2021 WM OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

WINEMAKING

TIPS FROM DOWN UNDER

AUSTRALIAN WINEMAKERS SHARE ADVICE ON MAKING SHIRAZ, SÉMILLON, & GSM

SO, YOU WANT TO GO PRO?

TROUBLESHOOTING UNDERWHELMING GRAPES

CRAFTING YOUR OWN BRANDY

HARDY & VERSATILE FRONTENAC WINES

26 MAKING MULLED WINE

As autumn rolls into winter, it’s time to heat things up with mulled wine. A holiday tradition around the world, mulled wines usually include spices, citrus fruits, and wine served hot to take the chill away.

by Bob Peak

30 2021 WINEMAKER INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR WINE COMPETITION

An overview of this year’s wine competition, which received nearly 2,000 entries from across the U.S., Canada, and as far away as Australia.

32 WINEMAKING FROM DOWN UNDER

Australia produces a lot more than Shiraz and budget wines with kangaroos on the label. Get an inside look

at how ussie winema ers are i in the re utation of the wines from Down Under, with tips for creating their most touted styles in your home winery.

by Danny Wood

40 DISTILLATION 101

When your wine is done fermenting, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be aged or packaged. Where legal, the next step may be distilling it into brandy.

by Aaron Hyde

46 GO PRO

Many hobby winemakers spend evenings sipping their wine and wondering if their hobby could become a profession. If you are serious about it, here is what you need to consider to get that career jump started.

by Christina Musto-Quick

departments

8 MAIL

A reader asks about the best way to do rackings when aging wine in a barrel, and another praises a recent “Reader Tip” we ran where the winemaker forgoes pressing and instead makes a second wine by adding water and sugar to the grapes after collecting the free run juice.

10 CELLAR DWELLERS

The earliest known alcoholic beverage uncovered on Earth was a mead from northern China. Get familiarized with the great and storied world of honey-based wines. Also learn about a grape that hails from southern Italy that hasn’t seen much growth overseas . . . yet; as well as the latest news, products, and upcoming events.

14 WINE WIZARD

What is the best way to store oak barrels that don’t have wine in them? Get the answer from the Wine Wizard, as well as her advice for a case of oversulfited wine removin white film from a lass car oy and five ti s for a roo ie winema er

18 VARIETAL FOCUS

Scattered throughout the Upper Midwest and Rockies, Frontenac wines are ma in waves as winema ers learn to coa a lot of avor from this red grape. Chik Brenneman offers several tips and tricks to working with this hybrid varietal.

55 TECHNIQUES

When you set your sights on making a “keeper” wine, one you plan to lay down for several years, there are certain techniques you can employ to make sure it doesn’t round the bend too soon. Learn how to make that wine worth holding on to.

58 BACKYARD VINES

Not every harvest is going to be perfect. When the grapes come in at less than ideal num ers or with other aws ma e sure you re well positioned and able to make the best of an inferior harvest. Plus, learn how to identify what went wrong in the vineyard so the same mistakes aren’t repeated in future vintages.

64 DRY FINISH

In our annual Reader Survey, hobby winemakers looking to go pro usually account for about 1 in 5 readers. Here is the story of one couple who made the leap and some of the details about how they’re making it work.

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CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Charles A. Parker, Les Jörgensen

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Steve Bader Bader Beer and Wine Supply

Chik Brenneman Baker Family Wines

John Buechsenstein Wine Education & Consultation

Mark Chandler Chandler & Company

Wine Consultancy

Kevin Donato Cultured Solutions

Pat Henderson About Wine Consulting

Ed Kraus EC Kraus

Maureen Macdonald Hawk Ridge Winery

Christina Musto-Quick Musto Wine

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Pinot Noir is my favorite fermentation. It is sometimes called the heartbreak grape and said to e diffic lt to make into wine, t find sing homegrown fruit every year to be very rewarding. The vintage variation is fascinating, given that it is from the same vineyard and handled the same way, harvest after harvest.

My favorite grape variety is Pinot Noir, both to make and to drink. It can be so very versatile; sip it on its own or enjoy with a wide variety of foods. In the cellar it can star in so many different wine styles: From sparkling (who doesn’t love bubbles?) to rosé (rosé all day, yay!) to elegant reds to “chewier” styles, providing you can get it quite ripe and it’s coming from an AVA like Sonoma County’s Petaluma Gap, where the skins just naturally grow thicker. I’ve found that Pinot Noir rarely disappoints, either in the cellar or, ultimately, in the glass.

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 ri hts in let ters 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 5: October-November 2021.

