Give the gift of Irresistible Flavour
A sweet and creamy wine that is a must for every dessert lover.
Best Enjoyed: Chilled on its own as an after-dinner indulgence or in a decadent White Chocolate Martini!
Food Pairings: Dark chocolate, hazelnuts, or salted cashews. Perfect for gifting, holiday entertaining, and as a compliment to holiday meals.
1 ½ oz
½ oz
1 oz
Add
White chocolate flavored wine
Vodka
White chocolate liqueur
White chocolate shavings, for garnish
Join WineMaker Magazine columnists live online on Friday, August 13 to cover strategies you can use to make your 2021 harvest a winemaking success! You’ll have the chance to learn and get your harvest winemaking questions answered by WineMaker’s expert columnists during this fivehour live online experience.
(ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC)
9 AM – 10 AM: Harvest-Time Troubleshooting with WineMaker’s “Wine Wizard” Columnist Alison Crowe
10 AM – 11 AM: Harvest Wine tyle Techni ue ecisions with WineMaker’s “Varietal Focus” Columnist Chik Brenneman
11 AM – 12 PM: Columnist Q&A with Attendees – Bring your best harvest winemaking questions and have the opportunity to ask them live with WineMaker Magazine Columnists: Chik Brenneman, Alison Crowe, Wes Hagen, and Bob Peak.
12 PM – 1 PM: ackyard ineyard Harvest Tips with WineMaker’s “Backyard Vines” Columnist Wes Hagen
1 PM – 2 PM: Harvest Ready: Prepping Equipment & Supplies with WineMaker’s Techni ues olumnist Bob Peak
2 PM – 2:30 PM: Top winners announced from 1 WineMaker Competition with WineMaker Publisher rad ing ind out first the top est of how winners from this year’s judging that took place uly 3- . full of all winners will also be made available for download online and judging notes will be mailed to entrants separately.
This workshop will be recorded so you can still learn with video replays even if you can’t join us live on ugust 13.
WineMakerMag.com/HarvestBootCamp
Looking for another hobby that can enhance your passion for winemaking? Try making your own sausage! Not only does sausage pair well with your wines, but you can even use your wine in the recipes.
by Bob Peak
As harvest nears it is time to make a plan of action for how you will proceed with each batch you plan to make this fall. With red wines there are many options. We take a closer look at cold soaking, extended macerations, and carbonic macerations.
by Dwayne Bershaw
Bird netting is essential to protect your precious grapes from birds after veraison. However, anyone with their own backyard vineyard knows how difficult it can be to apply the netting and also roll it up compactly for storage after harvest. With that in mind, a home winemaker came up with two DIYs to make the tasks easier.
by Richard HectorDESTEMMER CRUSHERS
ICEMASTER MAX 4
Cools 4 small fermenters using built-in pumps and temp controllers.
BLADDER PRESSES FROM SPEIDEL
PUMPS FOR MUST & WINE
STAINLESS
MINI CHILLY
German chiller that can cool up to four fermentations.
Top Quality Oak From One of The Most Respected Hungarian Coopers, Balazs Nagy. Sizes from 1 to 225 Liter available.
GLYCOL CHILLERS
Glycol chillers from 1 to 30 tons for commercial wineries... or really serious home winemakers!!
TANKS FROM SPEIDEL
8 MAIL
A reader seeks advice on how they can determine the variety of vines they believe are misidentified, and another wants to know how to determine how much alcohol the grape skins in wine kits can add to a wine.
10
thanol may be the most prominent and well-known alcohol in wine, but it is not the only one to play a large role in a wine’s character. Learn about the various alcohols, the story behind a label, and the latest products and events in the wine world.
14
Wine isn’t just the best beverage to pair with food, it’s also great to use as an ingredient in meals. With that in mind, we asked some experts in the kitchen for their advice when it comes to cooking with wine. White, red, or other, wines always have a place in the kitchen.
16 WINE WIZARD
Get some pointers and considerations a winemaker needs to keep in mind when topping off your aging wine vessels. The Wizard also answers uestions on fining agents and malolactic fermentation after cold stabilizing a wine.
20
The king of the white wines, hardonnay can be expressed in a wide array of styles. hik renneman takes readers on a journey through this grape’s story and tips to creating his favorite version of wine from hardonnay grapes.
47 TECHNIQUES
Terroir has been a bit of an esoteric topic for a long time in winemaking. ut as we come to learn more about it we are figuring out ways to use it to our advantage. Learn techniques to express terroir in your white wines.
50
There are a lot of en yme products available to winemakers, but in general they can be broken into just a few classes. Learn when and why a winemaker might use some of these various en ymes, especially during maceration.
56 DRY
Winemakers are known to sacrifice a lot in their pursuit to craft a uality wine. One winemaker found herself faced with an endurance challenge worthy of the show “Survivor” in order to save her babies (wines).
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My secret is extremely simple: Making wine so that the winemaker’s wife is happy! Most of us know that happy wife means happy life. Keeping good wine in the cellar at all times goes a long way in fi in t i prophesy.
Frequent topping and a little SO to avoid problems in the winery. Also, I need to be working on projects that excite me: Either new and exciting grapes or vineyards, or doing something different with grapes I’ve worked with in the past — fine t nin need to have a challenge or some goal to work toward in the winery — some unknown that will be revealed in the future — I’m not happy repeating the same thing over and over again, even though that might be ideal for expressing vintage differences or really getting to know a vineyard well.
This is a good one! But my answer is a super simple one. I would say: To appreciate nature and to enjoy your creations with family and friends. In more cliché words, being able to stop and smell the roses. Knowing all the toil and effort that goes into each bottle of wine, the amazing complexities that happen in the vineyards and wineries. And to enjoy it with people that make you smile and bring joy to your life makes it all the sweeter.
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New Skills: Master Maceration
Maceration is the process in red winemaking of letting the crushed grape solids soak in the juice. It is during maceration that key compounds are extracted from the grape juice and solids, giving red wine its body, flavors and color. Learn the basics. https:// winemakermag.com/article/new-skillsmaster-maceration
MEMBERS ONLY
Grapevines are the world’s greatest natural birdfeeder. Grapevines have adapted for millions of years on this planet to accomplish one end: Produce ripe berries to attract birds to disperse seeds. It’s your job as a grape grower to disrupt this connection. https://winemakermag.com/article/ minimize-bird-damage
All contents of WineMaker are Copyright © 2021 by Battenkill Communications, unless otherwise noted. WineMaker is a registered trademark owned by Battenkill Communications, a Vermont corporation. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be returned, and no responsibility can be assumed for such material. All “Letters to the Editor” should be sent to the editor at the ermont office address. ll rights in letters sent to WineMaker will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to WineMaker’s unrestricted right to edit. Although all reasonable attempts are made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions anywhere in the publication. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States of America. Volume 24, Number 4: August-September 2021
Chardonnay is a grape varietal that has an identity crisis. Both a rock star and a charlatan, a soft spoken ballerina and a brazen harlot. A lot has to do with the conditions in which it is grown. https:// winemakermag.com/article/989growing-chardonnay-backyard-vines
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Three pro winemakers talk about the benefits of using enzymes as well as the potential cons. et some specific pointers when using some of the various enzymes available to winemakers. https://winemakermag. com/technique/844-using-enzymestips-from-the-pros
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I’ve finally had a chance to catch up on my stack of WineMaker maga ines and loved the article in the ecember - anuary
1 issue by hik renneman about renache lanc. I’d have never written if it weren’t for the fact that the wine my wife picked to have for dinner that night happened to be a renache lanc.
o, I too have a passion for h ne alley wines and grow iognier on my property. ecause of this, a friend of my wife’s whose family has a vineyard in the anta Maria, alifornia are growing what they think is iognier.
I’m not so sure. eems like a oussanne or a Marsanne to me. ut, how can I tell? I bet hik can hook me up with someone doing testing at - avis?
Frederick Carbone • via email
Indeed, Fred, Chik can hook you up. His recommendation is to contact the Foundation Plant Services (https://fps.ucdavis.edu/dna.cfm). According to their website, “Foundation Plant Services offers DNA-based gra e ariety i entification on a ee or ser ice basis. sing in ger rinting technology arieties are i entifie by com aring the rofile o the client s sam le to oun ation lant er ices ra e entification e erence atabase. he ebsite also states that rie young leaves are the standard sample, and sample collection materials are provided as part of the service.
an you tell me the approximate amount of alcohol contributed by a wine kit skin bag?
Tom Olinger • via email
i om e asse this uestion onto WineMaker review board member an echnical er ices oor inator or lobal intners nc. ail u or . ere s her res onse t s har to gi e an e act ercentage as each wine style and grape skin formula can be slightly different. curious inema er coul figure this out on their o n. a e the s ecific gra ity o the ell stirre ermentation re s in then ta e the aiting fi e hours a ter s ins a ition. a e sure to stir ery well before taking any readings. Note the difference and calculate into a ercentage.
Bob Peak is a recently retired partner of The everage eople Inc., a home winemaking and homebrewing shop in anta osa, alifornia. efore The everage eople, he was the eneral Manager at in uiry, a company that provides analytical services to the wine industry. ob has authored the Techni ues column that runs in every issue since 13, fre uently writes feature stories, and has been the Technical ditor of WineMaker since 1 . He is also a fre uent speaker at the annual WineMaker Maga ine onference.
In addition to making his own wine, ob also makes sausage at home. In this issue he shares a primer to get the home hobbyist started in sausage making beginning on page .
Dwayne Bershaw began making wine in his garage in while working as an engineer in ilicon alley. The passion grew and in 1 he received a master’s degree in viticulture and enology from - avis. He has four years of experience in a variety of temporary positions in onoma and apa ounty wineries, and served four years as the ssociate irector of the outhern regon Wine Institute at mp ua ommunity ollege where he taught all of the enology coursework. There he was also responsible to schedule and manage production of 3 cases of wine per year with student participation at the school’s commercial winery. ince 1 he has held a lecturer position in the food science department at ornell niversity.
eginning on page 3 wayne gets us ready for harvest by examining some of the options winemakers have with red wine macerations.
Richard Hector, a native regonian, had a career as an engineer working for the ir orce light Test enter at dwards , alifornia. s such he was involved in management of test ranges and developmental testing of numerous aircraft and cruise missiles. He has a in math physics from regon tate, a M in engineering from ri ona, and a M in management from tanford. fter retiring, he and his family moved to oseburg, regon in the mp ua alley where he planted his first grapes and started making wine in . ver time his vineyard expanded to a 1 3-acre with inot oir, yrah, Merlot, Muscat, inot ris, and infandel.
ichard is also a tinkerer. He’s previously written pieces in WineMaker on turning a vacant garage stall into a winery and building a tow-behind vineyard spray rig. tarting on page ichard shares his most recent contraption to make installation and rolling up bird netting post-harvest easier.
In the October-November 2020 issue’s “Mail” section Wes Hagen answered a reader who asked about the ability to grow grapes to be used to make communion wine in Namibia, Africa. Wes’ answer was that Namibia doesn’t receive the non-contiguous 250 hours of under 45 °F (7 °C) needed for chilling requirement and refreshing fruitfulness of wine grapes. However, we had a couple of readers who thought otherwise. Francisco Watlington, Professor of Geography at the University of Puerto Rico, pointed out that Namibia extends to southern latitudes 20 and 30 and is divided by the Tropic of Capricorn. “On the other side of the Atlantic this is precisely the same stretch of Brazil’s premier winegrowing region from Rio Grande do Sul through Santa Catarina to Paraná and Sao Paulo provinces.” Here is what another reader had to say:
“I agree with Wes Hagen that traditional noble grape varieties would be tough in Namibia’s climate, but I’m not sure they’re impossible. And there are some other options to explore if you’re willing to experiment. One possibility might be Muscadine varieties that tolerate heat a little better. hey re going to gi e you a ery istincti e a vor, but in my experience communion wines are usually pretty sweet, and sweetness can help balance out the muskiness of these wines. I lived in Nigeria in the ‘90s and knew someone who successfully grew Muscadines there. I’m now in Singapore, and I’m hoping to try Muscadines out in containers on my balcony at some point in the future. When it comes to traditional wine grapes, it seems like there may be
some hope — Erongo Mountain Winery (along the Omaruru River in Namibia) claims to be growing Cabernet and Colombard grapes there. I imagine they have to handle their own irrigation since the climate is so dry, but an article in The Namibian sounds like they’re trying to take the natural wine route anyway. It would certainly be worth a visit there to see what they’re doing, and they might be willing to offer you some advice (and vines). Another story from Wine Explorers (https:// www.wine-explorers.net/en/travelog/when-namibian-desert-rhymeswine) talks about another winery that’s growing Shiraz and Merlot.
“When it comes to Sub-Saharan wines in general, you might be sur rise at hat you fin recommen the boo Africa Uncorked: Travels in Extreme Wine Territory by John and Erica Platter. They visit wineries in places you’ve probably never considered, like Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Madagascar, etc. While these are certainly off the beaten path and not really on the African wine trail, it shows what can be done when someone is driven to make something work — and you should never underestimate the ingenuity and drive o rican armers
Robbie Honerkamp • Singapore
Do you have a question or comment about something you’ve read in the pages of WineMaker magazine or online at winemakermag. com, or a story or idea to share? Send your letters, photos, story ideas, and projects to edit@winemakermag.com or post them to our social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
A revised and updated third edition of this book gives an overview of one of the most fascinating, important, and controversial trends in the world of wine The scientific and technological innovations that are now influencing how grapes are grown and how wine is made. amie oode details key scientific developments relating to viticulture and enology, explains practical application of science to techniques that are used around the world, and explores how these issues are affecting the uality, flavor, and perception of wine. The Science of Wine discusses a wide range of topics across the quickly evolving landscape surrounding wine. Learn more at https www.ucpress.edu book 3 3 the-science-of-wine
The ine o line of wine kits have a new supplier in the nited tates. There are four lines of ine o kits riginal, Estate, Signature, and Niagara Mist Series being sold through MoreWine and wholesale through rewmaster. The riginal Series offers easy drinking and easy-to-make wine kits ready in four weeks. The state eries is their mid-level line featuring both popular and less well-known varietals from a wide range of origins. The ignature eries is their premium line with the highest juice-to-concentrate ratio and commonly includes a grape skin pack. The iagara Mist eries is their country fruit line, featuring light and refreshing kits. There are currently uni ue kits available. Learn more at https morewinemaking.com category vineco-wine-kits.html
If you have an interest in creating a sustainable, biodynamic, and/or organic vineyard, this new reference comes with up-todate case studies from vineyards and wineries implementing these practices. This includes vineyards of all si es. overing viticulture growing techniques, including biodynamic practices, drought-resistant farming, and current technology that offers alternatives to chemical-heavy methods. Healthy Vines, Pure Wines – Methods in Organic, Biodynamic, Natural and Sustainable Viticulture captures a record of Amigo Bob antisano’s contributions to the field, the tools and techni ues he championed, and advice he gave to growers throughout the onoma and apa region https purewines.org
13, 2021
Join WineMaker columnists live online on Friday, August 13 to cover strategies you can use to make your 2021 harvest a winemaking success! You’ll have the chance to learn and get your harvest winemaking questions answered by WineMaker’s expert columnists during this five-hour live online experience. Learn more at https winemakermag.com Harvest oot amp
20, 2021
eadline for entries is at p.m. on riday, ugust . Wines can be received, either via mail or dropped at the onoma ounty airgrounds. udging takes place on eptember 1 1 with the awards announced eptember 1 . or more visit http harvest fair.org amateur-wine
Our names are Phil, John, and Joe; we are three good friends who have been making wine together for about 8 years now. We have been very happy with the results of our winemaking but are always trying to improve . . . as they say, practice makes perfect . . . almost.
We are two Italians and one wannabe Italian. Let’s just say we sometimes agree to disagree on certain specifics of the winemaking process. Hence the origins of our winery name and design of our concerted group label, “Three Blind Mice.” We also have entered our wine in our local county fair and have won a few awards. This proves that we are at least heading in the right direction despite constantly banging into each other (metaphorically).
The design of our label was done by one of the creative children from within the group with the help of the computer. We are now printing these as vinyl labels and proudly displaying them on our bottles of red and white wines. Since we are “Three Blind Mice” oftentimes our label may not exactly be on straight.
An up-to-the-moment new edition of Jamie Goode’s celebrated wine science book.
“An entertaining and deep industry text.”
—Foreword Reviews
“Oenophiles and vintners alike will find provocations, lessons, and pleasures in these smartly opinionated pages.”
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED
“A peek into the mind of this fascinating fellow as he travels the wine world . . . . Highly recommended.”
—Wine Economist www.ucpress.edu
f course wine has alcohol in it — that much is given. Most of us also know that yeast is the producer of our alcohol. And the conditions that we provide for our yeast friends will play a large role to the extent of what alcohols are created. Most of us are familiar with ethanol, the primary alcohol found in wine and the substance that gives us a buzz. Today we’ll take a spin through some of the various alcohols we may encounter in our wine and ways we can control for them.
Often comprising somewhere between 10–15% of wine by volume, ethanol (or ethyl alcohol) is by far the most abundant alcohol found in our wines. Through the process of fermentation, yeast produces it to gain a competitive advantage over other microorganisms since ethanol is toxic. Different organisms have different tolerances, including yeast. For example, wine yeast generally has a stronger tolerance for ethanol than beer yeast. We humans have enzymes, found mainly in our liver, that process ethanol breaking it down into simpler compounds that can be flushed from our system through our kidneys. This process allows us to consume ethanol at fairly high levels compared to many other animals, but as we well know, it can come at a health cost if we abuse it.
