Writer: Dominick Profaci
Finding the Right Closure
MEMBERS ONLYYou have been diligent through every step of the process in making the best quality wine that is perfect for your palate. You have been a tireless caregiver, shepherding the growth and evolution of this living elixir for many months, even years, once you factor in bulk and possibly barrel aging, and it is finally
Go Big at Home
MEMBERS ONLYFirstly let me define what I mean by “big batch” for this discussion. Let’s say a big batch is anything larger than a 6-gallon (23-L) carboy of wine. Many home winemakers begin their journey in the winemaking hobby by trying their hand at 6-gallon (23-L) and sometimes even 1-gallon (4-L) batches. Some winemakers find these
Devise a Home Vineyard Spray Program
MEMBERS ONLYSo you have decided to elevate your hobby to the point of growing your own fruit for winemaking? This is a huge step that should not be taken lightly. Once you plant that first vine you have entered the world of farming. Farming is by no means something for the faint of heart. There are
One Grape, Many Styles
FREEThere are many reasons that 10 wines made from the same grape may taste completely different, and often it is because the winemaker planned for them to. Learn about how the location a grape is grown, as well as the decisions a winemaker must make, impact the outcome of a wine.
Single-Batch Bottle Variability
MEMBERS ONLYIf you’ve ever opened multiple bottles of wine made from the same batch and noticed they don’t taste identical, then you, too, have experienced bottle variability. Learn the potential causes and ways to alleviate variability among your bottles.
Field Blending
MEMBERS ONLYBlends are most often made from varietal wines prior to bottling, but field blending, where all of the varieties are harvested and fermented together, has its own benefits.
A Year in a the Life of a Wine: Part II (Grape Processing)
MEMBERS ONLYA look at processing grapes after harvest.
A Year in a Home Vineyard
MEMBERS ONLYGrapevine Dormancy The beginning of the calendar year in my Hyde Park, New York home vineyard is when the vines are in dormancy. This is a period of time when the grapevine rests and reserves its stored energy for the upcoming growing season. After harvest, the grapevine’s focus turns to expanding its root system and
Starting a Winemaking Club
MEMBERS ONLYSo you truly enjoy making your own wine. You’ve been making wine for years, or maybe have just made a couple of wine kits. What’s next? Where might you learn more or gain even a higher appreciation of your hobby? Consider a winemaking club. Making wine is fun whether you like to make it alone
A Year in the Life of a Wine: Part I Starting in the vineyard
MEMBERS ONLYIn the first installment of our new year-long series of how a homemade wine is made from homegrown grapes, we check in with the grapes at a most critical time — harvest.
Year in a Life of a Wine: Part III (Testing & Adjusting)
MEMBERS ONLYIn the third installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, we check in on batches of red, white, and rosé wines happily fermenting away.
Year in a Life of a Wine Part V (Cellar Work)
MEMBERS ONLYIn the fifth installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, the wines are put through malolactic fermentation and cold stabilized.
Year in the Life of a Wine: Part IV (Good Fermentations)
MEMBERS ONLYIn the fourth installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, it’s time to check on finished fermentations and prune the grapevines.
Year in a Life of a Wine Part VI (Bulk Aging and Bottling)
MEMBERS ONLYIn the final installment of our year-long series, the wines are bulk aged, oaked, and bottled.