Red Hybrid Color Stabilization

Red wines from hybrid grapes can be frustrating — one day you have a deep garnet wine and the next you are wondering where the color went. Color stabilization is the key, and there are techniques to help. https:// winemakermag.com/technique/redhybrid-color-stabilization

MEMBERS ONLY

Make Wines To Age

It starts with great fruit, but to make age-worthy red wine the winemaker must also consider acidity, tannins, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, cellaring conditions, and how all of these factors (and others) relate to each other. https://winemakermag.com/ technique/1498-wines-to-ageadvanced-winemaking

Super Syrah!

Syrah can do well in a wide variety of climates and produces wine in a number of styles, from drink-it-today fruity to structured and age-worthy. With a name change to Shiraz, it became Australia’s most widely planted red starting in the 19th century. Syrah makes mouth fillin wine stron on fruit ut also delivers earthy, peppery-spicy, mineral, smoky and even “meaty” overtones. https://winemakermag.com/ article/648-super-syrah

MEMBERS ONLY

Post-Harvest Vineyard Cleanup

Don’t neglect your vineyard just because the grapes have been harvested. Here’s the cleanup that needs to take place. https://winemakermag.com/ article/post-harvest-cleanup

MEMBERS ONLY

* For full access to members’ only content and hundreds of pages of winemaking articles, techniques and troubleshooting, sign up for a 14-day free trial membership at winemakermag.com

What’s your favorite grape varietal to work with?

RACKING DURING BARREL MATURATION

Bob Peak provided a very timely article in the June-July 2021 issue on the growing pains with aging and packaging big batches. We have one from ma in allons of wine in our first vin tage to now over 150 gallons (568 L) from our acre of estate vines. Production now consists of using multiple 14.5- and 29-gallon (55- and 110-L) barrels in addition to carboys and other containers. So our question stems around racking of wines and barrel management. With carboys it was no big deal to have extra carboys on hand for racking purposes. The same can’t be said about barrels and having an empty barrel sitting around for months for the next racking. So what should one do? In the past I’ve not done any rac in and only em ty the arrel when the wine is finished and ready for the bottling phase. Should I reconsider this approach and erform the normal rac in rotocol his would essentially mean racking out of the barrel into another container, clean out the barrel, and then rack the wine back into the same barrel. I always thought this would induce unnecessary oxygen exposure from the second racking, but perhaps this is not of major concern?

Ken Stafford • Fiddletown, California

WineMaker ’s “Techniques” columnist and Technical Editor Bob Peak responds: “Most years I make about 50 gallons (190 L) of wine, but a few times I have gone over 100 gallons (380 L), so I get right into the range you are talking about. My experience from when I was a partner at The Beverage People showed me that quite a few home winemakers — especially those considering commercial production — run into the same concerns.

“My barrel program is entirely red wine, and I will assume yours is, too. Red wine is relatively resistant to oxidation with its polyphenolic content and can usually tolerate some air exposure, providing yo eep yo r l te level p aro nd pp . ordin ly here how I handle racking my hectoliter barrels, which I do just once or twice during 9 or 10 months of barrel aging:

“Suppose I have 26 gallons (100 L) of wine in the barrel to rack. I usually also have a few carboys of the same wine because volumes are npredi table. li e to ni h ith t one ine o don t ant a barrel-aged 26 gallons (100 L) and, say, three 5-gallon (19-L) carboys of neutral-aged wine at bottling time. So, on racking day, I pump out the barrel ith y little fle ible i peller p p into y allon

Danny Wood is an Australian-based journalist who lived in Kansas City, Missouri, for a decade before moving home with his family. He’s made wine in his basement, worked in wineries, and is a former editor of Midwest Wine Press. He also studied enology while in the United States and judged the occasional wine competition, but was really smitten by vino (and his American wife) while living in Spain, reporting for BBC News. In past issues of WineMaker anny has rofiled Joel Peterson and Ravenswood Winery, as well as written stories on fermenting with wild yeast, essential winemaking techniques, the varieties of Chardonnay, Malbec, Tempranillo, and many other topics.

In this issue, Danny gives us an inside look at what’s happening in the wine world Down Under, with tips from three pro Aussie winemakers about making their most popular wines, starting on page 32.

Aaron Hyde began homebrewing in 1996 with his father in the kitchen. From there he picked up home distilling in 2008, piecing together a still from an old keg and copper piping. As the owner and operator of Brewstock Homebrew Supply in New Orleans he used to provide educational classes on brewing and winemaking. He currently manages global product strategy for Bevie, providing high-quality equipment and ingredients to homebrewers and distillers across the globe. aron has certifications in rewin maltin and distillin through the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, as well as certificates in winema in and viticulture from avis and Texas Tech, respectively. In 2021 he authored How to Distill for the hobby distiller and manages the website www.howtodistill.com, which provides supplementary information and support to the book. resh off ettin his first oo u lished aron shares an adapted excerpt from How To Distill with readers starting on page 40.