Ethanol levels are typically determined by winemakers by the level of sugar in the initial grape juice, but there are many factors to consider that will determine just how much is in solution of the finished wine. Where the grapes were grown, the type of grapes, and when they were harvested are the primary factors that determine initial Brix levels that frequently will control final alcohol levels. ut there are several nuances that can shift that dynamic, and that is especially true when we talk about wines that are made from something other than grapes. Yeast selection, chaptalization (adding sugar to boost ethanol levels),
diluting the juice, and fortification of the wine are three ways that winemakers can sway the ethanol levels one way or the other.
If you are familiar with the distillation process, or chemistry in general, then you’re probably familiar with methanol (or methyl alcohol). This is a highly toxic alcohol to humans and has been linked to blindness and even death in higher concentrations. Methanol is one of the main reasons distillers will dump the first runnings (called foreshots) that are driven out during the distillation process.
The good news for winemakers is that methanol is not really a concern in wine. One of the main pathways for yeast to produce methanol is through pectins; something found in fruit, but to extremely low levels of methanol that are nowhere near levels of concern. Distillers, on the other hand, need to be more careful of methanol. This alcohol is one of the main reasons that home distillation is illegal in most countries in the world.
A lot of winemakers have heard about fusel or higher alcohols but they’re often not well understood. First off, they are found in grapes at low levels, but mostly are a product of the fermentation process. When found in higher concentrations, their characteristics are noted as a flaw (fusel translates to bad liquor” in German). If your wine smells like kerosene or nail polish remover (besides maybe some petrol character from Riesling), you created too much fusel alcohols. When fusels are noted the yeast or fermentation conditions will be considered the root cause. Fusels are also commonly cited as a contributor to hangovers, but this is still a matter up for debate.
Fusels are simply any alcohol compound that has more than two carbon atoms. But all things fusels aren’t inherently bad, in fact a little
fusels may be a good thing and even a happy, healthy fermentation will produce some. Fusels are known for the warming sensation on the palate found in many wines. Fusels can exhibit characteristics ranging from ripe fruit to floral. t moderate levels these can work to build character, along with esters, in many fruit-forward wines.
When it comes to controlling fusel alcohol production, most winemakers look at the fermentation temperature. One of the most important things to note is that the pathway to fusel alcohol production is most active early in fermentation, during yeast growth. So if you have warm grapes or juice, be sure to get it down to within the preferred fermentation range within 12 hours or less after yeast pitch. After that period fusel production can begin in earnest. Don’t let your fermentation temperature rise above the recommended temperature range, often 65 °F (18 °C) for whites and rosés and 86 °F (30 °F) for reds. But be sure to follow the yeast manufacturer’s recommendations since each strain is unique.
There are also several lesser-known reasons for higher fusel production. Yeast selection is one of the biggest. As noted earlier, different yeast produce varying levels of fusels. Excessive use of yeast nutrients, nitrogen in particular, is also tied to higher production of fusels. So be sure to keep your YAN (yeast assimilable nitrogen) to recommended dosages. The presence of gross lees has been linked to higher levels of fusels as well. So for white wine fermentations, it’s best to let the lees settle for ~24 hours after crush and rack the juice off them before commencing fermentation. Finally, if the room you’re storing your active fermenter in is at 85 °F (18 °C), note that the temperature inside the fermentation is going to be several degrees warmer. My rule of thumb is to expect temperature in an active fermenter to be about 5 °F (2.5 °C) warmer than ambient air temperature in (this can get even warmer in larger fermentations).
One of the best things about wine is how there is a variety out there that pairs perfectly with any dish. However, that pairing doesn’t have to be in a glass served next to your meal — it can also be used as an ingredient in your meal! For help with this we got out our cork screw, opened a bottle, and asked a few chefs to spill their secrets when it comes to cooking with wine.
Contrary to popular opinion, there’s really no such thing as “cooking wine.”
If a wine is too oxidized/ vinegary to drink, you shouldn’t cook with it — it won’t impart any good flavors to your dish.
o what should you use? We find that full-bodied reds without too much sweetness work for long braises and where you want their assertiveness to play off other ingredients in the recipe. Since red wines often have a high tannin content, they work well combined with fatty ingredients where the gelatin will mellow the wine out. Without that fatty balance, a long-cooked red wine can be bitter. We’ll sometimes use a fruity red wine in a dessert recipe where those flavors work well in a sweet setting. on’t use fine vintages for cooking! Once the wine is cooked into a dish it will lose some of its complexity and you won’t be able to tell it from a cheaper bottle.
For white wines, dry wines add a lot of acidity to brighten a dish, just as a light squeeze of lemon juice right at the end of cooking might do. They can also counteract sweetness in the recipe. White wines have less tannin and are more forgiving of a long cook than red wines. We like light, dry, crisp varieties like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. We don’t use oaked white wines in any large volume, because they tend to overpower the recipe’s other flavors.
A great way to use wine in your cooking is to deglaze a pan — for example, to finish a saut ed dish by adding just enough liquid to dissolve flavorful fond (the tasty brown bits stuck to the bottom of a pan), cook
and reduce the wine just enough to create a sauce, develop the wine flavor, and cook out the raw alcohol taste. The variety won’t matter too much for a half a cup or less of dry wine used to deglaze a pan, but when using much more than that, like for a braise, remember that whatever characteristics the wine has as a drink will become much more concentrated.
Sherry, brandy, and Port also all work really well in the kitchen. We use Sherry most of all, and it pairs beautifully when used to finish a dish with onions or mushrooms, or anything with an earthy flavor, for example. ince they’re so assertively flavored, we don’t use them in such large volumes as we would some of the long-cooked wine recipes (like a bourguignon). half cup or less, cooked down for a few minutes, adds great complexity. Use dry versions for savory dishes and keep the sweet varieties for a boozy dessert.
You can also use wine as a substitute for other ingredients. A splash of white wine can substitute for acidic ingredients like lemon juice. Keep in mind that wines won’t replace other li uids (like stock) with a 1 1 ratio, so you could dilute wine with an equal amount of water to approximate stock.
Another basic tip is to cook a recipe with the same kind of wine you would pair with it to drink. White wine for a shrimp dish, a robust red wine for a beef dish, for example. Also, be careful of introducing wines with funky flavor profiles, as they may cook down in unexpected ways. And of course, look for a copy of Cork and Knife, our book on cooking with booze, which will give you more inspiration!
Since red wines often have a high tannin content, they work well combined with fatty ingredients where the gelatin will mellow the wine out.Matt and Emily Clifton live in Beacon, New York, where they love to experiment with local, seasonal produce and put their own spin on accessible ingredients. They run the Nerds with Knives blog and have written two cookbooks: Cork and Knife (which includes recipes cooked with all kinds of alcoholic drinks) and The Ultimate Dutch Oven Cookbook
Stephen Fields is an Event Catering Chef at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York with 45 years of experience as a chef in various establishments. As a member of the American Culinary Federation, an international organization for chefs, Stephen has earned numerous accolades presenting and competing against other professional chefs from the U.S. and Canada in culinary competitions. He began making wine at home nearly a decade ago and is in his third year of cultivating his own micro vineyard that includes Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, and Merlot.
My approach to cooking with wine is the same approach I use with the addition of any ingredient; I use my sense of taste and smell looking for the desired “texture or mouthfeel” and imagine how the various flavors will come together in the final product.
When asked how does one know what is a good wine for pairing or cooking? My reply is always the same — taste it! If you like the way it tastes, you are in possession of the right wine. Once you have chosen your wine, it is time to start creating. Trust your instincts and senses, following recipes is fine but experimenting is where the real learning starts. This is what keeps the culinary world exciting and new. To help guide your experiments, I have included some specific suggestions by type of wine:
Red wine pairs well with meals containing beef, pork, lamb, wild game, and heavier fish (think swordfish). Try adding the wine to your braising li uid in meals like ssobuco or to a beef stew. Look for a full-bodied red such as abernet auvignon, Merlot, and hira . For a lighter option, Pinot Noir is a great choice.
White wine pairs well with most seafood, poultry, and is essential for making rissotto. Try splashing some white wine into a pan to degla e after saut ing vegetables or pan frying meats. This can then be used as the base of a white wine sauce or gla e. Look for a dry white that is crisp and high in acid with citrus or fruity notes. Low to medium oak will suit you just fine in most dishes. Try some of these selections auvignon lanc, hardonnay, Pinot Gris, and if you have an open bottle of hampagne, that works well here too.
Fortified wine pairs well with savory dishes such as veal or pork marsala and desserts like panna cotta and abaglione. When it comes to adding wine to desserts, it is important to master the dessert recipe and then experiment with the addition of wine. Fortunately for us, panna cotta goes just as well with a glass of ort wine as it does with a bit of brandy added in. n easy recipe to try your hand at
cooking with wine is French onion soup. This can be made with a herry or hardonnay (look for a lighter or unoaked hardonnay). or a dessert pairing, look for a Madeira or Port, and for savory dishes try herry or marsala. Here are a few more tips that apply to cooking with any kind of wine:
1. ree e leftover wine into ice cube trays for future dishes. When adding wine to a dish, you are attempting to enhance the dish with the flavors left after the alcohol is cooked off. This makes it crucial to use a good tasting wine that has not turned, which is why free ing that leftover wine instead of letting it oxidi e in an open bottle in the fridge helps.
. dd your wine into the dish early enough to cook off the alcohol. lthough we enjoy the full flavor of wine in the glass, if the alcohol has not cooked off it may leave your dish with a bitter flavor.
3. Less is more you will rarely use more than o . (1 mL) of wine in any recipe.
. If you have a recipe that calls for wine and you’re all out, fear not. Wine can be substituted by red wine vinegar, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, fruit juices (lemon, cranberry, and apple), and stock (seafood, beef, and chicken). tock can be substituted 1 1 but vinegar and juice should be diluted with water or stock.
To my fellow winemakers, instead of discarding or composting the gross lees at the end of primary fermentation, try dehydrating the sediment for smoking chips. This can be done by spreading the sediment on a sheet pan covered with wax paper and dehydrating in the oven at ( 3 ) for six hours. Then break the sheet up into chips to use with your favorite smoking recipe. I like to use a combination of regular chips with the wine sediment. When used as an addition to smoking, these chips produce a very earthy flavor. The food will take on faint notes of almond, bread, and also the flavor of the particular wine that was produced. emember these are very basic guidelines. In the end, your dishes are of your own creation. llow yourself room for experimentation and if you fail, try again.
QI’VE BEEN READING A NUMBER OF ARTICLES ABOUT PREVENTING OXIDATION OF THE WINE I’M MAKING. THE ARTICLES SUGGEST “TOPPING OFF” THE CARBOY. WHAT DO I USE TO TOP OFF THE CARBOY?
I’M MAKING A SAUVIGNON BLANC AND IT LOOKS GOLDEN IN THE CARBOY. JUST WONDERING IF I NEEDED TO DO SOMETHING WHILE IN SECONDARY FERMENTATION?
ANTHONY AMBROSE LANCASTER, NEW YORK
AAs I explain in my book, The Winemaker’s Answer Book, oxygen can be a friend of wine (especially during active primary fermentation) but is more often its enemy. One of the biggest jobs of being a winemaker entails minimizing oxygen (air) contact in our aging wines by keeping our containers 100% full, or “topped up.” The term “topping” or “keeping wines topped up” refers to either a) storing your wine in a completely full vessel or b) adding some wine to a partial vessel to render it full. This, along with proper sanitation, pH management, and adequate levels of sulfur dioxide (all topics amply discussed in my book and in WineMaker magazine) will keep your wine from getting browned (oxidized), something that is very important, especially for delicate white wines like your Sauvignon Blanc.
Speaking of delicate Sauvignon Blancs, it’s pretty uncommon for folks to take their Sauvignon Blancs through the secondary, or malolactic fermentation (MLF). This is because most producers of the variety like its crisp refreshment, good acidity, and floral and grassy aromatics, with winemaking choices to keep it that way. The MLF
deacidifies wines as the stronger malic acid is transformed into the weaker lactic acid. There are also aromatic and textural changes that happen with malolactic fermentation that may or may not align with your goals for a Sauvignon Blanc. Aromatically, MLF tends to produce notes of cream, butter, or even short-crust pastry, while the finish may lengthen and the mouthfeel round out a bit. So, you could add sulfur dioxide to your wine (and protect it from oxidation in one fell swoop!) to arrest the malolactic bacteria and be perfectly within traditional Sauvignon Blanc winemaking style standards. You could also keep it going through MLF; it’s up to you. Which brings us back to keeping wine topped up . . .
When our wines are going through MLF they are producing some amount of carbon dioxide gas, which helps protect them a little bit from the ravages of oxygen. However, MLF can tick along slowly at a snail’s pace, so it’s not wise to assume a nice, thick “blanket” of protective carbon dioxide gas is being produced by your malolactic bacteria. You’ll need to give your wine a helping hand in order to protect it during this time. MLF is best done in a fully-topped up container that’s capped
When our wines are going through MLF they are producing some amount of carbon dioxide gas, which helps protect them a little bit from the ravages of oxygen.Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus
with a fermentation lock to allow carbon dioxide gas to escape, but which won’t allow air to come in. These can be picked up (along with the special carboy bungs to fit them onto) at your friendly local winemaking or homebrewing supply store (or online).
ow I know what you’re probably going to ask What if I only have four and a half gallons (1 L) of wine in a five-gallon (1 -L) carboy? How can I possibly get this carboy topped up? There are a few solutions to this perennial home winemaker’s dilemma. I was speaking to someone from a large home winemaker’s group in onoma the other day and this very topic came up. ne of my suggestions was for club members to band together to share and swap topping wine for exactly this kind of situation. ommercial winemakers usually have no issue with breaking down a barrel into kegs and carboys in order to do a topping session (barrels usually need to be topped monthly) but for small-scale winemakers dealing with glass carboys and small bottle volumes can be a real challenge.
sking friends and fellow enthusiasts for help in this department is a natural step to take. on’t feel like you have to exactly match the wine you’re topping up with either. abernet auvignons, Malbecs, ab rancs, and Merlots all play well together and a light white wine can even be used to top up a ros . ure, it might dilute the personal pride you take in producing your wine a little, but if you can share a half-bottle of your infandel with a buddy and she can give you a half-gallon ( L) of clean hardonnay to top up your auvignon lanc, it’s a win-win.
If you’re not a member of a winemaking community like
that or don’t want to use someone else’s wine (which I do understand) you can try to add some displacement objects to your carboys to take up space and raise the level of wine in your vessel. I’ve known folks to use marbles, glass floral arrangement beads, or even stainless-steel pie weights to displace wine and raise the levels in their containers. asically, if it’s neutral (glass, fired ceramic, yrex, or stainless steel is best), saniti able, and will fit into your container, it’s fair game.
Last ditch for topping wine? I’ve said it before and am not too proud to give you permission here go out and buy some. ind a wine at your local grocery store that you think is the best match to yours and use it to top up your containers. etter a 1 bottle of auvignon lanc than a spoiled, almost full, five-gallon (1 -L) carboy. o note, however, that commercial winemakers are not allowed to do this this is for the home producer only. lso do be aware that almost any commercial wine will have an appreciable level of sulfur dioxide in it and won’t be compatible as an addition for wines still going through ML . If you swap any topping wine with a buddy, be sure to check its status before adding it to your wine as malolactic bacteria are extremely sensitive to
ll of the above being said, if it were my auvignon lanc, I’d rack it out of the carboy into as topped off a situation as possible and adjust the free up to 3 ppm.
If you’re worried about the color getting too golden and it’s untopped and going through malolactic fermentation, I’d cut off the ML , get it on some sulfur dioxide, and get it topped up, no matter which method I had to use in order to do it.
AIndeed, after using most fining agents there will be a layer of sediment generated and you’ll need to rack the wine off of it accordingly. ining agents, by definition, are introduced into a wine to interact with whichever of the wine compounds you are trying to mitigate or reduce. For instance, bentonite is a natural clay used for centuries as a fining agent. The clay is dissolved in water then is mixed into the wine as a slurry, where it combines with proteins, forms larger particles and pulls the proteins out of solution before settling by gravity as a layer of sediment. ometimes proteins (egg whites are an ancient and still-effective example) are added in order to react with excess tannins, forming larger particles that fall to the bottom of barrels, kegs, or carboys.
If you can get a good, compact, settled layer it’s not necessary to filter a wine, unless you want to. e sure to
read package instructions carefully and use the correct doses with fining agents the danger is often over fining. Too much bentonite can pull out compounds that can contribute to mouthfeel and flavor. ou also don’t want to pull out too many tannins, for instance. ed wines need them for structure and balance and to age appropriately. or this reason, I always tell people to do bench trials the aim is to find the minimum dose of a specific fining agent to use in order to achieve the result you’re looking for.
If you’ve followed instructions carefully and haven’t over added, and if you’re patient, it’s likely you’ll get a good, settled layer off of which you can just rack the clean, fined wine. Proper settling can be encouraged by cooler temperatures and by obviously not moving the wine around. If you don’t get a good settle, however, you may eventually have to filter your wine in order to get a clear product and to exclude the fining agent.
