Topic: Winemaking from Grapes

Buying grapes from a supplier allows access to varieties from regions of the world that would otherwise be inaccessible to home winemakers. We lay out seven critical points to consider before making your purchase.

Going directly to the source to buy your grapes from local vineyards allows home winemakers to work with grapes harvested the same day, though it requires a lot of legwork at the quantities amateurs are after. Get advice to make the task easier.

After pressing grapes for wine, a home winemaker decided seven years ago to add the pomace to their fresh-pressed apple juice to learn the impact it would have on cider production. They’ve continued this experiment every year since, with some variation, and are sharing the results.

There’s an ancient tradition of making wine using skins “donated” from other fermentations and projects. The one you list above is one such scenario. The most well-known incidence of this practice includes

Whole cluster fermentation — fermenting grapes without crushing and destemming them first — is a technique that has been around for ages. Let’s take a deep dive into the benefits of this technique, what the research says, and whether you may want to consider whole cluster fermentation at home.

Two pros share why they prefer whole cluster fermentations for certain varieties, the impact it has, and considerations home winemakers should make if they plan to forgo the crush.

Making small adjustments to a wine the moment they are needed, as opposed to one large adjustment prior to bottling, will result in a more cohesive wine. A couple of award-winning home winemakers share when you should assess your wine and what to look for.

I don’t know how many cases of rosé wine are consumed in the United States each year, but I know it’s a heck of a lot. Pooh-poohed in the past as cheap

Over the last decade or so, the word “terroir” has become the buzz word not just among wine lovers, but the greater agricultural world. Bob Peak walks us through several real-world examples of expressing terroir when making a red wine.

Bleeding off a percentage of juice early during a red wine’s fermentation both concentrates the remaining juice and offers a chance to make a second wine from the bled portion. Learn when and how to employ this French winemaking technique at home.

Most red winemakers will begin alcoholic fermentation shortly after the grape clusters are pressed. But there are some alternative techniques that can be utilized pre-fermentation to try to bring distinctive character to the wines they produce.

Finding high-quality grapes, even in wine country, can be a challenge for new winemakers. Get some advice for sourcing fresh grapes, no matter where you live, as well as how to handle the grapes to get them home safely.

Though its reputation may have been tarnished by a certain movie after the turn of the century, Merlot continues to be one of the most popular wine grapes in the world. Winemakers from France, Italy, and the United States share advice on crafting a memorable Merlot at home.

Making red wine from hybrid grapes can sometimes be a challenge, but the rewards are also tremendous. The first steps? Forget what you know about making wine from vinifera grapes and embrace the unique characteristics hybrids often have.

Indeed, the last few years (2017 and 2020 especially) grape growing areas in Northern California and other parts of the state including the Central Coast have experienced historically large wildfires. If grapes

Sometimes local AVA (American Viticultural Area) groups will have data available on their websites or emails available to members (the latter is the case with, for example, Napa Valley Vintners). For the

No matter how much you plan, the grapes received at harvest are not always as expected. It’s time to adjust on the fly, and there’s also a plan for that!

A group of winemakers create eight wines from the same grapes to explore the impact of each process.

As an agricultural product, the steps to make that perfect wine may be unique every year due to differences in the fruit. The most challenging growing seasons really force winemakers to test their skill as they face tough, on-the-fly decisions. One winemaker takes us behind the scenes during one such vintage.

Hybrid grapes pose certain challenges to winemakers including higher acidity and lower tannins. Three cool-climate winemakers share their advice to create a balanced wine from these grapes.

Vitis vinifera grapes are often thought to be the species used to make wine in the premier wine regions, while French-American hybrid grapes are those used in regions vinifera grapes can’t be grown. However, each species brings something unique to the bottle and it may just be that blending grapes of both species will result in just what your wines need.

Not every harvest is going to be perfect. When the grapes come in at less than ideal numbers or with other “flaws,” make sure you’re well positioned and able to make the best of an inferior harvest. Plus, learn how to identify what went wrong in the vineyard so the same mistakes aren’t repeated in future vintages.

Terroir has been a bit of an esoteric topic for a long time in winemaking. But as we come to learn more about it we are figuring out ways to use it to our advantage. Learn techniques to express terroir in your white wines.

To quote one of my vineyard colleagues who always likes to give multiple sides to every answer, “It depends” (thanks, Rich). And so it is with pectic enzymes in winemaking. Pectic enzymes

Firstly let me define what I mean by “big batch” for this discussion. Let’s say a big batch is anything larger than a 6-gallon (23-L) carboy of wine. Many home winemakers begin