Christina Musto-Quick is a third-generation wine grape broker, home winema er and certified sommelier with a Masters in Wine Business from Sonoma State University. She is a longtime member of the American Wine Society, Co-Founder of The Women Winemakers of New England, and works at Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, Connecticut as Head of Sales, Marketing, and Winery Consulting. Growing up in the wine grape industry, Christina is passionate about all things wine and winemaking. Besides her job at Musto Wine Grape, Christina often contributes to WineMaker magazine, o rnal, and CTVisit.com when she isn’t geeking out about wine grapes.

Beginning on page 46, Christina explores what it takes to turn your winemaking hobby into a career.

(200-L) stainless steel variable capacity tank. I use ½-inch tubing and a corresponding racking cane and I have a stainless steel mesh pre lter on the p p.

“When the barrel is empty, I take it outside my little wine barn and hose it out with unchlorinated well water. I turn it upside down to drain for a few minutes. During this time, you could install the lid on the tank and blanket it with inert gas, but I don’t usually do that. do ho ever add pp of l te in a ol tion to the wine in the tank. After draining the barrel to the point of mostly not dripping, I take it back inside and position it on blocks on the floor a ain. then p p the e tra arboy into the barrel after ta ting each one — wouldn’t want to add a spoiled batch to the larger lot . hat ay that ine et o e barrel e po re too. l te that wine with 20 ppm. My tank is on a hydraulic ATV lift (sold for doin oil han e on it ha a lb. lift apa ity to in he hi h. o lift it and drain ine by ravity ba into the barrel ntil it i topped p. hen ll o e of tho e e tra arboy ith hatever i left in the tan . e e tra one pre anitized, because I don’t want to take the time to wash the ones I just emptied while everything is in progress. Now the wine is resting in barrel a ain ith e tra arboy on the ide and a ee or o later te t for l te to a e re till above pp free. hen bottling day comes, I taste all the vessels separately and then pump the to ether into the tan . add a nal pp of l te rai e the tan a ain and bottle on the floor by ravity.

on e lo t a in le arboy to o idation don t no hy b t

it didn’t pass the taste test so I poured it out without adding it to the blend. have never had ine fro the barrel ho e e ive o idation. In fact, my oldest barrel-aged wine, following the process deribed here for one year of a in i a ono a alley abernet a vi non that i till drin in very ni ely year later.

PRAISE FOR THE NO PRESSING TECHNIQUE

Back when I didn’t mind spending time on things that took time, I used to always make a “false wine” from the press cake (by adding some water and sugar to soak on the skins). I found that when making red hybrid wines, they were always a bit short of tannin and texture in general. A small amount of false wine beefed up the tannin and the fact that it contains water, it also softened the very strong acids we get in Michigan with hybrids. As I am tasting the wines I’ve made over the past 40 years, the ones made with the addition of about 10% or so false wine have held up much better and have better balance than those made with chemical de acidification and tannin added

I read with amazement Ed Armes’ “No Pressing Technique” description in the April-May 2021 Cellar Dwellers. He accomplished exactly what I was accomplishing but with a lot less work (by adding water and sugar to the must after collecting the free run wine, without pressing). He did not mention this, but his techni ue li e mine oth de acidifies and adds tannin and structure with minimal physical exertion. Smart man!

Brian Cain • via email

RECENT NEWS

Slowing Grape Ripening Can Help Improve Wine Quality

or y a colla orative team from oth ustralia and the twea ed with cro load and irri ation levels on a ernet auvi non ra es in order to ad ust the harvest dates hat they found was that y delayin the harvest y three wee s there was a si a le chan e in the ra e character ater ri enin meant increased levels of monoterpenes and norisoprenoids; both of which are considered aroma enhancers in wine hey also found decreases in reen aroma com ounds li e yra ines esides the aroma, they also found the phenolic character of the grapes to be greatly enhanced with greater anthocyanin content, total phenolic content, glycosides, and other pigments. If you find that you re harvestin your ra es earlier and earlier you may want do some more digging into this study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.1c01229

New Products:

Finer Wine Kits

A new line of wine kits has been introduced for the production of standard 6-gallon (23-L) wines. Finer Wine Kits’ juices and skins are stored cold and shipped in insulated packaging to maintain the grapes’ integrity and avor hese its are not ultra asteuri ed so e tra care is needed for handling prior to fermentation, but this also means they do not receive the harsh treatment re uired for ultra asteuri ation iner ine its are availa le in oth whites and reds ed wine its come with the option of single or double packs of grape skins. Each kit comes with an 11-page illustrated manual with instructions. Weighing under 20 lbs. (9 kg) means they’re easy to handle and ship. Also, keep your eyes out for the new fruit wine line coming this autumn. iner ine its are currently e clusively availa le throu h a el eelers com