IN YOUR ARTICLE “MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION AFTER COLD STABILIZING” HTTPS:// WINEMAKERMAG.COM/WINE - WIZARD/MALOLACTIC- FERMENTATION - AFTER- COLD - STABILIZING YOU MENTION THAT MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION ( MLF ) MAY START BACK UP AFTER COLD STABILIZING WHEN THE WINE WARMS BACK UP.
FOR ME, AS IN YOUR ARTICLE, MLF WAS UNDERWAY ALBEIT SOMEWHAT SLOWLY; I BELIEVE BECAUSE THE p H OF THE DIFFERENT WINES WAS RUNNING LOW, ~3.2–3.3 AND ~11% ABV. I DIDN’T WANT TO MISS THE WINDOW OF COLD NIGHTS IN MY UPSTATE NEW YORK GARAGE, SO MID - FEBRUARY I PLACED THE CARBOYS OUT IN THE GARAGE. AFTER ONE MONTH I BROUGHT THEM BACK INSIDE. THE NEXT DAY I PERFORMED A CHROMATOGRAPHY TEST TO VERIFY MLF WAS NOT COMPLETE. I THEN ADDED 1 2 THE RECOMMENDED DOSE OF OPTI - MALO PLUS AND STIRRED IT IN GENTLY. I DID NOT RACK THE WINE BECAUSE I WAS CONCERNED ABOUT SUBJECTING THE WINE AND MLF BACTERIA TO OXYGEN.
• SHOULD I HAVE RACKED THE WINE?
• SHOULD I BE CONCERNED THAT SOME OF THE TARTRATE CRYSTALS THAT HAVE FALLEN OUT WILL BE MIXED BACK INTO THE WINE OR WILL THEY REMAIN AS CRYSTALS NEVER TO BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION AGAIN?
• HOW CONCERNED SHOULD I BE ABOUT SUBJECTING THE MLF BACTERIA TO ATMOSPHERE? I CAN PURGE THE CARBOYS WITH CO 2 IF YOU THINK THAT WOULD HELP.
AFor those readers who are not familiar with the article referenced, I talk about how it was likely a reader’s malolactic fermentation would pick back up again when the weather warmed up again in the spring (he wanted to over-winter his wine undergoing MLF outside in order to help it get cold stable). It sounds like you also decided to take advantage of a cold spell in an attempt to get your wine cold stable and are hoping your malolactic fermentation will reignite now that you’ve brought it inside . . . and you have a few questions
solid. If you’ve ever seen clear, sandy crystals at the bottom of your wine bottles or carboys, it’s a good chance you’re looking at sediment that contains a lot of KHT crystals.
Winemakers often like to force this precipitation to happen before bottling so the crystals don’t turn up in the finished wine bottles. ommercial wineries almost always cold stabilize their white and rosé wines because they don’t want to scare consumers by thinking there are glass shards in their bottles of wine. By getting the wine cold (and sometimes also adding additional solid KHT as “seed
about cold stability in addition. I like that you’ve added some ML bacteria nutrients (Opti-Malo Plus is a good choice), which are especially important as ML bacteria are notoriously fastidious, in that to fully function they have very specific nutritional needs.
A little background on cold stability: Grape juice naturally contains tartaric acid and potassium, which can combine to form a salt called potassium hydrogen tartrate. Also known as KHT, potassium bitartrate, or cream of tartar. This salt can exist in a soluble form, wherein it is completely dissolved into grape juice, must, or wine. As alcohol levels increase during fermentation, however, and especially if temperatures drop during storage, these salts can precipitate out as a
crystals”), we can encourage the formation and precipitation of KHT crystals during barrel or carboy aging. The resulting wine (as long as it’s racked or filtered off the crystals, see below) will be more “cold stable”, i.e., it can be subjected to cold temperatures in the future and fewer (or no) crystals will emerge. There are different ways of assessing a wine’s cold stability and the whole topic of the tests, their interpre tations, and how to get a wine cold stable has been covered elsewhere in the magazine (and would take way too much space and time to address fully here). So, I’ll just get right to your specific uestions.
Should I have racked the wine?
• After a wine is chilled down and KHT crystals have pre-
A little background on cold stability: Grape juice naturally contains tartaric acid and potassium, which can combine to form a salt called potassium hydrogen tartrate.
cipitated out, it’s important to either rack or filter the wine off of them so that they don’t re-dissolve into the wine after it warms up. wine is only stable for the temperature it was filtered or racked at, i.e., if your wines outside got down to 3 ( ) but then when they came back into your garage they warmed up to ( ) before you got around to separating the wine from the solids, the wine is only considered cold stable to ( ), not 3 ( ).
Should I be concerned that some of the tartrate crystals that have fallen out will be mixed back into the wine or will they remain as crystals never to dissolve back into the solution/wine again?
ee earlier for some nuance. If the wine warms up there’s a good chance some of the HT crystals will re-dissolve into the wine as potassium and tartaric acid, making those
even though the wine is technically fermenting, it’s a good idea to maintain it in as topped up of a situation as you can.
o, to conclude, that’s great you’ve pushed your wine closer to being cold stable, but it is important to separate the precipitated potassium bitartrate crystals from the wine by racking or filtration, to keep oxygen excluded, and to keep containers topped up.
n alternative to traditional cold stability, where we chill wine down, seed it with HT crystals, then rack or filter, is to use carboxymethylcellulose (also abbreviated to M ). olutions are available through most commercial winemaking supply houses. M is clear, aromatically and flavor-neutral, and basically acts as a physical deterrent to crystal formation. ssentially, it disrupts the crystalli ation process and prevents HT crystals from happening in the first place.
Beaunois (pronounced Bon wah) is one of the world’s most popular wine grapes. Never heard of this grape varietal? That’s okay; you’re not alone. Beaunois is a synonym for this variety that has widespread plantings in France, Australia, South Africa, South America, and the United States. The variety is thought to have originated in France, and today’s DNA evidence supports that idea. But over the years there were many theories of how it came to exist, including the one that it was brought back to Central Europe by crusaders who found it in Lebanon and Syria in their travels. Having been around for so long, it is not surprising that there are many clones of it. When I first wrote about this grape varietal in my debut “Varietal Focus” column for WineMaker magazine, the Foundation Plant Services (FPS) at UC-Davis listed about 60 clones, and that is just for material that they had cleaned up and certified to be virus free. Today, a quick check of their website now lists over 80! But there are so many more than that. So, if it is such a popular grape, how come no one has heard of it? Well, I can guarantee that you have heard of its common name, because the variety I am calling Beaunois is actually Chardonnay.
So why do we have the name Beaunois? In Chardonnay’s historical area of cultivation, the earliest references to this grape variety were way back in 1583. The name Beaunois literally translates to “from Beaune,” a town in east central France between Dijon and Lyon, set amongst the vineyards of Burgundy. But this name can come with some confusion as the term can actually refer to any of the other varieties of that region as well, notably Aligoté and inot lanc. The first writings refer-
ring to the name in its more common and current form did not come about until about one hundred years later. And through the ensuing years it has received a few different spellings like Chardenet, Chardonnet, and Chardenay. In fact, it was not until the 20th century, that Chardonnay became the de facto spelling of this varietal.
That is not the only confusion surrounding the variety, over the years it was confused with Pinot Blanc because they are morphologically similar. It was called Chardonnet Pinot Blanc or Pinot Blanc Chardonnet in France, and Clevner (Clävner) or Ruländer in Germany, which is the current name for Pinot Gris. But the DNA evidence has helped explain that Chardonnay is a natural cross of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc and its siblings are Gamay Noir, Melon, and Aligoté, to name a few. All of these varieties originated from the same region of France, which refutes the theory of originating from Lebanon and Syria. It is possible that a grape in Lebanon by the name of Obaideh could be a distant ancestor, but Chardonnay’s parents have never been cultivated there. It has been used as a parent in other breeding programs, producing offspring with relatively obscure names. In the United States it was bred at the Geneva, New York research center, Cornell-Geneva Grapevine Breeding and Genetics Program, with Seyval Blanc to produce the cold-hardy and highly-regarded Chardonel variety.
Not always a white grape, there are mutations that have resulted in a new variety called Chardonnay Rosé that is found in the vineyards around the village of Chardonnay in Burgundy. There is also a Chardonnay Musqué mutation that is characterized by grapey Muscat-like aromas in Pouilly and Arbois. Clones 77 and 809 are reported to have
While the variety adapts well to all climates, the better quality grapes come from coolerclimate regions.
100 lbs. (45 kg) Chardonnay fruit or 6 gallons (23 L) juice
Distilled water
1 potassium metabisulfite ( M ) solution (Weigh 1 grams of M , dissolve into about 75 mL of distilled water. When completely dissolved, make up to 1 mL total with distilled water.)
5 g Premier Cuvee yeast (also known as -111 , rise de Mousse)
5 g Diammonium phosphate (DAP) g ermaid (or e uivalent yeast nutrient)
5-gallon (19-L) carboy
6-gallon (23-L) plastic bucket
Inert gas (nitrogen, argon, or carbon dioxide will do)
Refrigerator (~45 °F/7 °C) to cold settle the juice. Remove the shelves so that the bucket will fit.
Ability to maintain a fermentation temperature of 55–60 °F (13–16 °C)
Thermometer – capable of measuring between 40–110 °F (4–43 °C)
Pipettes with the ability to add in increments of 1 mL
Tartaric acid – addition rate is based on acid testing results
1. Crush and press the grapes. Do not delay between crushing and pressing. Move the must directly to the press and press lightly to avoid extended contact with the skins and seeds.
2. Transfer the juice to a 6-gallon (23L) bucket. uring the transfer, add mL of 1 M solution. (This addition is the e uivalent of ppm 2.)
3. Move the juice to a refrigerator.
4. Test juice for acidity and pH.
5. Let the juice settle at least overnight. Layer the headspace with inert gas and keep covered.
6. When sufficiently settled, rack the juice off of the solids into the 5-gallon (19-L) carboy.
7. uspend the ermaid in a little distilled water (usually mL), and add it to the juice.
8. If you need to adjust for acid, this is the time to mix in your tartaric acid.
9. Prepare yeast. Heat about 50 mL
distilled water to 104 °F (40°C). Do not exceed this temperature as you will kill the yeast. If you overshoot the temperature, start over, or add some cooler water to get the temperature just right. The end result is you want 50 mL of water at 1 ( ). prinkle the yeast on the surface and gently mix so that no clumps exist. Let sit for 15 minutes undisturbed. Measure the temperature of the yeast suspension, then measure the temperature of the juice. You do not want to add the yeast to your cool juice if the temperature difference exceeds 15 °F (8 °C). Acclimate your yeast by taking about 10 mL of the cold juice and adding it to the yeast suspension. Wait 15 minutes and measure the temperature again. Do this until you are within the specified temperature range.
10. When the yeast is ready, add it to the carboy and move the carboy to an area where the ambient temperature is 55–60 °F (13–16 °C).
11. You should see signs of fermentation within about two to three days. This will appear as some foaming on the surface and the airlock will have bubbles moving through it. If the fermentation has not started by day four, you might consider warming the juice to 60–65 °F (16–18 °C) temporarily to stimulate the yeast. nce the fermentation starts, move back to the lower temperature. If that does not work, consider re-pitching the yeast as described above.
12. Mix up the in about mL of previously boiled water. This addition is typically done at 1 3 sugar depletion. However, since we are going on visual cues to avoid entering the carboy, then 36–48 hours after noticeable fermentation (assuming a rix initially, 3 hours for the low end and hours for the high end).
13. Normally you would monitor the progress of the fermentation by measuring rix. ne of the biggest problems with making white wine at home is maintaining a clean fermentation. Entering the carboy to measure the sugar is a prime way to infect the fermentation with undesirable microbes. o at this point, the presence of noticeable fermentation is good enough.
Leave well enough alone for about two weeks.
15. Assuming the fermentation has progressed, then after about two weeks, it is time to start measuring the sugar. aniti e your thief remove just enough li uid for your hydrometer. ecord your results. If the rix is greater than , then wait another week before measuring. If the rix is less than , begin measuring every other day. ontinue to measure the rix every other day until you have two readings in a row that are negative and about the same.
17. Taste the wine. If the wine tastes dry add mL of M ( ppm 2) and lower the temperature to about 40 °F (4 °C). The refrigerator works best for this. If there are any sulfide-like (rotten egg) odors, rack the wine off the lees. If the wine smells good, then let the lees settle for about two weeks and stir them up. Repeat this step every two weeks for eight weeks total. This will be a total of five stirs.
18. fter the second stir, check the 2 and adjust to 3 3 ppm free 2.
19. fter eight weeks, let the lees settle. t this point, the wine is going to be crystal clear or a little cloudy. If the wine is crystal clear, then that is great If the wine is cloudy, then presumably, if you have kept up with the 2 additions and adjustments, temperature control, kept a sanitary environment, and there are no visible signs of a re-fermentation, then this is most likely a protein ha e and you have two options: Do nothing – it is just aesthetics. r, clarify with bentonite.
20. While aging, test for 2 and keep maintained at 30–35 ppm.
21. nce the wine is cleared, it is time to move it to the bottle. This would be about 6 months after the onset of fermentation. eep in mind this wine has had the ML inhibited. If all has gone well to this point, given the uantity made, it can probably be bottled without filtration. Your losses during filtration could be significant. That said, maintain sanitary conditions while bottling, and you should have a fine example of a clean, crisp hardonnay that pairs well with lemon based chicken or seafood dishes.
similar qualities to the Musqué variety. In rance, you will find hardonnay in the white wines of urgundy. It is the predominant grape in the hablis and tes de eaune sub-regions, but as you move south through Burgundy it tends to be blended into more value-priced wines with the ligot and inot lanc grapes. utside of urgundy, it is one of the three main varieties in the hampagne region. This grape accounts for about of the total area planted in the urgundy and hampagne regions. It is also planted in the Loire and other regions and the regional winemaking rules regarding its use vary. The Languedoc was the first region to begin marketing hardonnay wines as a specific varietal, which was a move away from the traditional rench ppellation d’ rigine ontr l e ( ) dominated rules on growing and blending wines by region. eyond rance, hardonnay is planted throughout the world and is generally marketed as a single variety. While the variety adapts well to all climates, the better uality grapes come from cooler-climate regions. ooler climate grapes tend to be higher in acid and warmer regions lower acid. iven the extent of plantings around the world, you will also find a wide range of soil types and rootstocks in use. In alifornia, largely due to a planting boom in the late 1990s, it is the single most planted white wine grape. In , there were still over 90,000 acres planted in the state. Monterey and onoma counties have the most plantings, about 3 , acres combined, followed by the entral alley with about 1 , acres, considerably down in acreage since I last wrote about it eleven years ago. There were million tons crushed in alifornia in and you will find it interesting to note that the warmer entral alley counties of an oa uin, resno, and Tulare account for almost half of the total tonnage produced in alifornia. Most of these grapes wind up at large production facilities, being supplemented by small amounts from onoma and Monterey.
It is not that surprising at all to find the many different styles of hardonnay that have been crafted. ne of my favorites is hampagne. I like the effer-
vescent style that is 1 hardonnay, or blanc de blancs. It can also be blended with inot oir and inot Meunier in various styles. The dry white styles vary by country and region produced.
In warmer regions, the fruit generally has higher rix and higher alcohol and is treated with massive amounts of oak and allowed to develop buttery, malolactic fermentation (ML ) byproducts (diacetyl). This wine style has proven to be very popular supply and demand stipulates that if it were not successful, the wineries producing this style would not be making it.
all me a rebel, but in my opinion, the best hardonnay wines are from grapes grown in the cooler regions. These are wines with crisp acidity and pair best with foods. Why hide the delicate flavor profile of this grape with oak and butter. ood uality grapes when ripe present flavors of apple, pear, melon, and tropical fruits. In the wine, the resulting fermentation bou uet takes on citrus and cream overtones. ubtle uses of oak and, in some rare cases (for me at least), a partial malolactic fermentation. The benefit of the malolactic fermentation is that it can add some mouthfeel to a sometimes thin wine. In my opinion the disadvantage of the malolactic fermentation is that if allowed to go to completion the wine can be overpowered by the buttery, diacetyl characteristics as well as being a little flat in the mouth from a low titratable acidity.
Typical Brix levels at harvest are 3. to . bove this range typically leads to wines that are largely flat with no varietal character. The high rix leads to higher alcohols and a total overwhelming of your taste buds. The pH is an important parameter to monitor as well, which rises as the fruit hangs on the vine longer leading to flatter, thinner wines. That said, while pH is important and should be noted, I prefer to pay more attention to the titratable acidity (T ) of the grapes and resulting juice. The pH is important in driving the chemical stability of the wine, but it is the T that contributes to mouthfeel and enhances the natural flavors in the grape. Target your acid levels to be around to g L. emember that this is the sum total of the
weak organic acids in the wine. I will supplement acid deficient juice with tartaric acid to 6–7 g/L if the acid in the grape is too low. For partial MLF, set a target for ~7 g/L, and if you will prevent the MLF, target for the lower number. Your goal here is to be in the range of g L in your finished wine — but don’t forget it is still about the taste. The T number is just a target. The variability of rootstock, soil type, and region will affect the TA in the juice and even some good uality juice will re uire a supplement from time to time. Make sure you supplement at the juice stage. ut don’t overdo it. I find that one of the biggest problems in home winemaking is making decisions about adding acid. A good home test kit goes a long way in making these crucial decisions.
