On July 17 learn late season grape growing and harvest techniques for your small-scale vineyard with “Backyard Vines” Columnist Wes Hagen. Register now to grow and harvest the best wine grapes this year!
Winemaking Science
For winemakers who want to understand the “why” as much as the “how,” these stories dive into the deep end of the science involved when turning grape juice into wine.
Posts
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Technique
Impact of Oxygen on Winemaking
Oxygen’s presence or absence at the various stages of winemaking can have extraordinarily important and lasting effects on what our wines
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Technique
Monitoring & Adjusting pH
pH greatly affects the taste of wine as well as microbial stability. It can make the difference between drinking the wine or pouring it down
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Technique
Enzymes for Hobbyists
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Wine-wizard
Reducing Acidity of Wine
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Wine-wizard
Making Acidity Adjustments Post-Fermentation
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Technique
Mastering Wine Acid Balance
Sometimes the acidity of your grapes, juice, or wine will need to be adjusted. Learn some of the finer details surrounding how, and when, to
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Wine-wizard
Brown (Instead of Red) Wine
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Technique
Make Wines to Age
It starts with great fruit, but to make age-worthy red wine the winemaker must also consider acidity, tannins, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, cella
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Technique
In the Wine Lab
As a home winemaker, testing your wine for certain things like Brix and pH are critical, while other tests are optional. Get to know the equ
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Wine-wizard
pH Adjustments Post-MLF
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Wine-wizard
I accidentally made my sulfite solution at 20%. Is the wine still drinkable?
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Technique
Tannin Chemistry
Soft, silky, velvety, youthful, puckery, aggressive, harsh, bitter, astringent: These are all adjectives used in winespeak to describe the m
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Technique
Oak Barrel Chemistry
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Wine-wizard
pH of Non-Grape Wines
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Technique
The Home Wine Laboratory
Wine analysis can be expensive, but it is worth it. It helps you to understand what you are doing during production, aids in the diagnosis o
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Wine-wizard
Testing for Dryness, Empty Airlock: Wine Wizard
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Wine-wizard
Organic acid reduction, reusing corks: Wine Wizard
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Wine-wizard
Testing options for pH and TA
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Wine-wizard
How can I fix a wine with high pH and low TA?
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Wine-wizard
High pH, low TA, bottles: Wine Wizard
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Technique
Myth Busting
Looking for the truth in traditional practices can teach us not only some valuable winemaking techniques, but also give us some insight into
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Technique
Harvest Planning
The better you plan for grapes to come in, the smoother the big day of harvest and crushing grapes will go. Do you have all of the equipment
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Wine-wizard
Why are my TA readings off?
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Wine-wizard
What could cause the acid levels in my wine to rise as it ages?
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Technique
The Biology of Malolactic “Bugs”
An insider’s view of the more technical aspects of malolactic fermentation (MLF).