SafCider Yeast

Fermentis has announced a new line of yeast strains geared s ecifically for ciderma ers here are many different ways to produce a cider across the globe and there are many cidermakers who want to innovate and create a new style of cider to feed diversity in this cider world hen ic in a yeast strain for your cider you must consider that different cider styles re uire different technical demands from the yeast. To make this selection process easier for the cidermaker, Fermentis has created four new cider strains to o tain the cider rofile they desire af ider for alanced ciders af ider for fresh and cris cider af ider to rin sweetness to your cider and af ider to ma imi e the fruitiness of your ciders hese strains are availa le in sachets for cider roduction at home o discover more visit www fermentis com

OCTOBER 8

e istration deadline for the merican ine ociety

Amateur Wine Competition. Open to all amateur winemakers and includes still fortified and s ar lin wines made from vinifera, native and hy rid ra es lso ud ed y certified ud es will e wines and ciders made from fruit ve eta le ower honey and rasses he cost is mem er non mem er er en try or more information visit htt s www awscom etitions com on-line-entry

NOVEMBER 5

he th nnual mateur inema in om etition will ta e lace on ovem er ntries will e acce ted from cto er st throu h ovem er th ntries should e shipped to or dropped off at The Home Wine, Beer, and Cheesema in ho in oodland ills alifornia ees are er entry he mateur is s onsored y the ellarmasters of Los Angeles Home Winemaking Club. More information and registration forms can be found at www.CellarmastersLA.org

AWARD-WINNING KITS

Other Red Vinifera Varietals

Mosti Mondiale Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Eminence

Spanish Tempranillo

SILVER

Cellar Craft Showcase Barbera

Cellar Craft Showcase Carménère

Master Vintner Winemaker’s Reserve

Carménère

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RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Carménère

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Vineco Atmosphere Nebbiolo

Vineco Atmosphere Viognier Red

Vineco Passport Series French Grenache

Vintner’s Cellar Supreme Bergamais

Winexpert Limited Edition Italian Barbaresco

Winexpert Private Reserve Italian Nebbiolo

Winexpert Selection Italian Montepulciano

BRONZE

Mosti Mondiale Fresco Montepulciano

Mosti Mondiale Meglioli Sicilian

Primitivo

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur

Spanish Grenache

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur

Winery Series Carménère

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru

International Chilean Malbec

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International Italian Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Italian

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Monastrell

Vineco Passport Series Nero d’Avola

Vintner’s Cellar Supreme Lambrusco

Winexpert Limited Edition Italian Negroamaro

Winexpert World Vineyard Chilean Malbec

Ao ular ra e native to taly s oot heel more s ecifically the southern Puglia region of Italy, Negroamaro means “black” and “bitter” in Italian. Folks in North America are much more familiar with one of this grape’s blending partners, Primitivo, more commonly referred to as Zinfandel. Primitivo though is not actually native to the Puglia region. But unlike Primitivo, Negroamaro has not widely seen success here in North America. There is very limited acreage planted in California (41 acres) and Texas (14 acres), but due to its drought resistance and love of warmer temperatures, don’t be surprised to see more interest in the future. It is considered a fairly neutral grape with notes of dark berry fruit and tobacco. The translated name does not actually apply to the wine which it produces as they are neither black in color nor bitter on the tongue. It does have a nice medium finish o while e roamaro is est nown as a lendin varietal wines made from the grape are known to produce lush, berry characteristics.

While fresh-grape winemakers may be out of luck sourcing Negroamaro grapes here in North America, kit and juice winemakers should have better access. Keep your eyes out for special releases from kit producers and from importers of Italian juices. Bottle shops with a solid Italian wine section likely have a good selection of commercial wines from Puglia made from Negroamaro grapes. Rosé wines made from Negroamaro are some of the highest regarded expressions of wines made from this grape varietal. If you do try any, might we recommend pairing it with a nice Amaro as a post-dinner digestif.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

BEGINNER’S BLOCK HONEY-BASED WINES

BY DAVE GREEN M

ost all of the honey-based wines fall into the larger category of meads. Given the history and ubiquity of honey-based wines throughout the world, it’s not surprising they are an amazingly diverse class of wines. Different regions around the world have different specialties and different names for the various meads and honey wines, making for a fairly complex and often misunderstood beverage. Love them or not, it’s an interesting study of both history and experimentation possibilities with a dizzying array of combinations and variations. Let’s start off with the intricacies of honey before jumping into a few of the more popular variants.