A successful fermentation is done with happy yeast. I usually use Premier Cuvee. I have looked at some of the other yeasts, notably Lallemand’s QA23 and CY3079, and have found success. The latter two have higher nitrogen reuirements so supplement well to keep them happy. I use about 25% more of the recommended dosage of Fermaid K with 3 and 3 . ut in general I get most of everything I want in a Chardonnay fermentation with Premier Cuvee, providing the temperature during active fermentation stays down between 55–60 °F (13–16 °C). It’s also fun to use all three yeasts in separate batches and when fermentation is complete, taste for differences and then blend them to optimize each.
At this point, consider aging the wine sur lie, which means “on the lees.” Only consider this if the lees do not smell of rotten egg. If they do smell of rotten egg, then rack the wine to a clean container and dispose of the lees. When aging sur lie, stir the lees every two weeks until you are ready to begin clearing the wine for bottling. For highly acidic wines, consider inoculating for the ML . e ready with your sulfur dioxide to halt the MLF when you get the mouthfeel you are looking for. MLF bacteria are highly sensitive to sulfur dioxide, but you need to be sure to keep levels sufficiently high to keep them suppressed.
If you had to remove the wine from
the lees, you can add mouthfeel with the subtle use of oak products or some of the specialty products from producers like Laffort or Lallemand. It is best not to treat the entire batch all at once given the variability of these products. Try experimenting with different products in small batches.
My general rule in winemaking is moderation. This is a very versatile grape and many styles are possible. The style I describe is a personal preference.
I find it to be a bit of a compromise between alifornia and urgundy and I feel it offers another perspective into what this grape is capable of doing. While I have written on the variety in the past, and made countless batches of it over the years, I learned so much more about this while doing my research. So raise a glass of Chardonnay and toast to eaunois, a grape steeped in history, which has found world fame through its diversity of styles.
by Bob Peak
Sausage and wine have been popular together since before the time of the Caesars. Many of the sausages we enjoy in North America today have origins in Europe and some recipes can be traced back to ancient Roman cookbooks. At its most basic, the nature of sausage is reflected in the name. “Sausage” in English is derived through Anglo-French from Latin “salsus,” meaning salted. Meat is minced or ground, salted and seasoned, and usually stu ed into a casing. Today, I will share with you my favorite recipe for mild Italian sausage, made with homemade red wine in the mix. Also made with wine is one of my favorite smoked sausages, linguiça, or Portuguese sausage. Both pair beautifully with hand-crafted wine.
Italian sausage is a North American term for a product that resembles some of the popular styles in Italy, where dozens of di erent regional and traditional sausages are enjoyed. Fried or grilled in the casing, such sausages are served on sandwiches with peppers and onions, on top of spaghetti with marinara sauce, or simply presented on a plate to enjoy with a glass of wine. Removed from the casing (or never stu ed to begin with), it can be found in pasta sauces, on pizzas, and as filling for stu ed pastas like ravioli. My version, like many others, is a 100% pork recipe. Fennel seeds, garlic, and fresh parsley make it instantly identifiable as “Italian.” Since I like to incorporate wine into my cooking when I can, I include a homemade red wine in the meat mixture. If you want to make hot Italian sausage instead of mild, simply add cayenne pepper at a rate of ¼ to ½ tsp. per pound (454 g) of meat.
Linguiça is another European style sausage that I have long enjoyed. After I bought a smoker, this Portuguese sausage was one of the first recipes I developed. Richly flavored with three di erent kinds of paprika, it becomes even more savory with time spent hanging in hickory smoke. This recipe is also 100% pork and includes red wine. A few years ago I had the good fortune of being able to buy some grapes at harvest time from a friend
who had just bought a vineyard that included the Portuguese grape variety Tinta Cão. While traditionally used in producing Port-style dessert wines, it also makes a delicious dry red table wine that pairs very nicely with this mildly spicy Iberian food.
Two basic pieces of equipment are required for sausage making: A grinder and a stu er. Just as with winemaking equipment, there are some simple manual devices that will get you started, but you may want to upgrade if this becomes a regular hobby. In the pictures included here, you will see the electric grinder and piston-style stu er that I have settled on. They have proved very satisfactory for my level of production of several batches per year of 5–6 pounds (2.3–2.7 kg) each. Of course, that’s a lot of one kind of sausage for my wife and I. Sometimes we split a batch, as we did for this article, between Italian sausage and linguiça. What we don’t cook and eat in a day or two, we freeze on sheet pans and then store in zipper bags in the freezer.
In the linguiça recipe, you will see that I use pink salt/Prague powder #1/insta cure #1 as an ingredient. That curing salt is 6.25% sodium nitrite and the balance is sodium chlo-
ride (table salt). The other prominent curing salt you may run across in this hobby is Prague powder #2 with the same amount of sodium nitrite plus 4% sodium nitrate. Both salts are dyed pink so they don’t get mistaken for table salt in the kitchen. Besides assuring the color and flavor of cured meat, these salts protect against the growth of spoilage organisms, most notably Clostridium botulinum, in sausages that spend some time at other than cold temperatures. Cure #1 is for short-term applications, such as the 90-minute “cool” smoking period in my recipe. If you want to make the same recipe as a raw sausage without smoking, to be refrigerated or frozen, you may leave it out. For longer storage outside the fridge, as in drying a salami, the nitrate in cure #2 breaks down to nitrite, providing extended protection. If you want to get the character of cured sausage but avoid nitrate and nitrite salts, you can buy celery extract powder that has significant levels of naturally occurring nitrates. Some salamis also have a sour lactic tang as part of the flavor profile. The lactic acid is produced through bacterial fermentation. Because I love putting microbes to work, I have made a few dried sausages using Chr Hansen Bactiferm F-RM-52 that contains Lactobacillus sakei and Staphylococcus
carnosus, much as we use freeze-dried cultures of Oenococcus oeni to initiate malolactic fermentation in our wines.
What meat you use in what sausage is entirely your choice. Modern pork is so lean that adding pork fatback (also called back fat), as I do here, really helps assure a juicy and succulent product. You will probably need to talk to your butcher to buy it, but it is very inexpensive (I order my sausage meats from a local custom meat purveyor and pick up the combination I want the next day.) In the interest of expanding my sausage horizons, I have also made sausages from meats beyond pork and beef. I have boned and ground chicken thighs and turkey thighs, and around Thanksgiving (when turkeys go on sale at supermarkets) my wife has bought whole frozen turkeys that we thaw, bone and skin, and then grind for sausage. I have also used lamb leg meat for making the North African sausage Merguez and it was delicious. For that one, I wanted to make breakfast-size sausages, smaller than a “standard” dinner sausage.
That leads me to a discussion of casing: The small ones are sheep intestine casings and do, indeed, make breakfast-size links. Hog casings are what I use most often, making sausages roughly one inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. The biggest natural casings for home use are beef middles, used for sausages like bologna or summer sausage. There are also a variety of
manufactured casings using collagen, plastic, and other materials. You may be able to find the casings you need at your local butcher shop. If not, a simple Google search for sausage casings will result in numerous options to order online. I have sourced most of my equipment and (non-meat) supplies from sausagemaker.com and lemproducts.com.
As with any food or beverage hobby, cleaning and sanitation are very important. Clean all of your work surfaces like you would for any cooking project, and sanitize any surface that will be in direct contact with your sausages. Keep in mind that meat can spoil much more quickly than grapes. I like to use a 70% ethanol solution in a spray bottle to sanitize the Formica tabletop that I do my stu ng on. Another protection against spoilage is to keep everything as cold as possible while you work. That also helps keep the fat from smearing, so you get a better texture.
This story is, of course, intended as an introduction to making sausage at home. If you’d like to take the hobby further I would recommend getting a good book on the subject. I use (and like) Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn as a basic text and, for more advanced fermented sausages: The Art of Making Fermented Sausages by Marianski and Marianski.
Alright, armed with this basic information, let’s open a bottle of wine and get to the recipes.
R.O.P.P.(rolloverpilfer proof),Semi-Automatic, 120v/60Hz,Madein Italy,3-400caps/Hr, Aluminumscrew capsforWine,Spirits, Oliveoilandother beverages.Height adjustable,23Kg,Table topoperation.
Meat:
4 lbs. (1.8 kg) boneless pork butt (shoulder)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) pork fatback
First addition:
1½ tsp. black pepper
4 tsp. toasted fennel seeds (toss in a nonstick pan over medium heat to toast)
1 tsp. paprika
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped
(Optional: 1–2 tsp. cayenne powder to make hot Italian sausage)
Second addition:
8 tsp. kosher salt
7 tsp. sugar
Third addition:
¾ cup homemade red wine
¼ cup red wine vinegar
Other:
Hog casings packed in salt
Clean and sanitize surfaces. Cube fat and put in freezer. Cube pork. Toss pork cubes and frozen fat cubes with spices. Add the salt and sugar and mix again. Chill in the fridge.
Mix vinegar with wine and chill. Chill grinder parts.
Soak about four hog casings 30–60 minutes in tepid water. Rinse with cool water, including running a plug of water through each. Keep in a fresh bowl of cool water. (If you just want bulk Italian sausage without the casings, you can skip this part.)
Set up the grinder and get out the chilled sausage mixture. Grind on medium into a bowl set in ice. Add wine and vinegar and mix into ground meat. Fry a test patty and taste. Adjust seasoning as needed to fit your taste.
tart filling a casing, s uee e out
air, and tie off with kitchen twine. Stuff to desired link sizes, twisting opposite directions each time. Coil on sheet pans lined with wax paper. Refrigerate or freeze, then cut apart the links. Use within a couple of days or store frozen sausages in zipper bags. Grill or fry thawed sausages until just cooked through to maintain juiciness.
This sausage recipe uses a medium grind, producing the typical somewhat rustic character of most Italian sausage. romas and flavors are savory meat and toasted fennel seed. The sausage is juicy but tender and has a very typically Italian flavor profile. The hints of vinegar and wine brighten the overall palate.
This Italian sausage pairs very nicely with a fruity red wine.
Meat:
5 lbs. (2.27 kg) boneless pork butt (shoulder)
1 lb. (0.45 kg) pork fatback
First addition:
3 Tbsp. chopped garlic
½ cup homemade dry red wine
2 Tbsp. sweet paprika
2 Tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. smoked hot paprika
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground white pepper
1 tsp. ground black pepper
¼ tsp. ground coriander seed
Second addition:
40 g kosher salt
6 g pink salt (Prague powder #1)
Other:
Hog casings packed in salt
Hickory chips for smoking
STEP BY STEP
Clean and sanitize surfaces. Cube fat and put in freezer. Cube pork. Toss pork cubes and frozen fat cubes with wine and spices. Add the salts and mix again. Chill in fridge.
Chill grinder parts. Soak about 4 hog casings 30–60 minutes in tepid water. Rinse with cool water, including running a plug of water through each. Keep in a fresh bowl of cool water.
Set up the grinder and get out the chilled sausage mixture. Grind on medium into a bowl set in ice. Fry a test patty and taste. Adjust seasoning if needed. tart filling a casing, s uee e out air, and tie off with kitchen twine. Stuff to desired links, twisting opposite directions each time. Coil on a rack as they fill. ir-dry uncovered in refrigerator for about one hour.
Hang links on smoking rack and place in smoker. moke over hickory for minutes at 1 ( ). emove
to platter.
When ready, cut apart links and grill over low-medium flame for 1 to 1 minutes (smoking at 140° F/60 °C does not make the pork fully cooked). Watch for flare-ups
Notes:
Special thanks on this recipe to former co-worker and fermentation collaborator imi nderson who developed it with me.
The flavor profile is smoky, mildly spicy, and richly meaty. We have enjoyed it with eggs and potatoes, with pilaf and grilled vegetables, and as part of a small-plates tapas style buffet.
This sausage pairs beautifully with the same red wine you use in it. If you are fortunate enough to make a Portuguese variety as a dry red wine, then by all means serve that. When paired with eggs, whether for brunch or for dinner, sparkling wine is a great companion.
Maceration is the process of extracting chemical compounds from the solid parts of the grape berry into the juice. Maceration doesn’t play a big role in white wine production, with the exception of some aromatic whites and orange wines, but is a critical component of red winemaking. Maceration time and temperature, as well as processing options, impact the color and tannic astringency of the resulting wine. Both color and tannin components are phenolic molecules. The location and the molecular size of the phenolic compound have a big impact on when and how much of a particular type of phenolic compound is extracted into wine. Anthocyanins, the phenolic compounds that contribute color to wines, are found predominantly in the skins in most grape varieties. Tannin compounds, a wide class of compounds that have similar base structure but di er in size and type, are found in the skins, seeds, and pulp of grapes.
The rate of extraction of color and tannin molecules from the solid matrix of the skin tissue into the liquid matrix of the juice is mostly determined by the size of the molecule. Anthocyanin molecules are relatively small in size and thus are extracted into juice quickly. Most tannin molecules are polymers, and their larger molecular size means they are extracted more slowly into the juice. Grape seeds contain large quantities of tannin that are extracted the most slowly unless the seed is damaged, so winemakers go to great lengths to ensure seeds are treated gently and never crushed in rollers that are too tight, or ground in pump internals or other processing equipment. Examples of the extraction dynamics for color and tannin are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 on page 32. These figures show that most of the color is extracted in the first day or two of maceration, while tannin extraction is more gradual and continues as long as the skins and seeds are in contact with the juice.
Punchdowns and pumpovers are the two most common methods of maceration. In commercial production most winemakers believe punchdowns, despite the name, are gentler and less oxidative than pumpovers. When I worked harvest jobs in California and Oregon the Pinot Noir producers favored punchdowns, while the Cabernet producers favored pumpovers. However, the research I’ve seen regarding the impact of punchdowns versus pumpovers doesn’t show a lot of di erence between the two methods in terms of color and tannin extraction. Still, there are so many variables in how these two maceration methods are performed, and the sensory impacts may be so subtle, that it is possible research has yet to catch up with winemaker intuition. The other big split between punchdowns and pumpovers is based on tank size. Very small lots are more convenient to punchdown than pumpover, and the opposite is true of very large tanks. For this reason most home wine producers favor punchdowns, which puts them in good company with many commercial producers.
Foot treading, like Lucille Ball in her famous grape stomp scene in I Love Lucy, is a time-honored method of maceration still practiced by some traditionalists. Most modern winemakers prefer to keep their shoes on and manually punchdown the cap using their arms. A sturdy and easyto-clean punchdown tool is a good investment; you can find them at home winemaking shops and online, or you can make your own out of wood or stainless steel. You can see a homemade punchdown tool my dad fabricated for me when I first began home winemaking in the picture on page 33.
Pumpovers require a pump, of course, but also some method of keeping skins and seeds out of the pump internals. Commercial producers often use screens inside the tank that prevent solids from getting stuck in the tank valve, as well as a sump below the tank outlet with another screen to collect skins and seeds prior to the pump inlet.
Home winemakers and small lot
producers often ferment in tanks, macro bins, or food-grade garbage cans, which don’t have a screened bottom valve. In this case, using a perforated suction tube, with the inlet hose to the pump inside it, is a workable method for pumping over. Pumpovers can have the added benefit of adding a bit of oxygen to fermenting must if the fermenting juice is sprayed back over the cap. Oxygen during active fermentation helps with both color stabilization and tannin integration. Oxygen can also be important for yeast health, preventing yeast from producing reductive, or stinky aromas, late in fermentation. To incorporate more oxygen into the fermenting must a Venturi tube or sparging stone and oxygen tank are required.
Getting back to maceration techniques, one important consideration for either punchdowns or pumpovers is that some method of breaking up the cap should be employed at least once a day during active fermentation. Once fermentation is underway and the cap has formed the juice beneath it contains an inhibitory level of alcohol and is saturated with carbon dioxide, thus limiting microbial growth. Getting the cap wet and keeping it in contact with the fermenting liquid beneath it helps with tannin extraction, but more importantly it also limits microbial growth in and on the cap. Both acetic acid bacteria and spoilage molds and fungi will grow in the cap if it is not periodically wetted with the fermenting juice.
Winemakers often punchdown or pumpover two or three times per day during active fermentation. Again, there’s not a lot of research on this topic and the research I’ve seen does not show big di erences between wines made with di erent numbers of maceration activities per day, so as a home winemaker with other stu happening in your life, it’s probably fine to perform a punchdown or pumpover once per day. Doing this maceration step at least once per day also gives you as the winemaker the opportunity to assess the fermentation by taking a sample and measuring the Brix level. This daily sample should also be sni ed to check for o -aromas
and tasted to determine if tannin extraction is progressing according to the winemaker’s goal for the style and type of wine being produced.
Temperature is also an important aspect of color and tannin extraction, with increasing temperature during maceration increasing the extraction. Some winemakers use this to their advantage in hot pressing, where the must is heated to 150–180 °F (66–82 °C) for a short period of time prior to pressing, instead of waiting the 24–48 hours it usually takes, in order to extract color. Color is released quickly in this method, but tannin and some aromatics are not. Thus hybrid winemakers may employ this method for extracting color in highly aromatic hybrid red wines.
In vinifera red wine fermentations many commercial winemakers like to see maximum fermentation temperatures in the 85–95 °F (29–35 °C) range if high levels of tannin extraction are desired for the grape variety and style. These high temperatures may be di cult for home winemakers to achieve. Using insulated fermenta-
tion vessels will help retain the heat generated during fermentation, and tank electric heaters or use of heat exchange coils circulating hot water might also be options to explore.
