aromatics.
MLF: Tips From the Pros
Two pro winemakers share their approach to conducting malolactic fermentation — one prefers to begin it a couple days after primary fermentation takes off, the other allows primary to finish before beginning the secondary malolactic fermentation.
Choosing Yeasts
Yeast selection is one of those underappreciated levers in winemaking that can really shape your finished wine. Flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, fermentation kinetics, and even clarity are all on the table. And you’re
Dealing With Hard Water
Great question — and you’re right to pause before filling up your winemaking bucket straight from the tap. While clean municipal water might be fine for drinking or dishwashing, it can introduce
Stuck Syrah Fermentation
Ah yes, the mid-ferment stall . . . so common, yet always a bit of a heart-stopper. When fermentation slows or stops around 5 °Brix, it’s usually a sign your yeast are