Most folks know that the qualities of honey produced from bees is de endent u on the source owers Honey derived from orange blossoms when compared to honey from buckwheat is going to taste wildly different. And just as with grape varietals, these different honey types will also produce different tasting meads. Meadmakers may want to blend different honey types to produce a more com le avor rofile or ee the honey as a single varietal to highli ht the ualities of a certain ower ty e or source re ion or a first time meadmaker blending honey types may be a safe way to go or opting for a more neutral-tasting honey like clover is a good starting point.

THE WORLD OF MEADS

A honey-based wine can be sweet, semi-sweet, or dry depending on the goal of the meadmaker (or the conditions provided to the yeast). Carbonation is also an option for meadmakers that may like to add some spritz to their mead. Carbonation can range from seemingly almost still to Champagne-level of bubbles.

Standard Mead: What most folks refer to as traditional mead, it’s typically fermented from either a single honey

type or a blend of two or more honey types. They will typically clock in between 7-14% ABV.

Hydromel (Session) Mead: At its core, this is a more watered-down version of standard mead, clocking in between 3.5-7% ABV. This requires skill from the meadmaker in order to make the mead taste full-bodied and these will often be carbonated for added mouthfeel.

Sack Mead: On the other end of the spectrum, sack mead is a potent concoction in the 14%+ ABV realm. A clean fermentation where the yeast can properly finish while ee in the alcohols hidden is a challenge.

Melomel: To keep things simple, we can say melomel is a honey-based wine that has some sort of fruit added. There are an abundant number of sub-categories of melomels based on what fruit is added, most notably cyser (apple mead) and pyment (grape mead). The sky is the limit as to what combination of fruits (dried or fresh) a meadmaker can mix in with the various honey varieties to create their melomel beverage.

Metheglin: Also a very broad category, but generally this refers to honey wines that have been spiced. A meadmaker can use herbs, vegetables, or other spices to create their metheglin. Technically fruit can also be added to a spiced mead and the resulting beverage will still be called a metheglin. Spices like vanilla, ginger, chamomile, and lavender are just a few that are popular among meadmakers.

Braggot: Just as pyment is a cross of wine and mead, braggot is a cross of beer and mead. Where a honey beer ends and braggot begins is a little blurry, but generally a braggot should have honey/mead notes come through in either the nose and or avor ut there is no definitive line in the sand se aratin the two classifications

There is also a whole world to explore of different honey-based wines from around the globe. Ethiopian t’ej, Polish czworniak, Mexican acan, Nepalese dandaghare, and Finnish sima are just a few examples of some of the different honey-based wines to research.

FEEDING THE YEAST

One of the biggest challenges for meadmakers is the balance of yeast nutrients. Honey doesn’t afford meadmakers the nutrients, most notably nitrogen, that yeast require for a proper and clean fermentation. This is why historically meadmakers needed to add things like grape juice or unfermented beer to the honey in order to provide some nutrients for yeast. But even with those additions, meadmakers are encouraged to add more nutrients. Too much though and the mead can be detrimentally affected. his is the fine line meadma ers need to walk. How much nutrients to add is highly dependent upon your starting material, but generally meadmakers will slowly “feed” the yeast over several weeks of fermentation.

OTHER POSSIBLE ADDITIONS

Think about what other additions grape winemakers may add and most all of them are possibly used in honey-based wines as well. Tannins, acids, oak, fortifying liquors, etc. are just a few e am les of additions you ll find in honey-based wines. The selection of yeast can also greatly affect the final roduct ome meadma ers may purposefully add non-Saccharomyces strains like Brettanomyces or bacterial strains to et a different rofile

If you would like to try your hand at honey wine and would like to learn more, I recommend either The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm or The Complete Guide to Making Mead y teve iat r you can find several great articles at winemakermag.com found under “Meadmaking.”

WINE WIZARD

BY ALISON CROWE

PRESERVING OAK BARRELS

QGOOD DAY! I WAS NOT ABLE TO FIND HOW TO PRESERVE AN OAK BARREL AFTER ITS USE. I HAVE DONE FOUR WINE BATCHES IN IT AND NOW I FEEL THAT IT’S NOT GIVING ME THE SAME EFFECT AS FOR TASTE. I WOULD LIKE TO SAVE THE BARREL AND PLACE IT IN MY WINE CELLAR, JUST DO NOT WANT IT TO CRACK. ANYTHING YOU CAN SUGGEST?