I always tell my students that there are a million di erent ways to make wine. This maxim holds true for maceration options as well. Besides the options mentioned earlier: Punchdowns vs. pumpovers and maceration frequency and temperature, some winemakers employ techniques such as cold soaking, extended maceration, and carbonic or “semi-carbonic” maceration. We’ll cover each of these options in more detail next, with the help of some commercial winemakers. I contacted Kirsty Harmon, Winemaker at Blenheim Vineyards in Virginia; Elizabeth Clark, Winemaker at Airlie Winery in Oregon; and Peter Bell, Winemaker at Fox Run Vineyards in New York to ask their opinion and use of these techniques. We’ll cover a brief overview of each technique, followed by opinions and commentary from our commercial winemaking team.
Cold soak is a technique utilized after destemming and crushing, but before primary fermentation begins. The skins and seeds are “soaked” in contact with the juice, but the temperature of the must is kept low, 40–50 °F (4–10 °C), so that alcoholic fermentation does not advance. When cold soaking it is also often recommended to add sulfur dioxide during crushing and to utilize dry ice and a cover on top of the must to prevent oxidation.
I looked up this technique in the Oxford Companion to Wine and besides the basic definition there isn’t much to say about cold soaking other than it is popular in Pinot Noir production. One could imagine that in an era before commercial yeast was readily available, cold soaking was simply part of the process in Burgundy, where the fall harvest temperatures could be quite cool. It would certainly take some time for native Saccharomyces yeast to grow enough cells to develop a cap in an unheated wine cellar. Emulating Burgundian winemaking methods is perhaps why Pinot Noir producers have continued to utilize this technique.
Cold soak duration is generally overnight to several days, but usually not more than a week. Even though the temperature is low enough that alcoholic fermentation is inhibited, other microbial species may be capable of metabolism in this temperature range. Thus it is still recommended to macerate during cold soaking either with punchdowns or pumpovers to ensure unwanted microbes are inhibited. Practically speaking this can be somewhat arduous because grape must without a cap is much more difficult to punchdown!
Winemaking textbooks recommend rapid heating to standard fermentation temperatures and inoculation with a commercial yeast strain once the cold soak duration is complete. The danger is that a prolonged period of moderate temperatures could slow Saccharomyces metabolism and allow other microbes to metabolize sugar in the must. This brings to mind a couple of practical problems with many cold soaks, particularly for the home winemaker: The ability to maintain a low temperature and the ability to rapidly heat the must to fermentation temperature. Especially in warmer climates, it can be di cult to keep a cold soak cold. Thus, what may occur in practice is a “lukewarm” soak, which could end up promoting the metabolism of non-Saccharomyces strains that produce unwanted aroma volatiles like ethyl acetate (nail polish remover or solvent aroma). Similarly, even if cold temperatures can be maintained, a long warming period prior to fermentation also leaves the must susceptible to unwanted microbial metabolism.
There is conflicting research data on whether conducting a cold soak is beneficial in terms of color extraction, but most research seems to show little di erence in color, or even a slight color loss, between cold soak and standard maceration schedules. Similar research has shown a slight decrease in tannin extraction when cold soak is utilized, but this technique remains popular in some regions and with certain grape varieties. We mentioned Burgundy and Pinot Noir earlier, and the idea of cold soaking appears to have initially spread to Pinot producers in Oregon and California as
well. In addition, the technique has now expanded to Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah producers in the U.S. and, according to the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), is also popular with Australian producers of many di erent grape varieties. Tim Patterson wrote an excellent article on cold soaking several years ago in Wines and Vines (https://winesvinesanalyt ics.com/sections/printout_article. cfm?article=column&content=64972) covering much the same ground, and he also mentions at several points that research into cold soak is inconclusive. So it begs the question if more research may be needed on this technique.
Besides the possible impact on color, some winemakers also like cold soaking because they believe the add-
ed time before active Saccharomyces fermentation may give other beneficial microbes a chance to increase the aroma complexity of the wine (similar to non-inoculated, or “native” fermentations). There is some research evidence for the benefit of multi-microbe fermentation, so much so that several commercial yeast suppliers now also o er non-Saccharomyces strains for pre-fermentation or early fermentation use. Still, for home winemakers this technique may present more risk than reward.
Elizabeth Clark cold soaks both red varieties she produces, Pinot Noir and Marechal Foch. Elizabeth says, “While I don’t think it’s particularly necessary for either tannin extraction or color extraction with these two red varietals, I do think there is in-
creased aromatic complexity. As it is di cult for us to do a true cold soak, we get more of a ‘cool soak.’ I have been experimenting with some of the non-Saccharomyces yeasts like Gaïa™ (Metschnikowia fructicola from Scott Labs) to provide some microbial protection while increasing aromatics.”
Kirsty Harmon does not use a cold soak in her winemaking protocol, except for rosé production. Rosé wines need to spend some time on the skins to extract color, of course, and performing this skin contact at cooler temperatures can help limit tannin extraction and prevent fermentation before cold settling is complete. Kirsty’s view is that, “I know that it is a popular technique, but I don’t like the risk that you take by keeping fruit cold for an extended period of time.”
Peter Bell also does not utilize a cold soak phase in his winemaking, stating that research has shown no benefit in color or tannin extraction, and “unless you go crazy with oxygen exclusion during the cold soak, you’ll probably see an increase in ethyl acetate in the must. Then there’s the issue of having to warm the must up before inoculation.”
In summary, cold soaking doesn’t really impact color but might be an interesting method to try if you’re adventurous and interested in trying to expand the aroma complexity of your wine. The safest way to experiment with this method is to utilize some of the non-Saccharomyces yeasts that are currently sold for this purpose, and to limit oxidation as much as possible.
Extended maceration is a technique where the skins and seeds remain in contact with the newly fermented must well past the end of primary fermentation, often anywhere from a week to 30 days post-fermentation, and for some adventurous winemakers even longer. The Oxford Companion has even less information on extended maceration than cold soaking, but an AWRI article on the topic (https:// www.awri.com.au/wp-content/up loads/2018/11/s2045.pdf) mentions it is a traditional technique used in the Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Rhône Valley regions of France, as well as in the Piedmont region of Italy. An AWRI survey in 2009 found it was quite common with Australian producers and most commonly used on Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, and Pinot Noir. I’ve seen it used in California on both Pinot Noir and Cabernet.
Allowing the newly fermented wine to remain in contact with skins and seeds using extended maceration has been shown to increase the percentage of seed tannin and the overall tannin level. Anecdotally, winemakers also describe a change in tannin perception at the end of extended maceration where the aggressive tannin of a well-extracted red wine mellows and becomes softer and smoother.
Extended maceration is a bit of a gamble if you’ve never tried it before. It should only be performed with grapes that have ripe seeds, because unripe seeds can extract too much
and very harsh tannins (the fully developed seed coat is thought to slow tannin extraction). Care needs to be taken to limit oxidation and the potential for spoilage, since fermentation is no longer creating carbon dioxide. Thus extended maceration should be performed in a closed tank, and preferably one that is either full or periodically purged with an inert gas. As a result, I’ve only seen extended maceration performed in closed top tanks or tanks with variable capacity lids. Without this equipment it would be di cult for home winemakers to utilize extended maceration without oxidation concerns, however there are many di erent sizes of variable capacity tanks available to home winemakers. When I make red wine at home I use food-grade trashcans for fermentation, which would definitely leave the must susceptible to oxidation if I tried this technique. Besides limiting oxidation, extended maceration must also be monitored by tasting the wine every few days to determine the optimum time to press the wine o the skins.
Kirsty doesn’t normally use extended maceration in her winemaking because of the stylistic choices she makes with her red wines. “I am hoping to make fruit-forward wines that have some tannin, but I don’t want overly astringent or tannic wines, so I press as soon as Brix are reading negative numbers. All of the wines that we make here are in barrels less than
a year and bottled before the following harvest. I think if I were hoping to make more structured wines with more aging potential, that extended maceration might be a tool that I would consider.”
Peter is also not a fan of extended maceration because he produces cool-climate reds where, like Kirsty’s wines, maximum tannin extraction is not a focus. Peter states that, “The aim is to continue to extract phenolic compounds from the must, and perhaps initiate a cascade of polymerization reactions in the wine. Research indicates that for this to work at all, maceration has to be for weeks or even months rather than a few days. During that time, you are asking a lot of di erent microbes to the party.”
Elizabeth also does not use extended maceration, perhaps due to the limited number of red varieties she produces. “The few Pinot Noirs I have tried where it was done have not tasted good to me. I find them overly tannic and bitter and less fresh tasting. My understanding is that thicker-skinned varietals such as a Cabernet Sauvignon do quite well with extended maceration and that it’s necessary to start the process of actually smoothing out the tannins.”
So, extended maceration might best be suited to winemakers making high-tannin reds, and who have the patience and storage capacity to perform this technique without damaging the young wine.
Carbonic maceration is a relatively recent addition to the winemaking toolbox, with experiments by French researcher Michel Flanzy documenting the technique in a production capacity in 1936. Carbonic maceration is a technique where whole clusters of fruit are placed in a sealed tank that has been purged with carbon dioxide gas. Enzymes in the grape berry will naturally break down the skin of the berry and convert some sugar into ethanol. The tank is also kept quite warm, perhaps around 90 °F (32 °C), which helps with the enzymatic breakdown of pulp and skin tissue. After about one week of time, depending on the maximum temperature achieved, the tank is emptied to press and a traditional fermentation is continued following pressing. This technique produces very fruity wines (some call it fake fruit or “Jolly Rancher” aromas). However, the wines usually have only a moderate amount of color and low tannin.
I haven’t seen many producers practicing full-on carbonic maceration outside of Beaujolais, the French region that made this technique famous with their Beaujolais nouveau style. The Oxford Companion states that while Beaujolais is the most prominent region for carbonic maceration and Gamay the most popular grape variety utilized, the technique is also practiced in southern France on grape varieties like Carignan. Still, I have met winemakers, especially in Oregon, who talk about utilizing some percentage of whole-cluster fruit in the bottom of a fermentation vat as a “semi-carbonic” process. I’ve also heard some winemakers describe destemming berries, but not crushing them, as giving a bit of carbonic fruit lift to their fermentations.
Research has shown there are definitely organoleptic impacts on wines
treated with the full carbonic maceration protocol. The e ects are so dramatic that one need only compare a Beaujolais nouveau to a common Beaujolais Village wine to see, smell, and taste the di erences. There’s also some research showing di erences in wines that were destemmed vs. whole cluster fermentations, with whole cluster fermentations showing less color but higher total phenolics. When evaluating the impact of whole cluster fermentation vs. carbonic maceration or standard maceration, it’s a bit di cult to separate di erences in any impacts that might be coming from carbonic maceration in the berries versus the extraction of aroma and flavor coming from the included stems. Limited amounts of research regarding whole berry fermentations versus crushed fruit show subtle differences in color and phenolics (flavor di erences were not categorized).
Our commercial winemakers had a lot more to say regarding carbonic maceration, whole berry, and whole cluster (also called stem inclusion) fermentation techniques.
We will start with Peter’s take on carbonic maceration:
“In its classic iteration, carbonic maceration does not seem to work well at all outside of Beaujolais — the wines are thin and disjointed. I have experimented with adding some destemmed, whole berries to fermentations. The main e ect seems to be drawing the fermentation out for a few more days, which may favor the production of certain yeast metabolites. I am skeptical that the berries themselves are actually undergoing enough of a true enzymatic fermentation to influence wine flavor. Even if this is happening, who really wants cinnamaldehyde and isoamyl acetate [cinnamon and banana aromas]?”
Elizabeth has also experiment-
ed with carbonic and partial carbonic techniques and considers whole berry destemming an important parameter:
“I have done true full-on carbonic maceration in the past and it was very di cult with floating lid tanks to keep them sealed and full of CO2. I suspect a fixed capacity tank would be easier but I have no idea how one would load it with whole clusters. It does provide a distinctive flavor/aroma profile and in my experience of working with Gamay Noir and Pinot Noir generally masked the varietal. I don’t generally add whole clusters to my red ferments but we have a very gentle destemmer, which leaves lots of whole berries and as our punchdown/pumpover regime is quite delicate we get a certain percentage of berries that go through a form of carbonic maceration. Certainly when we changed destemmers (to the more gentle destemmer) there was a great increase of fruitiness and black pepper aromas and a touch of confectionery. The wines are rounder and softer as well, but I think that is more due to the fact that the seeds tend to stay in the berries longer so I have less seed tannins in the finished wine.”
Kirsty has experimented with full carbonic and semi-carbonic maceration and has included a link to some
of her own research on this topic.
“I really like using whole clusters and whole berries in fermentations and have experimented quite a bit with carbonic maceration. I started trying to utilize as full-on carbonic maceration as I can get a few years ago. I have a small tank that I can load 0.75 ton (680 kg) of whole clusters in and then gas continually. I don’t have the ability to control the temperature of this tank, but after 7–10 days outside with gas on constantly, I’m able to get pretty fizzy intact clusters out of it that I then destem and ferment (two punchdowns a day) as normal. As part of the Winemaker’s Research Exchange, we’ve been able to do some sensory analysis each year to confirm that the wines are statistically di erent. The group has done several carbonic/carbonic-type experiments over the years: http://www.winemak ersresearchexchange.com/contentswhole-cluster-and-stem-inclusion.
“I do think that even semi-carbonic maceration is important in the winemaking here and do think that it leads to fruitier wines. I originally tried experimenting with more carbonic maceration as a way to try to increase complexity as well as mid-palate structure, and have really liked the outcomes. I generally do not crush any
fruit, just destem.”
So, from a home winemaking perspective trying to experiment with destemmed-only whole berries might be an interesting first step into the world of carbonic maceration. Newer commercial destemmers, and mechanical harvesters for that matter, have come a long way with gentle handling of clusters and are capable of destemming with a surprisingly large percentage of whole berries. At the top end of the home winemaking price range are some “gentler” destemmer-only models (one example goes for $2,500, for instance, vs. about $1,500 for stainless home crusher/ desemmers). Traditional small-scale destemmer/crushers will crush the fruit first, so if you, or your winemaking club, doesn’t want to splurge for one of these destemmer-only models it might be necessary to ask a larger local producer, or your local winemaking shop, to destem the fruit for you.
Another option for home producers might be to attempt carbonic maceration with whole cluster fruit in a tank that can be sealed, like Kirsty’s method. Poly tanks with large access lids might work, or a food-grade 55-gallon (208-L) drum with a removable lid, but as Elizabeth men-
tions getting the whole clusters back out of the tank could be di cult without a way to tip the tank. Once a suitable tank and emptying method is found you would also need a way to purge the tank, at least daily, with carbon dioxide during the carbonic maceration period. WineMaker Technical Editor Bob Peak shared that he’s found a technique that worked for him: “I had some success with my one experiment in a 26-gallon (100L) variable capacity tank. I ran a CO2 line from the bottom of the tank prior to loading in whole clusters, then brought the tube out through the fermentation lock hole in the lid and over to the CO2 tank. I burned a votive candle on the lid before charging with gas, so when the candle went out, the tank was flushed.”
Part of the fascination and excitement of being a winemaker is trying to figure out the logic puzzle of how your best fruit expression may be achieved with the fruit quality, equipment, and techniques available to you. As my father used to say to me when we ran into di culty refurbishing hot rods together, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Good luck in finding your own best practices for making exciting and flavorful wines this harvest!
Story and photos by Richard Hector
Afew years after I had planted my vineyard I thought I had a decent harvest coming. But as the grapes sweetened, they began to disappear. At first, I thought the deer were getting over the fence and into the vineyard. No, it was the birds. That was my introduction to the need for bird netting.
Since then, I apply my bird netting about a month before harvest. My netting for each row of vines is 14 feet (4.2 m) wide and 150 feet (46 m) long. I unroll the netting over the top of the vines and clip the bottom edges together to form a tunnel around the fruit, shoots, and leaves. During harvest, I remove the clips but leave the netting over the vines and pick underneath the netting. After I have destemmed and crushed the grapes and started fermentation, I have time to pull the netting o the vines and onto the ground between the rows. The fi-
nal step in the process is rolling up the netting.
My netting is the plastic weave type. The way I have collected the netting for years was rolling it up starting with my hands, folding it into a roll about 2 feet (0.6 m) wide, but once I’ve rolled up 10–15 feet (3–4.5 m) in my hands, it becomes too bulky and I lay it down on the ground and roll it up from there. The roll would become wider and bulkier as I would go. I’d have to fold the ends in to keep it from getting too wide. And, of course, I’m walking, bent over, pushing the roll of netting.
Unrolling this bulky and tangled roll for the following harvest also had its problems. I would lay the roll on the top of vines and unroll it from there, but it would snag on the shoots and posts. Every 10–15 feet (3–4.5 m), I’d have to pull the netting tight, otherwise it wouldn’t be long enough to complete the row. A couple of years of
doing this and I knew that things had to change.
I wanted to design a “Bird Netting Applicator” made primarily from PVC pipes and fittings. The objective was to continue to roll up the netting with it laying on the ground and to be able to unroll the netting from above the vines. The applicator would consist of two parts, a roll-up device and a roll-out device. It was obvious from the start that the Roll-Up Applicator (RUA) would be more complicated than the Roll-Out Applicator (ROA). When I had new rolls of bird netting, they were rolled onto a cardboard tube and they were easy to unroll over the vines. So the objective was to roll up the netting like a new roll.
