Techniques
Balancing Fruit and Sugar in Country Wines
MEMBERS ONLYBob Peak digs into how much sugar is needed to get the desired alcohol level, and how much fruit is needed to offer a pleasing profile and aroma, flavor, and appearance when making country wines.
Troubleshooting Home Vineyards: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYTo make the best wine, you need the best grapes. And that requires a lot of work in your hobby vineyard. Get tips on what to look for and when to look for it so you stay one step ahead of potential problems that could derail your crop. Ed Kwiek established his own cold-climate home
Choosing and Using a Wine Pump
MEMBERS ONLYMany a home winery gets by just fine with no pump at all. If your hobby grows, though, you may find that many routine tasks are made simpler with the help of a wine pump. Some home winemaking jobs, like filtration or removing wine from barrels, may be virtually impossible without a pump. In commercial
Pairing Wine and Food: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYThere are many views on how to properly pair your wine and food for the most enjoyable dining experience. Three experts illustrate this while offering advice. Chef: Mark Molinaro, Northern Arizona University at the W. A. Franke College of Business’ School of Hotel and Restaurant Management professor The most basic principle in wine pairing is
Split Batch Wine Kit Experiments
MEMBERS ONLYWhen we tackle a big project it isn’t the immediate effort that pays off, but all of our work combined into one glorious enterprise. It’s the same with winemaking: A single effort to make better wine isn’t likely to pay big dividends, but persisting on a path of careful repeated efforts will yield big gains.
Oxygen Reduction in Winemaking
MEMBERS ONLYOxidation gets a lot of attention in winemaking — and it should! WineMaker magazine has covered oxidation issues from several different angles over the past few years. While some presence of oxygen in wine contributes positive effects, most of the time the home winemaker is excluding oxygen to avoid the browning, aldehyde formation, and spoilage
Wine Blending: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYVarietal wines are great, but there is only so much that can be done when working with a single grape variety. To create a truly complex wine, try blending multiple varieties that complement each other. Winemaker: Kimberlee Nicholls, Markham Cellars, Napa Valley, California True blends are very challenging to create. I approach blending like cooking; sometimes
Kit Winemaking Q&A
MEMBERS ONLYHere are some of the best wine kit-related questions we’ve received from readers. Now, on to the questions! QUESTION: A kit I received as a gift instructs me to start fermentation at a specific gravity (SG) of 1.048 to 1.052. I have made a number of their kits before but usually the starting gravity is
Small Space Winemaking Techniques
MEMBERS ONLYIn large wineries, functional spaces are usually separated. There may be a crush pad, one or more fermentation rooms, and a cellar or cave for barrel aging. Most of us at home do not have the luxury of large dedicated spaces for our winemaking hobby. Places need to do double or even triple duty. Some
Pesticides in the Vineyard: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYGrowing grapes is a lot of work. In addition to wildlife, many varieties are susceptible to disease that, if unprotected against, can claim your vines very quickly. Two pros from different regions detail how they protect their vines from disease. Winemaker: Bernie Parker, Oliver Winery, Bloomington, Indiana For south-central Indiana where we usually have cool,
Crafting Chardonnay: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYThere are many different techniques and styles to choose from when it comes to Chardonnay. Do you want a buttery, barrel-aged Chardonnay or a crisp, acidic one? When weighing your options, use this advice from two Chardonnay experts. Winemaker: Kristen Barnhisel, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, California Our Chardonnay is largely sourced from the Arroyo
Restart Stuck Fermentations
MEMBERS ONLYAll home winemakers wish — and strive — for fermentations that go smoothly and completely to the desired finish, usually dry wine. When things go wrong, a frequent problem is a stuck or sluggish fermentation. In his classic Knowing and Making Wine, Emile Peynaud refers to these conditions as “fermentation stoppage” and calls that a
Making Port-Style Wine: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYPort is a fortified wine made in Portugal, but many North American winemakers are making their own versions. Use their advice to try your own Port-style wine! Winemaker: Matt Meyer, Meyer Family Cellars, Yorkville, California For Port wines we are big fans of Syrah and have had good results with it, but I find the
