Topic: Home Winemaking Stories
Thinking Outside the Bottle: Presenting Your Homemade Wine
FREEWith the holiday season approaching, presenting your homemade wine to friends and family should be a point of pride. Bob Peak offers readers several pointers to take a fun and festive approach to an evening pairing of your wine with guests.
Doughboys Tribute Merlot
FREEI recently combined my winemaking hobby with the reverence I have for my ancestors who served in the military. Specifically, I made a batch of wine as a tribute to my three
Wine Cellar Build
FREEA reader’s basement renovation takes shape.
Meet the Blue Bulls Wine Co.
FREEMeet the Blue Bulls Wine Company, a group of New Jersey-based career first responders who also like to dabble in the art of winemaking. If you mess with these bulls, you may get a horn . . . of wine?
Swamp Donkey Vineyards: Growing Grapes in New England
MEMBERS ONLYA reader starts a vineyard in New England. “It is great to wake up in the morning, make a cup of coffee and walk out to the vineyard to check on the vines, training off shoots as I go along.”
Harrogate Wine Club: A Love For Wine Doesn’t Age
FREEWhen we are together bottling, corking and labeling the wine, we are all eager and happy to complete the project at hand, so we can enjoy the finished product.
Home Winery Names
MEMBERS ONLYWhat’s in a name? If it’s a homewinery, it could be almost anything. Home winemakers explain their winery’s name.
Wine in Cómpeta
MEMBERS ONLYA New World home winemaker retires to Spain and gets in touch with the Old World ways of winemaking.
Wine & Olympics
MEMBERS ONLYWinemaking and the Olympic sport of skeleton racing have more in common than you might think.
Crazy Cat Winery
FREEWilliam Ruting of North Carolina has two hobbies: winemaking and house cats . . . 25 house cats, that is.
Metamorphosis
MEMBERS ONLYJohn Bowen incorporated pieces of Atlanta wine history in his wine cellar.
Top 10 Winemaking Myths
MEMBERS ONLYAs in many fields — health promoting and weight-loss diets come to mind — that have grown from unfounded beliefs and around traditions, with newfound scientific knowledge proving or disproving long-held theories, the field of wine and winemaking has its share of myths, misconceptions and sheer quackery. To the uninitiated, enophiles can seem snobbish, often
Making Wine in Montana
FREEMontana is more than just the land of big skies — you can grow grapes there, too!
A Family Tradizione
MEMBERS ONLYA Brattleboro, Vermont man carries on his Italian family’s home winemaking tradition.
Grape Stomping Party
MEMBERS ONLYFor my birthday, I’d like to have a party where we step on grapes,” said my now fiancée four years ago. “Huh?” “Yeah, let’s step on grapes just like Lucille Ball did in that famous I Love Lucy episode.” And so started the tradition of our annual grape stomping party. At the time of the
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
Pruning the Avila Adobe Vine
MEMBERS ONLYIn January, Wes Hagen joined Los Angeles archivist Michael Holland to prune the historic 200-year-old Avila Adobe vine and explore the history of the city’s winemaking. The vine is located inside the courtyard of the oldest building in Los Angeles.
Tasting Party
MEMBERS ONLYHosting a wine tasting party for a handful of friends is one thing, but it’s another to host 150 guests.
Lessons from Somms Who Make Wines
MEMBERS ONLYThese three world-class sommeliers have taken the leap from designing restaurant wine programs and recommending bottles to growing grapes and making award-winning vintages of their own.
A One-Vine Vineyard
FREEAfter receiving little faith from his family, a man sets out to prove that he can make wine from the sole vine growing on their property. And so started a new hobby.
Pirate Wines in Colorado
FREERobert Archibald was asked to make the wines for his daughter’s wedding. But there was a catch — the wines had to pair with the pirate theme of the happy couple’s big day. Ahoy matey, that sounds like a challenge!
Wine is a Wonder
FREEAs a veteran winemaker, some of the initial joys of winemaking begin to fade, however as the winemaker understands more about the process and becomes more in tune with the wine, the potential for new astonishments arise.
Birthday Planning for a Winemaker
MEMBERS ONLYA Texas winemaker wanted to indulge a friend who has always wanted to make his own wine by buying a wine kit as a birthday gift. But little did she know all the choices she would need to make before settling on the right one!
Sacramental Wine
FREEA reader shares his journey down the road he traveled to produce a sacramental wine for his church. The lessons he learned during the production is of interest for all winemakers.
Wine Flirtation Gets Serious
FREEMost winemakers can trace their roots of making wine to either wine appreciation or their family. When the Milam family purchased a house with an established vineyard, the two themes combined, pushing the family from enophiles to dedicated vineyard managers and winemakers.