Writer: Alison Crowe

The Wine Wiz explains the differences winemakers must consider when aging wine in smaller-volume oak barrels. She also troubleshoots an unwanted secondary fermentation, explains that all fermentations are “natural,” and offers tips for cold stabilization.

This is a great question, and one that touches on the beautiful interplay between wine and wood. The short version is that the smaller the barrel, the more oak contact your wine

Thanks for writing in with your fizzing rosé mystery. I can see why it caught you by surprise — there’s nothing quite like popping open a bottle you meant to be still

You’ve bumped into one of the more debated (and sometimes misunderstood) corners of winemaking: “Natural wine” and whether you need to inoculate with a known yeast strain. It’s a lively topic, and

Cold stability is one of those topics that sounds simple on the surface but gets tricky once you look at the details. What we’re trying to prevent is the formation of tartrate

Always start small with additions — it’s much easier to add more than to take something out later. That said, the Wine Wizard shares advice for rescuing an over-oaked Chardonnay, along with tips on selecting yeast, managing hard water, and troubleshooting a stuck fermentation.

You’re not the first winemaker to tumble into the oak pit. The short answer is: No, you can’t take the oak out — but you can try to balance things with a

Yeast selection is one of those underappreciated levers in winemaking that can really shape your finished wine. Flavor, aroma, mouthfeel, fermentation kinetics, and even clarity are all on the table. And you’re

Great question — and you’re right to pause before filling up your winemaking bucket straight from the tap. While clean municipal water might be fine for drinking or dishwashing, it can introduce

Ah yes, the mid-ferment stall . . . so common, yet always a bit of a heart-stopper. When fermentation slows or stops around 5 °Brix, it’s usually a sign your yeast are

The Wiz offers advice on maximizing color extraction and shares the impact temperature plays in it. Plus: How cold is too cold to age wine, why a wine may require long decanting times to open up, and techniques for taming tannins.

You’re absolutely right to be thinking about how temperature affects the color of your final wine, especially if you’re fermenting outdoors. How cold or how warm a fermentation is plays a huge

Greetings from right here in Napa! Like you, I bundled up a bit more this past winter and kept a close eye on cellar temperatures — it was definitely one of our

Congrats on crafting a bold Bordeaux-style blend with strong aroma and flavor! That’s no easy feat, especially when you’re juggling the powerful personalities of grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit

That long decant time you’re noticing — needing about three hours to “open up” in the glass — is something many winemakers (myself included) have encountered with young red wines, especially those

A 40-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon that’s now as white as a ghost? Oh no! The Wine Wizard gets to the bottom of this spooky phenomenon and also discusses the pros and cons of bottling wine in swing-top bottles and how to combat bottle shock.

A. Ah, the joys (and occasional shocks) of rediscovering long-forgotten bottles! Your 1984 Australian Cabernet, now ghostly pale with all its color settled at the bottom, is a fascinating case study in

Your switch from natural cork to swing-top bottles is an entirely reasonable one given your storage constraints, and you’ve taken the right steps to ensure your wine is kept in a stable

Sounds like you’ve been bottle shocked! That, and you are experiencing some post-bottling sedimentation. You’re not alone in this, my fellow winemaker. Many a vintner, professional and amateur alike, has been surprised

The Wine Wiz offers her wizdom to bring a tart wine into balance, as well as ways to add body to a wine and why non-alcoholic wine production should be left to the pros.

With the increasing popularity of non-alcoholic (NA) wines, it’s no surprise that home winemakers are wondering if they can craft their own. The short answer is that while it’s possible to remove

Enhancing the body of your grape wine with bananas is a time-honored technique among home winemakers. Bananas are rich in complex polysaccharides — long-chain sugars — that, when extracted, can impart a

Your wine’s sharpness after adding tartaric acid is a classic case of how pH and perceived acidity don’t always play by the same rules. You did the right thing for microbial stability

While there are a lot of urban myths surrounding winemaking, the one about racking under a full moon isn’t totally hogwash. Plus, what to do when your wine begins turning to vinegar, the specific gravity of a “dry” wine, and tips for making wonderful white wines.

While there is so much hooey out there about “don’t rack during a new moon” or “only bottle during a full moon,” the winemaking dictum you mention is based, at least loosely,