Techniques
Making Late Harvest Wines: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYLate harvest wines are made using grapes affected by the mold Botrytis, which dehydrates the grapes. We’ve pooled advice from three pros with numerous accolades for their dessert wines to help you make an award-winning late harvest wine at home. Joe Hudon is entering his 5th harvest as the Winemaker at Claar Cellars, an estate
Using Outside Labs to Run Analysis Tests on your Wine
MEMBERS ONLYThere is lots of information out there about how to run various juice and wine analytical procedures at home if you want to do that. If you do not want to run the tests but you are interested in the answers, you may live in an area that has a commercial or university laboratory that
A Year in a Home Vineyard
MEMBERS ONLYGrapevine Dormancy The beginning of the calendar year in my Hyde Park, New York home vineyard is when the vines are in dormancy. This is a period of time when the grapevine rests and reserves its stored energy for the upcoming growing season. After harvest, the grapevine’s focus turns to expanding its root system and
Tannin Additions in Wine Kits
MEMBERS ONLYYou might not achieve perfection on the first try, but it’s certain that changing up your game can make a huge difference to your finished kit wine. What kind of difference? You can make a difference so big that when you’re done it might seem like a completely different wine altogether. When you know the
Top 100 Wine Kits 2014
MEMBERS ONLYThis past April 2014, over 50 experienced judges evaluated a total of 1,460 wine kit entries as part of the 2014 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the competition from across North America. The 1,460 wine kit entries were entered in 37 different categories and represented a
Vineyard Winter Maintenance: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYAll done using their energy to grow shoots, grapes and leaves, vines in the winter begin storing water prior to the first frost and then go into dormancy. That doesn’t mean those who look after the vineyard lay dormant though. Peter Brehm is the owner of Brehm Vineyards and also grows grapes at his White
Co-Inoculation with Wine Yeasts and Bacteria
MEMBERS ONLYAsk 5 winemakers and you may get 6 opinions about co-inocculation. But what does the science say?
Maintaining a Home Wine Cellar
FREEHere are some tips and suggestions on cellaring your homemade wine and maintaining the cellar itself. The cellar “The cellar” has a wide range of interpretations for home winemakers. If you have
Home Vineyard Extreme Cold Weather Tips
MEMBERS ONLYIn this article I will discuss the degrees of cold temperature damage that can occur in grapevines, techniques to assess that damage, and ways to increase the likelihood that your remaining live vines will have the best possible outcome during the growing season. I will also discuss some preventive measures that can be used to
Oxidation in Winemaking
MEMBERS ONLYThe early signs of oxidation are orange to brown colors developing in your wine. In white wine, the same exact wine (pictured above) can go from white (left) to brown (right) if oxygen exposure is not prevented. Image by Mick Rock/Cephas Library Based on what I have seen in wine competition results and from my
Winemaking Tips from Bordeaux
MEMBERS ONLYBordeaux. The mere mention of the name conjures up images of centuries-old chateaus, pristine vineyards and superlative wines that have set the highest standards the world over. Bordeaux wine styles are the dreams, the ultimate goal of Cabernet and/or Merlot winemakers everywhere. Whether the wines are called Cabernet–Merlot blends, Meritage, or simply Bordeaux-style blends, the
Adding Sugar to your Wine
MEMBERS ONLYStep 1: Measuring What You Have The first step in figuring out how much sugar to add is to find out how much is present in the starting material/juice. These days, most suppliers of grape juices provide the buyers with the sugar concentrations of the juices we buy — either as weight percent or (equivalently)
Fermenting & Degassing Wine Kits
FREEIn this article I’m going to go into detail on the reasons behind two of the four most confusing concepts in kit winemaking: 1) Temperature, and why higher is better, and 2)
Bulk Wine Aging
MEMBERS ONLYThere is more to cellaring bulk wine than meets the eye. Home winemakers heave a sigh of relief when the last of the harvest processing is done, but the job is not over. The wine is put away in carboys, demijohns, tanks, or barrels and we hope it stays safe through the winter and spring.
Drought Strategies for Grape Growing
MEMBERS ONLYHere is one truism of farming: Being prepared is always preferable to trying to fix an unexpected problem. Understanding the water needs of a grapevine is an important step to using as much supplemental irrigation in your small vineyard as needed, but not an amount that is either wasteful or actually reduces the quality of
Native American Grape Varietals
MEMBERS ONLYBotanists tell us that grapes are members of the genus Vitis, and the well-known European grape varieties are members of the species vinifera. (In case you’ve forgotten, a species is one rung lower in the botanical classification system than a genus.) When the Europeans first came to the New World, they found grapes growing in great profusion
Rosé Techniques Roundtable
MEMBERS ONLYAsking a winemaker if they make rosé should be like asking a winemaker if they drink beer. The two beverages, pink wine and a tasty lager, belong in any cellar and in any winemaker’s glass. Why? Quite simply, rosé (and beer) is easy to make, quick to bottle, quick to market (or mouth) and delicious
Making Varietal Honey Mead
MEMBERS ONLYHoney is a complex mixture of sugars, flavors from the pollen as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. The majority of the honey found in grocery stores is Wildflower honey, which is a blend of different honeys made with the goal of producing honey that is consistent in flavor and color. This
Bottling Your Wine
MEMBERS ONLYAs renowned French wine scientist Emile Peynaud wrote, “Bottling is a very stressful operation for a wine and the enological problems it causes are numerous: Considerable oxygen uptake, keeping out microorganisms and particles in suspension by filtering, constant struggle to prevent any contamination of yeasts by the apparatus itself, cleanliness of the glass, efficiency of
Tomato, Jalapeño, Dandelion Wines: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYLooking to try something new? You can make unique and wonderful wines from plants found in your garden or even growing wild in your backyard. Winemaker and Owner of TSJ Wine Blenders in Roseville, Michigan. Tom began as a home winemaker about 1990 utilizing grapes from his father’s small farm. Compliments on their wines led
Storing Wine Ingredients
MEMBERS ONLYMake wine at home for a few years and you will probably accumulate a lot of stuff. Pieces of equipment join the collection as the needs and resources come up. Consumable supplies are not always packaged for single-use applications and the leftovers hang around. Maintenance and cleaning supplies are often cheaper in larger packages, so
Build a Backyard Vineyard Sprayer
MEMBERS ONLYParts and equipment list Trailer: Small utility trailer kit ¾-inch treated plywood decking (2) wide turf tires Spray system: 35-gallon (132-L) poly tank (2) bulkhead fittings PTO (power take off) roller pump 40-ft. (12 m) ¾-inch 300 psi sprayer hose In-line strainer 300 psi pressure regulator 200 psi pressure gauge with “T” fitting (6) sprayer
Zinfandel Wine Case Study
FREEYou’ve heard over and over the importance of taking notes during winemaking. But what do you do with those findings? Follow along with the process of professional winemaker to find out.
Starting a Winemaking Club
MEMBERS ONLYSo you truly enjoy making your own wine. You’ve been making wine for years, or maybe have just made a couple of wine kits. What’s next? Where might you learn more or gain even a higher appreciation of your hobby? Consider a winemaking club. Making wine is fun whether you like to make it alone
Making Apple Wine: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYWhen life gives you apples … Get tips on making various apple wine styles from the winemakers at Door Peninsula Winery (who makes sweet and a dry, barrel-aged version), Brookview Station Winery (semi-dry) and Domaine Pinnacle (apple icewine). Paul Santoriello has been involved in all facets of the wine industry including vineyard work, research, sensory