Writer: Alison Crowe
Fining Red Wines
MEMBERS ONLYRed wines are typically not fined as often as white wines, to which we often add bentonite in order to remove potentially haze-causing proteins. The tannin from the skins of red wines
Overspiced Situation, Fining Reds, Brown Whites
MEMBERS ONLYSpices and other added flavorings in home winemaking are one of the trickiest things to get right.
Use Of Bleach In A Winery
MEMBERS ONLYMy rule is no chlorine bleach in my wineries, never, nohow. Anything containing chlorine might contribute to the dreaded “corked wine aroma,” 2-4-6 trichloroanisole (TCA), in your finished wines. It can be
Questionable ‘Premium’ Grapes
MEMBERS ONLYThat’s an interesting data set you present there. What I’m about to tell you, please take with many grains of salt because I am not privy to the growing locations of your
Fining Fruit Wines, Sourcing Grapes, and Cleaning Agents
MEMBERS ONLYWine clarifiers, or ‘fining agents’ as they (and a whole host of other wine-finishing additives) are called, are creatures of degrees.
Ripper Test On Red Wine
MEMBERS ONLYThe short answer to your question: yes, if you dilute your wine sample before running a Ripper analysis for SO2, you then need to multiply your result by the dilution factor you
Wine Pump Options
MEMBERS ONLYWow, can I fly to the Philippines for a little research and equipment-scouting trip? We can sample some of your wine, do a little research into tropical fruit winemaking, go see what
How To Date A Country Wine
MEMBERS ONLYWell well, what do you know? That’s a question I’ve never been asked before in all my years of writing this column! The spirit of the vintage laws for commercial wine is
Soapy Taste, Wine Pumps, and Testing Sulfite
MEMBERS ONLYI suspect you’ve got a fatty acid issue caused by your stuck/sluggish fermentation. S. cerevisiae can emit fatty acids when under fermentive stress . . .
Perfecting Pyment, Vinifera Vines, and Over-Yeasting
MEMBERS ONLY. . . you could also buy some powdered grape tannin, use oak chips, or even use a cup of strong black tea to add some tannin backbone to the wine if it’d be tough for you to obtain grape skins.
Over-yeasting?
MEMBERS ONLYThere are a few effects on a wine if you add more yeast. Number one, the fermentation might start a little faster and go to completion faster because there are simply more
Bottle Selection For Sparkling Wine
MEMBERS ONLYAh, the Wiz has visions of broken bottles in your future and it’s a prognostication I wouldn’t like to see become reality. Let’s just say my Fermentation Magic 8 Ball says, “See
Vinifera in Florida?
MEMBERS ONLYI would be very cautious (or at least very realistic) about buying Vitis vinifera vines for your Florida vineyard. Most states in the country have their own burgeoning vineyard and winery region
Post-Fermentation Acid Adjustments
MEMBERS ONLYI would only adjust with tartaric acid, and not an “acid blend” that contains either malic or citric acids. Both of the latter can be fermented by organisms in the bottle. On
Finding Ideal SO2 Levels
MEMBERS ONLYYou do an excellent job of outlining one of the major conundrums we all experience in the winemaking world. How much SO2 do we need to add to our wines to keep
What Kind Of Water To Use In My Wine Kit
MEMBERS ONLYTo address your first question: A chemistry teacher in high school once mentioned that since distilled water was free of minerals and many dissolved gasses, it behaved differently in osmotic equilibrium situations
Making Muscat, Battling VA, Finding Ideal SO2 Levels
MEMBERS ONLYNo matter which strain you use, be sure that you read up on all the specifications from the manufacturer around ideal performance conditions.
Color Problems In My Pinot Noir
MEMBERS ONLYI had this exact problem happen to me this year with one of my lots of Russian River Pinot. Thankfully, the original brick-red color disappeared and was replaced by bright red once
Transporting Wine
MEMBERS ONLYWhen moving wine, the main thing to be concerned about is temperature change and since you’ve got carboys, spillage! For the first factor, any kind of moving truck where the back payload
Harvesting Decision Making
MEMBERS ONLYThat is indeed a situation I face every year and is part of the delicate dance of being a winemaker. As many of my readers know, I believe that picking is the
Fun With Filtration, When To Harvest, and Transporting Wine
MEMBERS ONLY. . . a lot of sediment we find in wines actually forms after the wine is bottled, and is nothing that filtration can control.
Growing Grapes In Albuquerque
MEMBERS ONLYI’m thrilled for your new move because Albuquerque is just about as far north in New Mexico as you want to be planting traditional wine grapes of Vitis vinifera. Many grape types
Sluggish Fermentation Woes
MEMBERS ONLYHmmm, it sounds like you’ve got a little bit of sugar left there. I would start, however, with a quick check of your numbers to be sure. A °Brix of -1.0 (0.995
Hangover Myths Revealed
MEMBERS ONLYI just read the article you refer to, which seems to claim that “natural wine” (an ill-defined term, which in the article seems to mean “minimal sulfites added except at bottling” or
Brett in the Winery, Hangover Myths, and Grapes In Albuquerque
MEMBERS ONLYBrettanomyces is often an ambient microbe in the air we breathe, but that’s no reason to go inviting concentrated and healthy stocks of it into your cellar.