Writer: Daniel Pambianchi
The Phenol Phenomenon
MEMBERS ONLYA saturated, dark-ruby colored, full-bodied wine with a velvety texture and round mouthfeel, oodles of blackberry aromas and oak flavor overtones with just a hint of spiciness, all with a persistent, memorable finish. The young, yet soft and elegant tannins make this wine approachable now but it will improve with time and can last another
Using Fining Agents
FREEPesky cloudy wines! Sediments in the bottle! There is nothing more frustrating to home winemakers than a wine that will not clear or that continues to throw sediments in the bottle. Making
Luscious Port Wine
FREELearn to make your own Port-style wine at home.
Upgrade Your Home Winery
MEMBERS ONLYIf you are like most home winemakers, you’ve been making great wines from concentrate and juice, and you also may have experimented with small batches of grapes. Now you want to increase your production. Or you want to try different styles of wine and master some sophisticated techniques. Or perhaps your love for winemaking is
Measuring Residual Sugar
FREEYou are interested in your friend’s opinion on your most recent vintage — most likely a wine you have assessed to be your best ever. You meticulously withdraw a sample and pour
Building a Cool Cellar
MEMBERS ONLYI can still remember the days when my father served his wine straight from the “cellar.” It was really a cold room, which meant the temperature of the wine would follow our Montreal weather — very cold in the winter and hot in the summer. As I moved into an apartment, and later on into
Barrel Care Techniques
FREEDo you yearn to create oak-style wines that rival Bordeaux first growths, Super Tuscans, or the so-called California cult wines, but have been hesitant to invest time and effort to care and
Who Wants to be a Winemaker?
MEMBERS ONLYDo you know why two identical grape varieties from geographically similar viticultural areas will turn out different wines? Or, could you correlate a wine’s quality and aging potential to its acidity, pH and sulfite level? And do you know what corrective action would be required to lower the pH in a high-pH wine? How would
Using Variable-Volume Fermenters
FREEI have counted over fifty glass containers in my home winery! Shapes and sizes range from one-gallon (4-liter) jugs to 5-gallon (19-liter) carboys and 14-gallon (54-liter) demijohns. This huge collection of containers
pHiguring out pH
FREEGet an understanding of pH, why it’s important, how to measure pH, and how to correct it.
Solving the Sulfite Puzzle
FREELet’s try to demystify sulfite by reviewing some fundamental chemistry. This will help us understand how sulfite protects wine and how much “free SO2” we are introducing into our wine.
Choosing a Filtering System
FREEWinemaking is not a science but rather an art. There are many opinions on the pros and cons of the various processes that winemakers use. The subject of filtration is one such
The Strain Game
MEMBERS ONLYWine is made in the vineyard. “It’s the terroir,” the French will say. Or is it the winemaker’s craftsmanship that makes the wine? What gives wine its bouquet, aroma, structure and balance? That’s a much-debated topic in winemaking circles. In spite of the many opinions, no one can dispute this fact: You need to select