Post-Fermentation Wine Adjustments
MEMBERS ONLYOur job isn’t finished when fermentation is over. With many wines, especially reds, you may want to go ahead and do a malolactic (ML) fermentation as well. And during cellaring you need to keep your sulfite program up to avoid oxidation and spoilage. Along the way, though, you may want to make some other significant
Controlling Brettanomyces: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYBrettanomyces has been known to take hold of wines —and entire wineries — destroying countless hours of hard work that was put into creating these wines. However, there are also regions in the world such as Bordeaux where Brett is an accepted characteristic found in many of the finest wines. So what do the pros
Making White Wines from Red Grapes
MEMBERS ONLYAs I started working on this story, a surprising question occurred to me: “What makes wine white?” “The color” seems obvious when you look at a restaurant wine list or walk up to the bar at a wedding reception, but for a technical column like this, I needed to dig a bit deeper. In Knowing
Making Wine from Stone Fruit: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYStone fruits (those with pits like cherries, peaches, plums, etc.) are generally off-dry to sweet wines that are easy to enjoy on a warm summer evening. Two pros share advice on making your own version at home. Winemaker: Lewis Eaton, Sweet Baby Vineyard, in Hampstead, New Hampshire We make two peach wines — our White
Volatile Sulfur Compounds and Hydrogen Sulfide in Wine
MEMBERS ONLYIf you have ever encountered volatile sulfur compounds in wine, of which hydrogen sulfide is the most common, you know how repulsive the smell can be. It can shoot one’s anxiety up a few notches because it always seems to catch you by surprise, and that the source of the problem is often difficult to
Degassing Wine Techniques
MEMBERS ONLYIt its simplest, degas means “to remove gas from.” While the practice can apply to any unwanted gas, we have a very specific objective in mind in winemaking. We mean to remove excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from a wine during production. Why we do this may be a bit more subtle than it looks at
Making Off-Dry White Wine: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYThere is a lot more to off-dry wines than what you may perceive from mass-produced discount bottles from the supermarket. A little sweetness with balanced acidity can add complexity and create a whole new tasting adventure. These aren’t the easiest wines to make, but they are rewarding on a summer day. Winemaker: August Deimel, Keuka
Sugar and Acid Wine Adjustments
MEMBERS ONLYPerfectly ripe. That is how most winemakers — amateur and professional — want the grape crop to come in for every vintage. “Perfectly ripe” involves a whole host of factors. For home winemakers, the first one we usually look at is the sugar content in degrees Brix or specific gravity (SG). With some target in
Cold-Climate Grape Growing: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYEven the most ideal climates for growing grapes face certain hardships, but growing vines in colder climates definitely have more than their share. Get tips on what to grow and what precautions to take from three pros in various colder climates. Winemaker: Coenraad Stassen, Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery, Traverse City, Michigan There are just
Home Winemaking Quality Control
MEMBERS ONLYWhen the editors at WineMaker suggested quality control (QC) for a story, I was delighted to take it on. I have a long personal and professional history with QC and it infuses most of my activities — including my fermentation hobbies. Before joining the world of winemaking, I put my chemistry degree to work in
Winemaking Outside of Harvest
MEMBERS ONLYLots of home winemakers concentrate their efforts in tune with the natural seasons. They make all of their wine in the harvest months of August, September, and October using seasonally available just-picked wine grapes. (Full disclosure: That is my most frequent pattern, too. I live in Sonoma County, California, and have a hobby vineyard in
Matching Wine Style to Vineyard Site
MEMBERS ONLYWhat kind of wine do you want to make? What kind of wines do you and your guests like to drink? Luscious, soft, fruity? Lean, austere, earthy? Tannic, sturdy, powerful? We can encourage these characteristics in the cellar, but, as with anything relating to a wine, the most crucial parts happen in the vineyard.