Articles

Two pro winemakers share advice for home winemakers to make sweet wine at home

Seyval blanc (say-VAHL blahnk) is a hybrid, the product of intentional breeding to blend and express desirable traits from the parent vines. And unfortunately, hybrids often get no respect in the world

You have several options when it comes to making a rosé wine. Learn three of the most common techniques here.

Home winemakers often resort to a little blending to improve their wines — to add a little more body, tweak the acid balance or deepen the color, or just because it takes

Chardonnay is one of the world’s most popular wine grapes, as evidenced by widespread plantings in France, Australia, South Africa, South America and the United States. The grape is thought to have

When some Canadian friends learned that I was about to write an article on making icewine in a warm-weather climate, they almost had a cow. “Next, you’ll be telling us you can

Rioja has a long and interesting history — involving war, geographic isolation, restrictions on irrigation of vineyards and, of all things, inside-out pigs. Now, thanks to modernization, Rioja is reaching new heights.

Edelweiss is best known as the European mountain flower with a pleasing floral scent. The 1959 Rogers and Hammerstein musical, “The Sound of Music,” immortalized the Edelweiss flower as Captain Georg Ritter

Most books about home winemaking feature sections on “Making Red Wine” and “Making White Wine.” But when real, live vintners, amateur or professional, clean out their fermenters and get down to business,

Deeply saturated in color and crimson red is the first impression to hit your senses when glancing at Carmine. After a few swirls of the rich liquid in the wine glass, aromas

Karl Kaiser is co-founder of Inniskillin Wines of Niagara, Ontario. He was born in Austria and attended a monastery school where winemaking and viticulture was a tradition. He later received his B.S.

Learn about the different ways to make sparkling wine at home.

In Champagne, the French make bubbly using the méthode Champenoise. In your home, use this method.

Fresh, floral, citrus flavors with crisp acidity at a value price are the benchmarks for Colombard (pronounced Cole-um-bar or kahl-um-BARRD). It was the most widely planted white grape vine in California until

Learn about Norton grapes, an American original, plus how to make Norton wine.

Two professional Champagne-makers share their secrets for home winemakers.

In 1963, I first experienced the romance of wine in the form of a basket-covered Chianti bottle stuffed with a candle and covered in dripping wax. It sat on a red and

Port wines are steeped in history and date back to sometime in the 17th century. It is said that a partnership between the British and Portugal and a shortage of wine from

Just about everyone, wine consumer and abstainer alike, knows the name Concord. It may have been the first sip of wine to pass the lips of many beginner wine drinkers. Over 300,000

In her exhaustive survey of grapes and grapegrowing, Vines, Grapes and Wines, Jancis Robinson ends the chapter on Riesling with a summary that’s all-too-true: “Unbeatable quality; indisputably aristocratic. Ludicrously unfashionable.” Recognized by

 Syrah can do well in a wide variety of climates and produces wine in a number of styles, from drink-it-today fruity to structured and age-worthy. Syrah also blends well with Rhône varieties,

Pinot at a Glance Pinot Noir is a heralded red table wine. It is usually made in a dry style that features delicate fruit aromas and flavors. The wine typically has a

Learn to make your own Port-style wine at home.

Like the proverbial little girl with the curl, when it’s good, Gewürztraminer is very good; but when it’s bad, it’s awful. This noble white variety with the pinkish grapes can produce spectacular

In Spain, where many historians claim the variety originated, this versatile grape is called Garnacha. The rest of the world calls it Grenache … and home winemakers call it a great grape