Writer: Dawson Raspuzzi

Country wines made with multiple fruit varieties can be blended prior to fermentation or after. Learn how two professional winemakers decide when to blend, as well as the other considerations they account for when making these lovely summer sippers.

Get tips on performing bench trials at home from three pros who utilize bench trials at their day jobs.

The Pearson Square is a tool to calculate the number of parts of two different solutions with different concentrations that are required to bring one of the solutions to a desired concentration. The Pearson Square can be intimidating to newbies, but when dissecting it piece by piece it is relatively straight-forward, and understanding it will pay dividends.

An introduction to fining wine with egg whites.

You make your own wine, but have you tried making cheese to go with it?

What does “topping up” mean and when should it be done?

Looking to try something new? How about making mead, also known as honey wine. Meads come in many different forms, from dry to sweet, with added fruit (melomel), malt (braggot), spices (metheglin)

Hard cider doesn’t have to be made from apples. Try making a pear cider (perry) this summer!

Four centuries after it was first believed wine grapes would be an agricultural staple in Virginia, early prophecies are a reality. Virginia is quickly emerging as an up and coming wine region

Making wine away from winemaking regions is becoming more popular. As these pros will tell you, urban winemaking comes with unique benefits and challenges. Jared Brandt and his wife, Tracey, are the

How should fruit be prepared before using it to make country wines? Let’s have a look…

Developed commercially 50 years ago, Chambourcin is a versatile grape that is most prevalently grown in the Mid-Atlantic. Producing deep red colors and strong aromas, Chambourcin grapes are used either to stand-alone

How do you know when it’s time to pull the trigger on harvest? Here’s an introductory look for your first harvest.

These three pros offer up tips to make your own sparkling wine at home. Steve DiFrancesco is the Winemaker for Glenora Wine Cellars in Dundee, New York. If you’re going for a

An introduction to what you’ll find in your first wine kit.

Sangiovese is primarily associated with wines from Italy, especially from the Tuscany region. However, there are also a number of vineyards in the New World growing Sangiovese. The 2012 California Grape Crush

An introduction to cleaning and sanitation for beginners.

To make good wine one must understand what good wine is and, alternatively, understand and be able to detect wine faults. Anyone can learn to evaluate wine, and as a winemaker it

Growing grapes organically, like any other crop, is often more work than using synthetic fertilizers, solutions and sprays. But in the end, many winemakers who embrace organic growing believe the resulting wines display the purity of the fruit the way that Mother Nature intended.

An introduction to preventing oxidation of your wine.

Whole cluster pressing (foregoing the step of crushing and destemming the grapes) is most often done to make high-end white wines. The technique creates a more delicate and less astringent wine by

Late harvest wines are made using grapes affected by the mold Botrytis, which dehydrates the grapes. We’ve pooled advice from three pros with numerous accolades for their dessert wines to help you

All done using their energy to grow shoots, grapes and leaves, vines in the winter begin storing water prior to the first frost and then go into dormancy. That doesn’t mean those

Learn how to stop fermentation before reaching dryness, plus when and why a winemaker may wish to do so.

Looking to try something new? You can make unique and wonderful wines from plants found in your garden or even growing wild in your backyard. Winemaker and Owner of TSJ Wine Blenders