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Writer: Alison Crowe

555 result(s).

A Ghost of Cabernet Past, Swing-Top Bottles & Bottle Shock

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.


Red Wine Lost Its Color

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


Using Swing-Top Bottles

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


Dealing with Bottle Shock

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


Taming Tartness, Adding Body, & Non-Alcoholic Wine

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.


Can I make non-alcoholic wine?

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


Adding body to wine

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


Taming Tartness

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

Topic(s):

Racking in Moonlight, Acetobacter, Fermenting “dry,” and White Winemaking

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.


Racking by the Light of the Moon

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,


Acetobacter Infections

The quick and dirty answer to your question, and quite possibly not the one you want to hear, is that you’re best off dumping your vinegar bottles of wine down the drain.


Determining when wine is “dry”

I definitely think you should wait for the fermentation to complete and then rack and add sulfur dioxide. I doubt you’ll have to add any sorbate to protect against a re-start fermentation


White Winemaking Advice

It seems like you’ve found something that works for your red grape winemaking — making additions based on your 36-lb. (16-kg) lugs of grapes. Your estimated yield for grapes fermented on the


Wine Consumer Myths

You’re a reader after my own heart! Yes, the wine industry seems to have made life more difficult for itself by inventing (and continuing to promulgate) a litany of “to dos” and


Lowering pH

Bravo to you for doing bench trials! If you’ve read my columns over the years you know that doing bench trials — that is, testing a wine treatment on a small scale

Topic(s):

Yeast Impact on MLF

I’m glad you wrote in this question. It points to the importance of thinking about our wines in the big picture sense (not to mention the importance of double checking before making


Dubunking Consumer Myths, Yeast Impact on MLF & pH Adjustments

If you sometimes prefer your red wines served a little on the cool side or are not afraid of buying high-end wines with screw cap closures, you aren’t alone! The Wine Wizard shares her “consumer myths” that need to be debunked. Plus, the role your yeast choice plays on malolactic fermentation, and advice on adjusting a high-pH juice.


Lowering pH

The pH of these grapes do seem high. For California grapes, I like to see whites in the 3.30–3.45 range and reds in the 3.45–3.65 range when picked. However, many of our

Topic(s):

Adding body to country wine

You are really onto something here! Water is added to recipes for many different reasons. If you’re making a wine with flowers or dry fruits (like dandelion wine or elderberry wine) you’ll


Understanding Degree Days

Interestingly, even though your heat summation units are low, you are close to the Pacific Coast so I am guessing your winters are mild. European grapevines (Vitis vinifera) grow at a minimum


Is chitosan safe for those with shellfish allergies?

Though I’m no medical doctor (and certainly don’t play one on TV), from what research I was able to pull together, if I personally had a shellfish allergy I would feel comfortable


Lowering pH, add body to to country wines, degree days, & chitosan

The Wizard offers advice on when and how to lower pH. She also suggests a remedy for thin country wines, explains why degree days are only part of the story when selecting grape varieties to grow, and whether chitosan is safe to use if one has a shellfish allergy.

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Browning in Red Wines, MLF Test Strips, & Maple Wine

The Wine Wizard fields questions on eliminating (and avoiding) browning in red wines, malolactic fermentation test strips, and techniques for making wine from maple sap.


Browning in Red Wines

There’s the old saw about the sow’s ear and the silk purse. It reminds me of my old adage of “never blend a loser,” which admonishes readers against blending bad wine into


MLF Test Strips

You are right, at WineMaker magazine we typically don’t want to advertise one product over another. That being said, we are always open to new advances and products that help our readers.


555 result(s) found.