So, the RUA design had to pull the netting up from the ground, pull the netting into about a 30-inch (0.75 m) or so width, and roll it tightly around
a tube. The Roll-Out Applicator design had to hold the tube and netting above the vines and keep the netting taut as it is being unrolled.
As can be seen in the photos, building the RUA is complicated, but is divided into steps. You may feel more comfortable if you build it with a dry-fit (without PVC cement) to ensure that any mistakes can be easily corrected. After you feel comfortable that everything fits as it should, you can then re-assemble each piece using glue to hold them in place. Or, if you are comfortable with it, it may be easiest to dry-fit only one or two steps at
a time, then glue-in each piece from those steps. Note that dry-fit joints can be di cult to undo if the pipe is forced fully into the fitting, so make your dry-fit snug, but not tight.
The RUA and ROA are made using 1-inch (2.5-cm) PVC, Schedule 40, pipes and fittings with the exception of the net spindle and some of its associated fittings that are 1¼-inch (3cm), Schedule 40. Some types of fittings don’t exist and two fittings are required, connected closely together. Since nearly all pipes in this build are 1-inch (2.5-cm) diameter pipe, an “18-inch (45-cm) pipe” will refer to its length. I will make it clear in the steps that are not using 1-inch (2.5cm) diameter pipe.
Having priced out this project, the cost for fittings should run about $175 if bought locally or about $110 if purchased from a website like SupplyHouse.com. PVC pipe for the build and pipe for each roll of netting (assume 12 rolls), purchased locally will cost about $100. Miscellaneous items (wheels, axle, snap pins, etc.) will run another $25. That brings the total cost to about $300 or $235 if fittings are purchased online.
Keeping fittings square is essential and, therefore, when gluing in some fittings, temporarily insert an 18- to 24-inch (45- to 60-cm) PVC pipe into the appropriate outlet and eyeball the connection to be square. Since PVC pipes are fairly flexible, a little misalignment will be alright.
Pipe lengths must be accurately and squarely cut. I suggest using an electric power chop saw. When gluing a pipe to a fitting, be sure the pipe is all the way in and does not push slightly out before the glue sets. If you notice a pipe and fitting that is not the same length as its symmetrical counterpart, then the longer one is probably too long and you might be able to trim it down. Minor variation in length is tolerable and won’t make a di erence.
I have divided the DIY build into 10 steps. Each step is fairly complicated in itself, but there is a photo for each step with pipe lengths identified. (If you notice a coupler fitting in the photos, just ignore it as it was necessary to fix a construction mistake or design error.) The fitting type should be visually identifiable in the photo. With each step, the RUA will grow, but only the additional pipes will have their length identified on the photo. With only one exception, the RUA is symmetrical, so only one side has the pipe length identified.
In the following steps, I will refer to the rectangular back portion of the RUA as the base, the front sloping portion as the net ramp, the top portion above the base as the winder mechanism, the winder and handle as the winder crank, and the pipe on which the netting is wound around as the net spindle. With that, let’s dive in!
There are 10 steps for the build. A full parts list can be found on page 45. Very detailed instructions for each step are available in the digital version of this article at www.winemakermag.com/article/diy-bird-net-applicator due to space constraints on these pages. However, a good feel for what this build entails can be gleaned from the pictures and captions that follow. Using the parts list, you may want to cut all the pipes to length before starting the construction in order to minimize waste (cut longest pipes first and mark the pipe length on each pipe with a permanent marker).
The base has 22½-degree elbows that slope the back of the RUA to allow moving the RUA by holding onto the back cross-member of the base without stepping onto the bottom back cross-member as you walk.
The net ramp has two purposes. First, it lifts the netting o the ground and up to the winder mechanism. Second, it forces the width of the netting to be folded into about a 30inch (0.75-m) width before it rolls onto the net spindle.
The purpose of the base is to hold the winder mechanism at height for a standing operator. The base must also be rigid enough to take the strain of winding the netting onto the net spindle. This step starts building from the rear of the base (from the slope pipes) and working forward, before building the front horizontal cross members.
The top of the net ramp has two ducts to force the netting together into a 30-inch (0.75-m) width. The ramp rises at about a 45-degree angle and narrows at a 221⁄2degree angle.
The winder mechanism has two functions. First, to hold the winder in a rigid manner at a suitable height. Second, to keep the netting in the middle 30 inches (0.75 m) of the net spindle. In addition, the horizontal pipes underneath the 11⁄4-inch cross-fitting and tee-fitting will catch the net spindle when the winder crank is pulled out when changing spindles. This is the only step that does not have symmetry and the user has a choice to place the crank on the winder on the left or right side. I placed the crank on the left side (as viewed from the back) because I am right-handed.
The purpose of wheels is to be able to move the RUA around. For short vineyard rows, the RUA would probably remain stationary, while on longer rows, the RUA may move down the vineyard row as the netting is pulled into the RUA. Also, wheels are needed in moving the RUA from one vineyard row to the next.
STEP 8: PIN HOLE JIG
This step is straightforward and the user may decide on a larger or smaller crank handle diameter. Of course, the mechanical advantage is to make the crank diameter large. The 1-inch rotating shaft, which is 50 inches (127 cm) long, slides through the winder mechanism and is connected by elbows to the crank handle.
The winder crank slides into the net spindle and the two are held together by snap pins. The jig is used for drilling 3⁄8inch holes for 5⁄16-inch diameter snap pins.
STEP 9: PIN HOLES IN THE WINDER CRANK AND THE NET SPINDLE
The net spindle is just a section of 11⁄4-inch PVC pipe with holes for a snap pin on either end. The pinholes on the net spindle must align with the winder crank holes, which can be di cult to do. A net spindle is needed for each roll of netting. This can be easier and more accurately done with a pin hole jig.
The ROA is used to unroll the bird netting that has been wound up on the net spindle. It requires two people, one on each side of the vineyard row, to hold a PVC post attached to the roll-out mechanism.
Take the winder crank and push it through the opening on the winder mechanism. Slide the winder crank through a net spindle and into the opening on the opposite side. Align the holes in the net spindle with the holes in the winder crank, insert snap pins, and close the locking snaps.
With the bird netting on the ground, place the RUA near the end of the netting. Wrap a 6- to 8-inch (15to 20-cm) strip of Duct Tape around the center of the net spindle. Repeat with Duct Tape at about 12 inches (30 cm) on either side of the center. Take the end of the netting and fold it together such that it is about 30 inches (75 cm) wide, and hook it onto the Duct Tape.
Start turning the winder crank while moving the RUA several feet forward until the bird netting has been wrapped around the net spindle a couple of times. If the vineyard row is
long, you may have to move the RUA forward as you wind more netting on. Keep some tension on the netting so it is wound tightly.
Once you have completed a section of netting, tie a string around the roll of netting. Pull the two snap pins out, and then pull out the winder crank Remove the netting with the net spindle from the RUA.
Take the un-roll pole with the insertion arm and insert into a net spindle loaded with bird netting. Take the other un-roll pole and slide it over the exposed insertion arm. Align the holes and insert a snap pin and close the locking snap.
* The Net Spindles (Step 9) needs 1¼” PVC pipe, 39” long. One is needed for each roll of netting (i.e., vineyard row). Three spindles can be made from a 10-foot (3-m) length of pipe. Steps 5 and 10 also require short sections of 1 ¼” pipe.
Hook the bird netting onto the start of a vineyard row and, with a person on each side of the row holding one of the un-roll poles, walk together down the row. The netting will be on top of the row and the sides of the netting will have to be pulled down onto the sides of the row.
Whether on purpose or not, any time you make wine from grapes you are influenced by terroir. That rench term, with no direct nglish translation, describes a sense of place regarding where the grapes are grown. In this column, I will include information on what effects terroir has on white wine, what you can do to influence it, and illustrate with one of my experiments at influencing terroir effects in my backyard hardonnay.
While there is no single agreed-upon definition, most observers include some common aspects of grape growing in terroir. limate is prominent, particularly with regard to warmth and rainfall. Geology also plays a prominent part; in mineral composition and underground soil structure in the vineyard. inally, nearly every definition considers geographic features like bodies of water, slopes, and orientation toward the path of the sun during the growing season. uthors also sometimes include human factors as part of terroir, such as the people who live in a growing region and their culture.
ecognition of terroir began in ancient times. lassical reek authors identified wines from different regions and recogni ed uality differences, even from the same grape varieties. The later oman mpire carried the sense of place associated with specific wines throughout urope. Later still, enedictine and istercian monks established land holdings in what is now urgundy and began experimenting with influences on wine uality. They tried different grape varieties on different parcels and even went so far as to taste the soil in an effort to characteri e it. pecific subdivision of vineyard properties eventually led to the modern or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system that defines most rench wines today.
The system of merican iticultural reas or s is intended for similar purposes in the nited tates. ach is established under federal law by the Tax and Trade ureau (TT ). ach is intended to represent uni ue growing conditions shared by vineyards in the region. TT acts to create s in response to petitions filed by grape growers in the one. haracteristics that may be cited include elevation, weather patterns, marine influence, heat, and so forth. While specific regulations control the way s are listed on wine labels, the regulations are not as strict as uropean appellation systems. There is no restriction on grape varieties that can be grown in a given . The system does not have uality grade designations, limiting the to geographic reference only. Where I live and grow my hobby vineyard in southern onoma ounty, alifornia, I am in one of the newest s in the country The etaluma ap. It is named after a low gap in the coastal hills that allow daily bree es to flow inland from the acific cean. Those prevailing winds keep summer temperatures moderate and provide reliable night cooling. Those cool, foggy conditions throughout the growing season lead to higher acids and bright fruit flavors that are considered hallmarks of the . The region is known best for inot oir and hardonnay, the two varieties I grow.
How do we observe terroir in a finished wine? rom the grapes, a key consideration is the expression of ripeness. In warmer s, aromas tend toward stone fruits and flowers while cooler climates may develop citrus and vegetal characteristics. lavor is affected in the perception of minerals, the various biochemical markers of maturity, and acid levels. Warmer climates and a long growing season will tend to produce high sugars and high alcohol, while cooler climates tend the other way.
BY BOB PEAKYour first step to express terroir in your own vineyard is choosing your grape variety.
our first step to express terroir in your own vineyard is choosing your grape variety. While it is important to grow something you will want to drink, nature must be acknowledged for you to get usable fruit. Take into account your soil type, any inclination of the land relative to the sun (aspect), and especially growing season heat (degree days). ven if you are not growing grapes, some of the same principles apply when you purchase fruit. or instance, choose a grape variety from an in which it is well-suited, learn as much as you can about the source vineyard, and try to exercise some control over choosing the harvest day to help achieve your stylistic objectives.
Whether you grow or buy, have a plan in advance that includes your style objectives. o your lab work on the newly harvested grapes or crushed must so you will know if adjustments are needed. rom that information, make adjustments or additions that move your wine toward the terroir expression you wish to achieve.
To match grape varieties to local climate conditions, growers use the Winkler cale of degree days developed at - avis. It represents a summation of heat accumulated through the growing season at a given vineyard location. There are five main regions, going from coolest in egion I to warmest in egion . or reference, egion I includes places like the nderson alley of Mendocino ounty a place highly regarded for inot oir and ew r traminer. I am in region II, and areas like lexander alley are in egion III. Much warmer places like Lodi are in egion I and resno in egion . urseries that sell grapevines will include information on region designations and heat re uirements for the varieties they sell.
White wine style objectives can be achieved by emphasi ing a warmer or a cooler climate. Warm climate whites tend toward lower acid levels, riper flavors, and likely some tropical notes in the aromas. They have softer mouthfeel and may seem fat. ften characteri ed by malolactic fermentation (ML ), they tend toward higher alcohol and sometimes a sweet finish. To picture such a wine, think of a big, buttery, oaky alifornia hardonnay. ool climate whites tend toward high acid levels, a lean profile, and crisp or mineral flavors. There may be green notes in aroma and flavor and they typically have a dry, refreshing finish. To imagine such a wine, consider a ew ealand auvignon lanc.
If you want to push your white grapes toward a warmer expression, thin the crop and pull leaves near the fruit to achieve good sun exposure. ick late, even if it means potential alcohol may be too high for best balance. ou can add water to the crushed must to restore a suitable sugar level while retaining ripe flavors. In the cellar, consider adding maceration en ymes to help release aromatic precursors and improve tropical character. soak of a few hours to overnight on the skins can also produce richer character, although soaking runs some risk of additional oxidation potential. se an aroma-enhancing yeast strain. onsider deacidification if needed to reduce sharpness on the palate. The addition of fermentation tannins can add structure and a backbone if one is lacking. r consider oak additions if more structure or mouth-
feel is needed in the wine. If suitable for your style, inoculate with malolactic bacteria. inally, consider backsweetening before bottling.
To push your white wine toward a cooler character, allow additional vegetative growth in the vineyard. ome shade on the fruit will be beneficial for this purpose and do not thin the crop aggressively. Harvest as early as ade uate sugars accumulate while acids are still high and add acid if necessary. ress crushed fruit promptly or whole-cluster press. se a neutral yeast that will yield a dry finish. If you must add water, be sure to acidify the water with tartaric acid to match your wine profile goals. kip oak and ML . omplete the fermentation to full dryness.
ear in and year out, I make my homegrown hardonnay in the style of my cool etaluma ap terroir. I pick the grapes at a moderate 1 to 3 rix, while acid is typically in the range of to 1 g L ( . to 1. g 1 mL or percent). ecause the acid is still a bit high for my preference, I use an aroma-enhancing yeast ( noferm M ) and sometimes carry out partial ML . I ferment cool in glass or stainless steel and add no oak.
s a result, my house style is a very lean profile with notable acidity. The wine is crisp, refreshing, and very food-friendly. In wine competitions, we have had judges ask if we add auvignon lanc to our hardonnay, but it is all native to the fruit.
lways curious, one year I bought a new one-hectoliter (1 -L, -gallon) merican oak barrel. I intended it for aging inot oir, but decided to use it first to try to push my hardonnay way outside the typical terroir. I delayed harvest as late as I could, but rain threatened and the vines were shutting down at about 3 rix. I added sugar to get to a nice, fat rix. I deacidified with potassium bicarbonate to g L and fermented the wine with M yeast in my new oak barrel. I did several weeks of lees stirring while putting it through full ML . fter transferring to carboys for aging (so I could use the barrel for inot), I did a backsweetening trial but didn’t like it. o how did the suppressed terroir turn out? It was noticeably richer than usual, but was still not convincing as a genuine warm climate hardonnay. ven removed from the barrel after ML , it still came out very oaky. It retained noticeable acidity, since you can only push so far with chemical deacidification before risking a salty or bitter taste. I would describe the resulting wine as drinkable, but it was not as good as my usual terroir-driven wine.
My recommendation is to make some white wine if you don’t already do that When you do, have a plan for the style and character of the wine you want. uy or grow a variety that suits that style and also suits the terroir it comes from. efore you plant a vineyard, talk to commercial growers in your area. Learn as much as you can about the terroir, what varieties work best, and what challenges may be found in growing grapes there. esults will usually be best if you can remain in alignment with the terroir and still produce a wine you like. ut don’t let that stop you from trying other experiments. s a home winemaker, go ahead and challenge the terroir if that meets your style goals. ou can make choices to move any white wine further into or away from its natural characteristics.
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Some of the most common enzymes used in winemaking are maceration enzymes. In essence, these help break down grapes for a variety of goals like speeding up extraction, increasing juice yield, and increasing filterability. There are a variety of different products on the market, each with differing actions. Though in many cases these products are the most useful for large commercial wineries, there are applications where they are useful for the home winemaker. Let’s look at what enzymes are, the types of products that are out there, how they work, and when we may want to use them. We’ll also look at a couple of winemaking enzymes that aren’t “maceration enzymes” per se, but are useful to home winemakers, one of which is often sold blended with maceration enzymes.
Enzymes are an immensely diverse group of compounds, mostly proteins, which speed up one chemical process or another. All living organisms contain and rely upon enzymes; without enzymes, life as we know it would not be possible. Most enological enzymes are made using various fungal genera, usually from Aspergillus niger and Trichoderma species.
Most maceration enzymes are mixes (or “cocktails”) of pectolytic enzymes, some contain deactivated yeasts or other types of enzymes, each serving a different purpose. Pectins are a group of polysaccharides that form and hold together parts of plant cells. Pectolytic enzymes are various enzymes that break down pectins in different ways and at different points in their structure, sort of working as a team with one another. Examples are pectin lyase, polygalacturo-
nase, and pectin methyl esterase. Part of the reason they’re sold in (and marketed as) “cocktails” is that production isn’t precise and the fungi that produce them produce various enzymes at the same time — i.e. they’re inherently produced in a blended form.
Grapes have naturally occurring enzymes, though in low concentrations, and low efficacy at wine pHs or in the presence of sulfur dioxide (SO ). During maceration, without the addition of commercial enzymes, pectins do break down, but the use of commercial enzymes greatly speeds up the process and facilitates extraction of tannin, color, aroma precursors, and so on. This is especially useful for large commercial wineries, where more grapes may be coming in than they have fermenters to handle: Enzymes can turn a two-week maceration into a four-day maceration (to be pressed sweet) with similar results, freeing up fermenters much faster for the next pick. When space and time is not a concern, as for most home and small-scale wineries, this may be less critical, as most of these compounds will extract during normal maceration times, but may be useful if your fermentations usually run warm and fast and you want to maximize extraction.