GATES LEGAULT SUDBURY, ONTARIO

Aell the first thin always say is full arrel is a ha y arrel hat means that the arrel is est stored with wine in it he acidity of the wine enerally reds tend to e a of ish ee s s oila e micro es at ay and of course the wet ness of the wine ee s the wood nice and swollen or those times when we can t ee our arrels full of wine however we do need to have a ac u lan his is where a ood arrel stor a e solution comes in asically what you re oin to do is fill your arrel with an acidulated sulfur dio ide solution which mimics the a ove salu rious effects don t attem t to drin it however ere s the reci e o ee one arrel of citric acid of otassium meta isulfite owder nou h water to fill the arrel rocedure ill your arrel a out halfway with water f ossi le use a car on loc filter to remove the chlorine from the water as chlorine can contri ute to or the cor ed aroma defect which could infiltrate your ar rel he water could e warm or cold ut warm water will hel the chemicals dissolve faster and more thorou hly o not use hot water which will cause the sulfur dio ide in the owder to

volatili e and otentially not only urn your nose hairs off ut also to dissi ate more uic ly ut on a res irator that has cartrid es that are a roved for sulfur dio ide as as well as eye rotection issolve the citric acid in a out a allon of warm water and add to the half full arrel ith your arrel stirrer you have one of those ri ht or a lon dowel or rod mi the solution into the water y the way you can use tartaric acid too it s ust much more e ensive than citric acid ontin ue fillin the arrel until it s a out of the way full hen dissolve the owder into a out a allon of water warm water is here ust not hot and add to the arrel a ain mi in thorou hly om letely to u the ar rel with water o with a wooden un or a un you don t care a out ruin in as stron sulfur dio ide solutions is sulfur dio ide li uid or as will de rade and crac silicone un s over time nother cellar tric is to cover your un with lastic wra efore sealin u the arrel

ractice ood safety techni ues at all times around sulfur dio ide es e cially when acids and sulfur dio ide mi is much more effective at lower s which is what you want ut that also renders it more volatile and dan erous lush any s ills with lenty of clean water and don t allow any un

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

For those times when we can’t keep our barrels full of wine, however, we do need to have a backup plan.

versulfited wine film on a car oy and e inner ti s

masked people or your pets in the area while you’re working. y ee in your arrel filled with the a ove solution and y chan in it out every one to two months you should e a le to ee your arrel sound and sweet when you don t have wine in it owever the est way to ee a arrel oin is to keep it full of your aging wine . . . and to address one of your other comments, indeed after four batches of wine I would

e ect the arrel to not e contri utin much avor or aroma to the wine. This is where I really like to add oak beans, stic s or s irals to my wine in arrels ou et the enefit of the aging dynamics of the barrel and can add some more fresh wood for further avor and aroma develo ment ou can read a out my recommended roducts here htt s winemakermag.com/wine-wizard/is-oak-sanitation-necessary

QI WAS WONDERING IF THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT COULD BE DONE FOR A BATCH OF WINE THAT HAS BEEN OVER- SULFITED? MY WINE HAS BEEN BOTTLED, SO I WON’T BE DOING ANY MORE RACKINGS AND I CAN’T GIVE YOU SPECIFICS ON HOW MUCH I’VE OVER- SULFITED AS I DON’T HAVE THE PROPER EQUIPMENT TO CHECK IT.

WHAT I CAN TELL YOU IS I CLEANED AND TRIED TO SANITIZE ALL THE BOTTLES WITH POTASSIUM METABISULFITE (3 TABLESPOONS FOR EVERY 4 LITERS/1.1 GALLONS OF WATER ) BUT FORGOT TO RINSE THE BOTTLES BEFORE BOTTLING. THE WINE IS NOW VERY HARD TO DRINK AND THE SULFITES ARE TOO HARSH TO HANDLE. I ALSO PUT IN 9 ML OF A 10% SOLUTION AT THE LAST RACKING . . . THE CARBOY USED HOLDS ONLY 20 LITERS (5.25 GALLONS ) OF WINE.

Aince you can t measure your free and total let’s do some numbers to see what kind of a potential problem you might be facing. First off, let’s talk about your bottle-rinsing solution of 3 tablespoons per 4 liters of water. 3 tablespoons of KMBS otassium meta isulfite owder is e uivalent to a out x 13 g (approximate weight of a tablespoon of KMBS), or rams ivide y and your concentration is or m or hat s a retty stron solution and let’s say that about 1 mL of that solution hung around in your wine ottle which would contri ute of owder er ottle ow is only sulfur dio ide so then the full contri ution is or m of total er m ottle

Let’s turn that into a language we’re more familiar with when tal in a out sulfur dio ide levels m or m f your ottles are m ottles that s or m sulfur dioide er liter of wine m hat s not a hu e addition ut if you already had a hi h level oin into ottlin it certainly will add to it. As a point of reference, I typically like to bottle with a free not total which we ve ust calculated level of around 25–30 ppm, depending on the pH and the amount of already in the wine y total at ottlin de endin on the a e of the wine and how many additions ve had to ma e over a wine s lifetime tend to hover around m s another reference oint the le al limit of total in commercial wine in the U.S. is 350 ppm.

ow let s loo at how much you added in your last addition, or 9 mLs of a 10% solution at your last racking. Your car oy is volume solution can also e written as g/100 mL, or 100 g/L. Since I don’t know whether you’re talking a out a solution as which is or as it s hard to do the ne t ste ut m oin to assume you ve ot a 10% solution as KMBS. So, to 20 L of wine you added 9 mL of a 10 g/100 mL solution. In 1 of the mLs of your solution there

are of so you ust added total or of n m terms you added m or m total as sulfur dio ide not free ust total

One of the challenges here is that I don’t know what the free and total level of your wine was efore that addition f you d een ee in your wine at a out m free say for a year or so and then added a total hit of m on to of that lus the m leftover from your rinsin solution it s not too much of a stretch to think you could be looking at a free of etween m de endin on the underlyin chemistry of your wine. And indeed, that’s enough “extra” free to where could see you thin in the wine was a little hard to handle at the moment ou re even in hi her territory if you were talking about your 10% solution being “as sulfur dioxide,” in which case you’d be adding 900 mg/20 L, or 45 ppm total as sulfur dioxide.

So what can one do if one’s added too much sulfur dioxide to a wine ince they ve een all ottled u it s a little hard to affect any kind of change, unless you want to open them all up and decant them . . . which you could do. My recommendation is to send a sample of the wine to be tested at your closest wine lab. Ask your local fermentation supply shop for contacts if you don t have one already d li e you to actually see your free and total num ers efore you em ar on any treatment because in this case sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease f indeed you do have unnaturally hi h levels of free how hi h it is will dictate my advice to you f your free SO is around m and your total is under m my advice is that you do nothin and ust wait he free level will o down over time so chec on how a ottle tastes in another month or two. You might be pleasantly surprised.

f your free is over m and your total level is over 200 ppm, it’s unlikely that the wine will return to “drinkable” anytime soon. In which case, the best choice is to open all the bottles, decant (under a blanket of CO2 gas or argon to protect

DOMENIC MORDA NIAGARA- ON -THE - LAKE, ONTARIO

it from o y en and lend the over sulfited wine with wine that has lower levels his is a reat solution ut only if you ha en to have e tra wine lyin around that has lower levels of free ou may now that one of my mantras is never lend a loser ut in this case the wine may e fine it ust needs its free levels alanced out a it efore you lend however do send your ros ective lenders out to a la to measure their free and total to see if the math even wor s out t s a ood idea to have the free oin to ottle never e a ove m and ideally ee it etween m deendin on the of the wine hi h wines need more here are some eo le who say that over sulfited wine can e treated with hydro en ero ide ut as ve never done it and as hydro en ero ide is a owerful o idi er and can utterly ruin your wine don t recommend it nstead d o with

one of the a roaches ve discussed ou don t want to create an even i er ro lem y tryin to solve the first one when it s ossi le that all you need to do is wait ince the earlier calculations don t im ly ross over sulfitin here will mention one other ossi le sulfur stin ro lem winema ers encounter hydro en sulfide rotten e odor ou could try a enny test or if you have any co er sulfate solution i ette a dro of that into a lass with m s of wine to see if it hel s f either of those tests resolve the sulfur situation you will then need to do a ro er ench trial to determine what s the smallest addition needed to solve the ro lem then add that amount to the atch or more instructions on this chec out my ine i ard column in the une uly issue or at htt s winema erma com wine wi ard ro erly adding-copper

Aow loo s li e you ve ot a serious case of in round the ar oy han s for sendin in the icture always love it when readers do that ecause es ecially in cases li e these it ives me a ood visual to o from can see that es y stain on the inside of the nec of your car oy ne te is a reat cleaner ut m not so sure it s stron enou h for your ur oses here i e it won t really hel you et that film off

f were you d ma e sure you had a stiff ristled car oy rush f your local home rewin fermentation su ly store doesn t have one you can find one online y enterin those terms into your search en ine of choice ou want a rush with an angled handle and/or an angled brush, so you can get into every curve and corner of your fermentation vessels