Some enzymes claim to release more color in red macerations than would otherwise be released. Having more color available to tannins (in the form of monomeric anthocyanins) should shorten tannin polymer length, which should result in increased softness, stability, and wine-longevity (though in more structured wines, this may mean a wine needs more time before it’s ready to drink). More color can also be extracted by using quality, untoasted oak chips during maceration or by cofermenting
Though in many cases these products are the most useful for large commercial wineries, there are applications where they are useful for the home winemaker.Photo by Jeff Shoemaker While no enzyme additions are required to make great wine, knowing what is available and how to use them can be greatly beneficial.
with highly colored grapes or white grape skins, which you can use after pressing your whites. Although using color products like Mega Purple concentrate gives wines color in the visual sense, the color molecules aren’t monomeric, so cannot bind with tannins, and thus do not affect mouthfeel or longevity.
Maceration enzymes can be used for white wines as well. Pulpy (pectin-rich) white grapes, such as Albariño, may not yield as much juice when pressed whole cluster. Traditionally, such grapes may be macerated for hours to a couple of days to allow pectins to break down, increasing juice yield (and aroma precursor concentrations) at pressing. However, such practices aren’t without risk, as many spoilage bacteria love sugar. Also, unless you’re able to keep the maceration cold, fermentation can start. This isn’t inherently a bad thing (and many winemakers actually like to start white fermentations on the skins), but may increase or change fruit character and can lead to perceptible tannins. Enzymes can be utilized with these pulpy whites to quickly break grapes down and boost juice yield at pressing, minimizing time exposed to such risks.
Maceration enzymes also boost yields when settling wines. After pressing, most winemakers let wine settle overnight to allow grape solids to settle to the bottom of the tank. Pectolytic enzymes speed up this process and give a better sedimentation, so you lose less wine when racking off the next day. This can mean as much as a 15% yield increase for reds and a 7% increase for whites: Even if you’re only making a carboy or two, particularly for reds, that’s another couple bottles. Most home winemakers probably aren’t filtering must
(cleaner white must leads to increased levels of fruity esters), but this better sedimentation makes must filtration much easier and makes filter cartridges last longer.
If you like to harvest reds especially ripe and water back your must, using maceration enzymes can give you a quicker, more accurate sugar reading, allowing for more precision when watering back to your desired Brix level. Add the enzymes at crush and measure the next day — the quicker breakdown of grapes means a quicker release of sugar and therefore a shorter time to wait for an accurate measurement.
There are a multitude of different maceration enzyme products on the market. As with any enological product, I recommend you contact the company and chat with them to figure out which product is the best for your goals and the specific wine you are working with. There are a few things to consider when purchasing enzymes beyond its actions. Liquid enzymes, though easier to use (they’re ready to go out of the bottle, no rehydrating), have a shorter shelf life and must be stored cold. Powdered enzymes, once rehydrated, should be used within a few hours. Although it’s now uncommon, be sure your enzyme cocktail does not contain cinnamoyl esterase, which with certain yeast strains can result in off-odors.
Although they aren’t maceration enzymes, I’d like to mention two other winemaking enzymes, which would complete the range of common winemaking enzymes: Beta-glucosidase and lysozyme. Beta-glucosidase (often written as β-glucosidase) is an enzyme that liberates aroma precursor compounds from glucose molecules. pecifically, it liberates isoprenoids
(often called “terpenes”) and norisoprenoids. These can run the gamut from floral to fruity to the classic petrol aromas of iesling they’re very large and diverse groups of aromas, and, of course, vary in every batch of grapes depending on variety, site, and vintage. enerally, these are used with aromatic varieties usually whites like Muscat or iognier, to maximi e the intensity of aromatics. eta-glucosidase is also commonly included in cocktails with pectolytic en ymes, especially those intended for aromatic whites.
ome yeast strains naturally produce high levels of beta-glucosidase, and inherently have this action. 3 is a well-known example. study (https www.sciencedirect.com science article pii 1 1 ) found that yeasts that produce high levels of beta-glucosidase also release much more resveratrol in grapes a compound being studied for heart health and increasing life- and health-span. As exciting as that sounds, unfortunately resveratrol levels in wine are still much, much too low to have any significant impact in these areas (despite what some successful marketing campaigns would like us to believe).
Lyso yme is a uni ue wine en yme. Whereas all the enymes we’ve discussed so far are produced (commercially) by various fungi, lyso yme is extracted from egg whites it’s also found in milk, human tears, and many other places in nature. ather than helping with extraction or breaking things down in wine, it’s more simply an antimicrobial agent, especially against gram-positive bacteria like malolactic bacteria (Oenococcus), and other potentially problematic lactic acid bacteria. It’s an especially handy en yme for home winemakers who
want to make crisp whites by blocking malolactic fermentation, but don’t have the ability to sterile filter. sing lyso yme kills bacteria (via lysis ) by breaking down their membrane.
To apply any en yme product, it’s best to always run bench trials to determine dose. High alcohol content and cold temperatures reduce en yme efficacy and may re uire a higher dose. eep in mind that temperatures of ( ) or below, or alcohol levels above 1 , may stop en ymes from working. n yme sensitivity to should be considered, but is in all likelihood not a concern. or example, nartis’ ym works normally even with , ppm of — that’s more than 10 times what most winemakers will ever use in a given wine. That said, don’t add SO and en ymes at the same time, it’s best to wait until one has been well mixed into your must. or the most part, I think that en ymes are most useful for larger commercial wineries, in that they speed up macerations to free up tank space, save money on filter pads and electricity use in certain areas, and so on. Other than increasing juice/ wine yield, most of the goals of en ymes can be obtained with normal or careful winemaking practices. or example, keeping a red ferment cool enough to give a two- to threeweek maceration during the fermentation will likely lead to similar results as with an en yme addition. With pulpy or aromatic whites, a careful cold soak (perhaps with the help of a small glycol chiller and a cooling plate) will allow pectins to break down naturally prior to pressing, increasing juice yield and aroma precursor concentrations, and avoiding the need for en ymes. That said, en ymes can make our lives much easier and help us craft the wines we want to make.
FOR DIRECT LINKS TO ALL OF OUR ADVERTISERS’ WEBSITES, GO TO WWW.WINEMAKERMAG.COM/RESOURCE/READER - SERVICES
BREHM VINEYARDS ........................11
1 - -3
www.brehmvineyards.com grapes brehmvineyards.com
BSG HANDCRAFT over 1- -3 - 3 www.bsgcraft.com
www.rjscraftwinemaking.com
BUON VINO
MANUFACTURING, INC ...................46 1-855-522-1166 www.buonvino.com orders buonvino.com
EASYCAPPER ...................................27 www.easycapper.com info easycapper.com
F. COLAVITA & SON ............................7
Mike olavita mikec1 lightspeed.net - 1- 3 lly olavita ally.colavita gmail.com - -
www.cawinegrapes.com
FERMENTIS BY LESAFFRE 3 www.fermentis.com
FERRARI GROUP .................................5
3 1 1
www.ferrarigroup.com info@ferrarigroup.com
LALLEMAND INC. www.lallemandbrewing.com wine homebrewing lallemand.com
MOREWINE! 3 1- - 3- 1 www.morewine.com info morewinemaking.com
MUST ...................................................7 - 3- - - 3 www.mustfabricate.com orders mustfabricate.com
MUSTO WINE GRAPE CO., LLC 1 1- - 1 -113 or - - 3 www.juicegrape.com www.winemakinginstructions.com sales@juicegrape.com
NAPA FERMENTATION SUPPLIES .........................................46 - - 3 www.napafermentation.com napafermentation@aol.com
NOONTIME LABELS 1- - 13 www.noontimelabels.com customerservice noontimelabels.com
PARDO WINE GRAPES 13-3 -3 www.pardowinegrapes.com vince pardowinegrapes.com
PLANTRA, INC. .................................11 651-686-6688 www.plantra.com info@plantra.com
QUALITY WINE AND ALE SUPPLY/ HOMEBREWIT.COM ........................22 -www.homebrewit.com customerservice homebrewit. com
TEXAS TECHUNIVERSITY 3 grapesandwine.ttu.edu
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS ........................12 www.ucpress.edu
THE VINTAGE SHOP over 3 - -1 11 www.thevintageshop.ca info thevintageshop.ca
VINTNER’S BEST® ..............................5 1- -3 1- 31 www.ldcarlson.com
WALKER’S WINEJUICE 1 - -1 www.walkerswinejuice.com
WATERLOO CONTAINER COMPANY ........................................51 1- - 3 -3 www.waterloocontainer.com
WINEMAKER DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ...................................27 www.winemakermag.com shop store winemakermag.com
WINEMAKER HARVEST BOOT CAMP ONLINE.....................................1 www.winemakermag.com Harvest oot amp
WINEMAKER’SANSWER BOOK ..... 3 -3 -3 1 ext. 1 www.winemakermag.com shop
WINEXPERT over www.winexpert.com info winexpert.com
WYEAST LABORATORIES, INC. ...... 3 ermentation ultures eer, Wine, Cider www.wyeastlab.com customerservice wyeastlab.com
XPRESSFILL 805-541-0100
www.xpressfill.com
WERNER’S TRADING COMPANY
1115 Fourth St. SW
Cullman 35055
1-800-965-8796
www.wernerstradingco.com
The Unusual Store.
THE WINE SMITH
6800 AMoffett Rd. (US 98)
Mobile 36618 (251) 645-5554
e-mail: winesmith@bellsouth.net
www.thewinesmith.biz
Home Winemaking and Brewing Supplies.
FERMENTABLES
3915 Crutcher St. North Little Rock (501) 758-6261
www.fermentables.com
Complete wine, beer and cheesemaking shop.
THE BEVERAGE PEOPLE
1845 Piner Road, Suite D Santa Rosa 95403 (707) 544-2520
www.thebeveragepeople.com
Fast Shipping, Great Service, Cheesemaking & Brewing too.
BREHM VINEYARDS®
www.brehmvineyards.com
grapes@brehmvineyards.com
Phone: (510) 527.3675
Fresh grape pick-up in Petaluma, CA
Frozen grapes in Richmond, CA
Ultra-premium grapes for home winemakers for over 40 years! Sold at harvest or shipped frozen across N. America year-round. Over 30 varieties from Carneros, Napa, Sonoma, Washington and Oregon.
CURDS AND WINE, LLC
7194 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego 92111 (858) 384-6566
www.curdsandwine.com
Winemaking &cheesemaking supplies, make wine on site!
DELTA PACKING CO. OF LODI, INC.
6021 E. Kettleman Lane
Lodi 95240
(209) 334-1023
fax: (209) 334-0811
bcostamagna@deltapacking.com
www.grapesofgold.com
We offer premium California wine grapes & juice. Please call for a supplier near you.
MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!
995 Detroit Ave., Unit G Concord 94518 (925) 771-7107
fax: (925) 671-4978
srconcord moreflavor.com
www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms
Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making
MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!
991 N. San Antonio Rd. Los Altos 94022 (650) 949-BREW (2739) srlosaltos moreflavor.com
www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms
Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making
MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!
1506 Columbia Ave. #12
Riverside 92507 (951) 779-9971
fax: (951) 779-9972
srriverside moreflavor.com
www.morewinemaking.com/showrooms
Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making
MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!
2315 Verna Court San Leandro 94577 (510) 351-3517
srsanleandro moreflavor.com
www.morewinemaking.com/showrooms
Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making
NORCAL BREWING SOLUTIONS
1768 Churn Creek Rd. Redding 96002 (530) 243-BEER (2337) or (530)-221-WINE (9463) www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com
Full line of wine, beer, & distilling supplies, hardware, and ingredients. Manufacturers of lees filters, punchdown tools, and custom solutions.
VALLEYVINTNER, LLC
(925) 217-0058 or (866) 812 WINE (9463) Toll Free info@valleyvintner.com www.valleyvintner.com
75+ years wine making expertise!
Owned & Operated by winemakers serving the winemaking community. “The Vine, The Time, The Wine”
THE BREW HUT
15120 East Hampden Ave. Aurora 80014 (303) 680-8898
www.thebrewhut.com
Complete Winexpert line! Fresh fruit, equipment & chemicals! We Rent Equipment Too!
LIL’ OLE’ WINEMAKER
516 Main Street Grand Junction 81501
(970) 242-3754
Serving Colorado & Utah winemakers since 1978
BREW & WINE HOBBY
Featuring Winexpert & RJ Spagnols Kits. Area’s widest selection of wine kits, beer making supplies & equipment
12 Cedar St. East Hartford 06108
(860) 528-0592 or
Out of State: 1-800-352-4238
www.brew-wine.com
Specializing in European juices (not concentrate) And world-wide juice varietals.
MUSTO WINE GRAPE CO., LLC
101 Reserve Road Hartford 06114 1-877-812-1137 sales@juicegrape.com
www.juicegrape.com
www.winemakinginstructions.com
Your one stop shop for all of your winemaking needs - year-round. Premium fresh grapes, juices, and kits from CA, NY, WA, Italy, Chile, South Africa, and Australia. Plus equipment, online learning, onsite crushing/destemming, and hands-on winemaking classes. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff is ready to help make your next wine your favorite wine.
NORTHEAST WINEMAKING
10 Robert Jackson Way
Plainville 06062 (860) 793-2700
www.northeastwinemaking.com
New Year-Round Showroom Open in Plainville with 2nd full service location in Hartford, CT and satellite location in Chelsea, MA. Your one stop shop for fresh grapes, juice, equipment and accessories!
PARDO WINE GRAPES
3314 N. Perry Ave. Tampa 33603 (813) 340-3052
vince@pardowinegrapes.com
www.pardowinegrapes.com
Distributors of quality California (fall) and Chilean (spring) wine grapes and fresh juice to Florida winemakers for over 70 years.
OPERATION HOMEBREW
1142 Athens Hwy #105 Grayson 30017 (770) 638-8383
Operationhomebrew.com
Best darn winemaking supply store in Georgia!
CHICAGOLAND WINEMAKERS INC. 689 West North Ave. Elmhurst (630) 834-0507
info@chicagolandwinemakers.com
www.chicagolandwinemakers.com
Complete line of home winemaking and brewing supplies & equipment since 1971.
WHAT’S BREWING?
335 W. Northwest Highway Palatine 60067 (847) 359-2739 info@whatsbrewingsupply.com
WhatsBrewingSupply.com
Supplying beer and winemakers with the best equipment and freshest ingredients. 10% Club discount. Let’s make it! Wine and Beer.
THE BREWERS ART SUPPLY
1425 N. Wells Street Fort Wayne 46808 (260) 426-7399
BrewersArtSupply@gmail.com
www.BrewingArt.com
Your hometown Wine Supply with friendly expertise! facebook.com/ BrewersArtSupply
GREAT FERMENTATIONS
Indianapolis 5127 East 65th St. Indianapolis 46220 (317) 257-WINE (9463) or toll-free 1-888-463-2739 info@greatfermentations.com
www.greatfermentations.com
GREAT FERMENTATIONS WEST 7900 E US 36, Suite D Avon 46123 (317) 268-6776
info@greatfermentations.com
www.greatfermentations.com
QUALITY WINE AND ALE SUPPLY/ HOMEBREWIT.COM
5127 E. 65th St. Indianapolis 46220 Phone: (574) 295-9975
customerservice@homebrewit.com
Online: www.Homebrewit.com
Quality wine making supplies for beginners AND experts.
Bottles, Corks, Shrinks, Chemicals, and Professional Equipment. Largest selection of Winexpert Kits. Fast Shipping. Expert Advice.
BLUFF STREET BREW HAUS 372 Bluff Street Dubuque (563) 582-5420
e-mail: jerry@bluffbrewhaus.com
www.bluffbrewhaus.com
Complete line of wine & beermaking supplies. In operation since 2006.
BACCHUS & BARLEYCORN, LTD. 6633 Nieman Road Shawnee 66203 (913) 962-2501
www.bacchus-barleycorn.com
Your one stop supply shop for home wine, cider, mead, beer and cheese makers for over 30 years.
HOMEBREW PRO SHOPPE, INC.
2061 E. Santa Fe Olathe 66062 (913) 768-1090 or 1-866-296-2739 (BYO-BREW)
Secure ordering on line: www.homebrewproshoppe.com
Complete line of wine & beer making supplies & equipment.
WINEMAKERS & BEERMAKERS SUPPLY 9475 Westport Rd. Louisville 40241 (502) 425-1692
www.winebeersupply.com
Impeccable line of wine & beer making supplies. Superior grade of juice from Winexpert. Quality malt from Briess & Muntons. Family owned store since 1972.
THE FLYING BARREL
1781 North Market St.
Frederick (301) 663-4491
fax: (301) 663-6195
www.flyingbarrel.com
Maryland’s 1st Wine- n- remise large selection of homewine supplies Wine judge on staff
MARYLAND HOMEBREW ak Hall Lane, 1 olumbia 1
1- - W W
www.mdhb.com
We carry the ino uperiore fro en Italian must along with Winexpert its. verything you need to make your own wine cheese. isit us in-person or online. We ship everywhere
BEER AND WINE HOBBY, INC.
ndover t.
anvers 1 3
1- - 3- 3
e-mail bwhinfo beer-wine.com website www.beer-wine.com
rew on remise or the most discriminating wine beer hobbyist.
THE WITCHES BREW INC.
1 Maple ve.
oxborough 3 (508) 543-0433
steve thewitchesbrew.com
www.thewitchesbrew.com
ou’ve ot the otion, We’ve ot the otion
ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING
1 ackson d.
nn rbor 1 3 (313) - W
fax (313) 3-3
e-mail wine homebrewing.org
isit us at www. dventuresinHome brewing.com
remium Wine its, ruit, Honey, ruit resses, pple rushers, and ermentors. verything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.
ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING
3 an orn d.
Taylor 1 (313) - W
fax (313) 3-3
e-mail wine homebrewing.org
isit us at www. dventuresinHome brewing.com
remium Wine its, ruit, Honey, ruit resses, pple rushers, and ermentors. verything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.
BREWERS EDGE HOMEBREW SUPPLY, LLC iley treet, uite Holland (616) 399-0017
www.brewersedgehomebrew.com
e-mail brewersedge gmail.com
our local Winemaking Homebrewing upply hop...get the dge
CAP N CORK HOMEBREW SUPPLIES
1 - 1 Mile d. Macomb Twp. ( )fax ( ) - 133
www.capncorkhomebrew.com info capncorkhomebrew.com
The home winemaker’s source for Winexpert wine kits and regon ruit intner’s Harvest fruit-based concentrates.
MACOMB VINTNER SUPPLY
3 hoenix r. terling Heights ( ) - 1
www.macombvintnersupply.com
urveyor of grapes and grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva ella, Mosto ella hilean ello rands, and xtra- irgin live il.
MID-MICHIGAN VINTNER SUPPLY rand apids outh Lyon ( 1 ) -3 3
www.Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com info Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com
urveyor of fresh grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva ella, Mosto ella hilean ello rands.
MORGAN VINEYARD
1 th venue oopersville ( 1 ) -3 morgangrapes gmail.com Morgan ineyard.com
upplier of high uality wine grapes conveniently located in West Michigan.
SICILIANO’S MARKET
Lake Michigan r. .W. rand apids
(616) 453-9674
fax: (616) 453-9687
e-mail sici1 sbcglobal.net
www.sicilianosmkt.com
Largest Wine Making inventory in West Michigan. ow selling beer and winemaking supplies on-line.
TAYLOR RIDGE VINEYARDS
3 3 1 th ve.
llegan 1 ( ) 1bctaylor btc-bci.com
www.taylorridgevineyard.com
1 arieties of Wine rapes and uices. inifera, ew ork tate, Minnesota and rench hybrids. roviding wine grapes and juices for over 3 years.
HOME BREWERY
1 West oat t. ark
1- -3 1- W ( 3 ) brewery homebrewery.com
www.homebrewery.com
ince 1 , providing excellent ervice, uipment and Ingredients. eer, Wine, Mead, oda and heese.
ST. LOUIS WINE & BEERMAKING LLC
31 Lamp Lantern illage
t. Louis 3 1
( 3 ) 3 -
info wineandbeermaking.com
www.wineandbeermaking.com
Making the u in t. Louis.
KETTLE TO KEG
1 3 Main treet embroke 3 ( 3)www.kettletokeg.com
Winemaking, homebrewing and soda ingredients, supplies and e uipment. Located conveniently between oncord and Manchester.
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS (U-VINT)
earney t. ridgewater ( 3 ) - 3 fax ( 3 )email justmygrapes aol.com www. rape xpectations .com roduce your own avorite Wines at ur , s . ft. Winery with rapes from . frica, alifornia, hile and rgentina as well as uice from Italy. ur winemakers have won over 1 medals in the last 1 years. lso full inventory of supplies and e uipment for the Home Winemaker.
DOC’S HOMEBREW SUPPLIES
1 ourt treet inghamton 13 ( )www.docsbrew.com
ull-service beer wine making shop serving ’s outhern Tier ’s orthern Tier since 1 1. xtensive line of Winexpert kits, supplies and e uipment.
FULKERSON WINERY & JUICE PLANT tate oute 1
undee 1 3
( ) 3- 3 fax ( ) 3- 33 www.fulkersonw inery.com
resh inger Lakes grape juice available during harvest. Large selection of home winemaking supplies. isit our website to browse and order supplies. pen year round 1 - , extended seasonal hours. ind us on acebook and follow us onTwitter fulkersonwinery.
MAIN STREET WINES & SUPPLIES
Main t. Arcade 14009 ( ) - 3 fax ( )mainstwines yahoo.com lenty of wine kits available to make your own wine. ull line of winemaking supplies and accessories for your convenience. Tue- ri 1 - at 1 -3 or by appt. Like us on acebook.
NIAGARA TRADITION
HOMEBREWING SUPPLIES
1 heridan rive uffalo 1 1
( ) 3- 1 or (716) 877-8767
www.nthomebrew.com
We feature a complete line of supplies for making wine, beer, mead, cider and cheese.
PANTANO’S WINE GRAPES & HOMEBREW te 3 .
ew alt 1 1 ( ) - 1 or ( ) - 1 (cell) pantanowineandbeer yahoo.com
www.pantanosbeerwine.com
ind s n acebook. our source for wine beer making supplies and e uipment. rapes and uice from alifornia, Italy hile in season, wine kits and all juice pails ( gal) year round. lasses available. We now carry istilling roducts and tills.
PROSPERO EQUIPMENT CORP.
1 3 astleton t. leasantville 1 ( 1 )fax: (914) 769-6786 info prosperocorp.bi
www.prosperocorp.bi
The source to all your winemaking e uipment.
SARATOGA ZYMURGIST
11 xcelsior ve.
aratoga prings 1
(518) 580-9785
email s ymurgist gmail.com
www. aratoga .com
Let us be your guide into the world of ymurgy. eaching the dirondack ark, apital istrict, outhern ermont and beyond reat online store.
TEN THOUSAND VINES WINERY outh uffalo t.
Hamburg 1
(716) 646-9979
mike TenThousand ines.com
www.TenThousand ines.com
Wine supplies, juice and advice.
WALKER’S WINE JUICE . . oute 3 ince 1 orestville ( 1 ) -1
www.walkerswinejuice.com
ver varieties of Hot- ack rape, ruit and erry uice, e uiring o efrigeration, shipped by all year. upplying over 3 wineries in 3 states
ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (BELMONT) 1 iver ., uite 1
elmont 1
dvice Line ( ) -
rder Line 1- -3 - 3
www.ebrew.com
years serving all home winemakers brewers’ needs ome visit for a real Homebrew uper tore experience
ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (CHARLOTTE) 3 11 outh lvd.
harlotte
dvice Line ( ) -
rder Line 1- -3 - 3
www.ebrew.com
years serving all home winemakers brewers’ needs isit our stores to learn how we can help you make the best wine you can make.
ALTERNATIVE
19725 Oak St.
Cornelius 28031
Voice Line: (704) 527-2337
Fax Line: (704) 522-6427
www.ebrew.com
44 years serving all home winemakers & brewers’ needs! Visit our stores to learn how we can help you make the best wine you can make.
AMERICAN BREWMASTER
3021-5 Stony Brook Dr. Raleigh 27604 (919) 850-0095
www.americanbrewmaster.com
Supplying wine makers with the finest wine kits, ingredients and supplies since 1983. Winemaking is fun with American Brewmaster!
ASHEVILLE BREWERS SUPPLY
712-B Merrimon Ave. Asheville 28804 (828) 358-3536
www.ashevillebrewers.com
Value. Quality. Service. Since 1994.
CAROLINA WINE SUPPLY
329 W. Maple St. Yadkinville 27055 (336) 677-6831
fax: (336) 677-1048
www.carolinawinesupply.com
Home Winemaking Supplies & Support.
THE GRAPE AND GRANARY
915 Home Ave. Akron 44310 (330) 633-7223
www.grapeandgranary.com
oncentrates, resh juice, Wine on Premise.
LABEL PEELERS BEER & WINE MAKING SUPPLIES, INC.
211 Cherry St. Kent 44240 (330) 678-6400
info@labelpeelers.com
www.labelpeelers.com
Specializing in winemaking/ homebrew supplies &equipment. Free monthly classes.
Hours: Mon-Sun 10am-7pm
MIAMI VALLEY BREWTENSILS
2617 S. Smithville Rd. Dayton 45420
Next Door to Belmont Party Supply (937) 252-4724
chad@schwartzbeer.com
www.brewtensils.com
eer, wine cheese making supplies. Monthly classes.
HIGH GRAVITY
6808 S. Memorial Drive Tulsa 74133
(918) 461-2605
e-mail: store@highgravitybrew.com
www.highgravitybrew.com
Join our Frequent Fermenters Club!
F.H. STEINBART CO.
234 SE 12th Ave. Portland 97214
(503) 232-8793
fax: (503) 238-1649
e-mail: info@fhsteinbart.com
www.fhsteinbart.com
Brewing and Wine making supplies since 1918!
HOME FERMENTER
123 Monroe Street Eugene 97402
(541) 485-6238
www.homefermenter.com
roviding e uipment, supplies and advice to winemakers and homebrewers for over 40 years.
BOOTLEGGERS BREW SHOP, LLC
917 Pleasant Valley Blvd.
Altoona 16602
(814) 931-9962
http://bootleggersbrewshop.com
bootleggersbrewshop@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook! Central PA’s LARGEST homebrew supplies store! We carry seasonal cold pressed wine juices from around the world. Special orders welcome!
KEYSTONE HOMEBREW SUPPLY
435 Doylestown Rd. Montgomeryville 18936 (215) 855-0100
sales@keystonehomebrew.com
www.keystonehomebrew.com
Huge selection of ingredients and equipment for home winemakers and starting wineries. Fresh grapes and juice in spring and fall
LANCASTER HOMEBREW
1551 Manheim Pike Lancaster 17601 (717) 517-8785
www.lancasterhomebrew.com
info@lancasterhomebrew.com
Your source for all your wine making and beer brewing needs!
NITTANY VALLEY TRUE VALUE
1169 Nittany Valley Drive Bellefonte (814) 383-2809 fax: (814) 383-4884
Supplies - Equipment - Classes. resh grapes juice in season.
PRESQUE ISLE WINE CELLARS
9440 W. Main Rd. (US Rte. 20) North East 16428 (800) 488-7492
www.piwine.com
Your one stop shop! Complete service since 1 , helping you make great wines. We specialize in small winery and amateur wine supplies and equipment. Check out our website www.piwine.com or stop by and see us. resh grapes and juice at harvest.
SCOTZIN BROTHERS
65 N. Fifth St.
Lemoyne 17043 (717) 737-0483 or 800-791-1464
www.scotzinbros.com
email: shop@scotzinbros.com WINE and Beer MAKERS PARADISE!
SILVER LAKE BEER AND WINE MAKING SUPPLY Moorefield treet Providence 02909 (401) 944-4320
silverlakebeerwine.com
Your complete supplier for more than years, helping you make the finest wines and brew the first time...and every time.
AUSTIN HOMEBREW SUPPLY
15112 N. Interstate Hwy 35 Austin 78728 (512) 300-BREW
email: hops@austinhomebrew.com
Visit us at www.AustinHomebrew.com
remium Wine its, ruit, Honey, ruit resses, pple rushers, and Fermentors. Everything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.
HOMEBREW HEADQUARTERS
3 . oit d., uite 13 Richardson
Toll free: 1-800-966-4144 or (972) 234-4411
fax: (972) 234-5005
www.homebrewhq.com
Proudly serving the Dallas area for 30+ years!
BADER BEER & WINE SUPPLY
711 Grand Blvd. ancouver, W 1 1-800-596-3610
Sign up for our free e-newsletter @ Baderbrewing.com
THE BEER ESSENTIALS
2624 South 112th St. #E-1 Lakewood 98499 (253) 581-4288
www.thebeeressentials.com
Mail order and secure on-line ordering available.
BREHM VINEYARDS®
www.brehmvineyards.com grapes@brehmvineyards.com
Phone: (510) 527.3675
resh grape pick-up in nderwood, W ro en grapes in ortland, Ultra-premium grapes for home winemakers for over 40 years! Sold at harvest or shipped frozen across N. America year-round. Over 30 varieties from arneros, apa, onoma, Washington and Oregon.
JON’S HOMEBREW AND WINE SUPPLY
1 3 . Main ve., 1 3 Puyallup 98372 (253) 286-7607 jon jonshomebrew.com jonshomebrew.com
Puyallup’s home for Home Beer and Winemaking supplies!
THE CELLAR BREW SHOP
465 N. Washburn St. Oshkosh 54904 (920) 517-1601
www.thecellarhomebrew.com
cellarbrewshop@outlook.com
Beer & Wine ingredients and equipment. Extensive inventory at ompetitive prices, bulk discounts. Great service and free advice from experienced staff.
HOUSE OF HOMEBREW
410 Dousman St. Green Bay (920) 435-1007
staff@houseofhomebrew.com
www.houseofhomebrew.com
eer, Wine, ider, Mead, oda, offee, Tea, heese Making.
WINE & HOP SHOP
1919 Monroe St. Madison 53711 (608) 257-0099
www.wineandhop.com
wineandhop@gmail.com
Madison, WI’s locally owned homebrewing and winemaking headuarters for over years. ast, affordable shipping to anywhere. Use promo code WineMaker at checkout for discounts. Free expert advice too!
BREW FOR LESS 10774 - 95th Street
Edmonton T5H 2C9 (708) 422-0488
brewforless.com
info@brewforless.com
Edmonton’s Largest Wine & Beer Making Supply Store
GRAPES TO GLASS 5308 -17th Ave. SW
Calgary T3E 6S6 (403) 243-5907
www.grapestoglass.com
Calgary’s largest selection of brewing, winemaking distilling supplies. On-line shopping available with delivery via Canada Post.
BOSAGRAPE WINERY & BREW SUPPLIES 6908 Palm Ave.
Burnaby V5J 4M3 (604) 473-WINE
fax: (604) 433-2810
info@bosagrape.com
www.bosagrape.com
Ingredients, e uipment, labware supplies for brew & winemaking. Still pirits, Hanna, tavin ak, rehm ineyards, Mosti juices, rewcraft, Marchisio, ccuvin, hemetrics, intner’s Harvest, Lalvin, uon ino, intage hop.
It was approximately 5 p.m. when the house alarm suddenly tripped! I ran around looking for possible intruders (or a guilty cat that may have knocked something over). When I got to the basement, I found the source of the trouble: One of the carboys in our storage room had exploded! Upon closer inspection, I realized the jug had not actually exploded but had fallen off a now tilting sheet of plywood, about 4 x 4 feet (1.2 x 1.2 m) in area that was resting upon two large (what we thought were) sturdy Rubbermaid® totes. This makeshift shelving unit, to my husband’s estimation at least, was the perfect place to set his wine jugs while they “percolated” prior to bottling. Upon this tilting sheet of plywood also sat eight 1-gallon (3.8-L) jugs of wine, along with five 3-gallon (11-L) jugs of the same. It was a very productive year for the vines and all of it was in jeopardy — I must save the wine!
So I began by removing the jugs from the makeshift table. Alas, I am sorry to report that physics isn’t one of my stronger subjects, as you will soon see. I decided to remove the smaller jugs first. Unbeknownst to me, as I removed the smaller jugs, the weight of the larger ones depressed one side of the rubber totes even more. It was only when I was in the act of ever so carefully lifting up the frontmost 3-gallon (11-L) jug that I felt the plywood shift upwards.
I promptly set it back down, keeping some slight downward pressure on the bottle. The plywood now had a tilt of an approximate 35–40 degree angle. The largest jugs in the back were now only 6–8 inches (15–20 cm) from the floor, leaning precariously against a few chairs behind them. Only then did I realize the dilemma. If I let go of the jug in my hands it would most certainly slide down and careen into the others, the whole of the plywood top would flip up, and four 3-gallon (11-L) carboys of
wine would no doubt crash to the floor. There was nothing but the opposing pressure of my grip on the front wine jug offsetting the calamity that was sure to happen.
The other problem: NO ONE else was home! My husband wasn’t expected for at least an hour. My cell phone was upstairs. Months and months of careful tending of grapes, days of harvesting and pressing, and the cost of the remaining four large carboys was at stake. So, I stood, slightly hunched over, for about 20 minutes, looking around all the while for ways to cushion the bottles if my attempts to hold on should fail. I had the use of one hand and managed to pull a small sleeping bag and Styrofoam™ cups from a shelf. I threw these down.
I was getting uncomfortable. I began crouching, lunging, any and all positions that would change the crick that began to form in my back. “HELP!” I cried aloud to no one in particular (mostly to relieve the boredom). Finally, with about 30 minutes left of my imprisonment, I spied two 5-pound (2.3-kg) bags of coffee on the shelf next to me. Maybe if I could get them wedged under the plywood in the rear, they would prevent the table from flipping? I attempted to slide the first bag under the table. It didn’t go far enough. I still needed to push it back further, but I could only stretch so far while maintaining my grip on the carboy. Somehow, I maneuvered a leg under the plywood and tried to push it further with my foot . . . toe CRAMP! (Have you ever had a toe cramp? They are not fun, let me tell you.) Once it subsided I managed to get the other bag under the table. I once again tried to relax. Wait . . . what was that noise? “Help! Help!” I cried.
My knight in shining armor had finally come to my rescue. I had saved the wine! The next day, my legs and back were just a little bit sore . . . time for a glass of wine.
I was getting uncomfortable. I began crouching, lunging, any and all positions that would change the crick that began to form in my back.