ather than use ne te a ain d use somethin that s a stron er ase which will hel to rea u the residue around the nec area classic that love is ero ycar which is the trade name for a asic hi h owder of sodium car onate and sodium ercar onate which also releases hydro en ero ide when added to water su est an overni ht soa in a stron a out cu owder to a allon of water m owder to a liter of water ero ycar solution followed y a hard scru with your an led rush and then a rinse with acidulated water li e citric f that doesn t wor you could try a little a rasive cleanser li e ar ee er s riend or even omet cleanser ust don t use anythin with leach lways follow any asic cleaner with an acidulated water rinse and then a re ular water rinse to ma e sure you ve removed anythin that mi ht chan e a wine s ou definitely don t want any asic

residue han in around inside your car oy ve ot a retty ood feelin that with an overni ht ero ycar soa you should e a le to scru off that film f not then it mi ht ust e a ermanent stain on the inside of your vessel f a stron ase solution won t ta e it off and you ve scru ed u and down d ust live with it t s unli ely that at that oint it will dissolve off into your wine

I’M JUST STARTING OUT MAKING WINE AND I’M A LITTLE PETRIFIED OF MAKING SOME ( OK, A LOT ) OF MISTAKES AS I GO ALONG. DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE?

MARIA LATHAM DULUTH, MINNESOTA

AWinemaking is always a learning process and even those of us that have been doing this for a long time still learn a lot every harvest and all year-round! However, that being said, I do have some tidbits for new winemakers. In my Winemaker’s Answer Book s ell out what thin are ro a ly the to five “Rookie Mistakes” that those new to winemaking are prone to make:

- Picking grapes too early or too late: Once you pick you can’t go back and the path to wine is already laid out before you. Pick your reds at 22 °Brix and you should make a rosé . . . wait for riper fruit to make a “proper” big red wine.

- Inappropriate must adjustment: You can make little tweaks by adding acid (if pH is too high), water (if too ripe), or, in the case of home winemakers, a little sugar if needed to boost alcohol. Overdo it, however, and you’ve just thrown the whole balance off.

- Not understanding the destructive power of oxygen: Oxygen can ruin wine, oxidizing its bright color and encouragin s oila e micro es lways ee finished wine away from oxygen by keeping your aging containers fully topped up to minimize exposure. There are many small tricks to minimizing exposure to oxygen but topping up is the most important.

- Not understanding the constructive power of oxygen: Yeast need some oxygen while fermenting and it can help tannin development in young wines. Embracing oxygen early on while a wine is still producing carbon dioxide (which protects the headspace) is a good idea. Just make sure the wine is protected once it stops producing its own carbon dioxide gas or oxidation and spoilage may result.

- Keeping inadequate records: Did you make a wonderful wine? If you weren’t writing down what you were doing, you’ll never be able to recreate it! Similarly, if you don’t like what you did, you won’t know what to avoid doing next time.

VARIETAL FOCUS

BY CHIK BRENNEMAN

FLEXIBLE FRONTENAC

Making a case for this hybrid

Recently in the WineMaker Harvest Online Boot Camp, I discussed at length about harvest wine style and technique decisions. This topic had me deep in thought about how best to convey that information to our diverse audience around the globe. The challenge with presenting a topic like that, as well as writing about varieties that have regional importance rather than global resti e centers on the s ecific variety potential, or actual harvest parameters. We all should understand that the best wines come from a variety grown on the right site, whether it is a hybrid or pure Vitisvinifera. Pure vinifera has its place in the temperate zones of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. But it is the fringe areas, perhaps too wet, too hot, or too cold, that grape breeders have focused on developing varieties that will thrive there. In their minds they are looking for traits to overcome the environmental adversity the new vine will experience. But they also need to ask the question: Is it going to make a good wine? And to what style of wine makes the variety shine. Frontenac is our focus in this issue because of its versatility on the winemaking front.

Also known as MN1047, this University of Minnesota hybrid was originally bred in 1978. It is a hybrid of Landot Noir and Vitis riparia #89 (MN89). In its lineage are also percentages of V. labrusca, V. vinifera, V. aestivalis, V. lincecumii, V. rupestris, V. cinerea, and V. berlandieri. With an abundance of native-American varieties, it is not surprising that it possesses good all-around disease resistance, except for foliar phylloxera, to which it is

highly susceptible. A color mutation appeared in 1992, which was released in 2003 under the name Frontenac Gris. Another color mutation appeared in a vineyard in Québec in 2005, which was named Frontenac Blanc. All three varieties are productive, vigorous, cold-hardy, with loose bunches of small- to medium-sized berries capable of high sugar and acidity levels. It buds early in the season making it prone to frost damage. It ripens mid to late season.

Frontenac is a regional grape. It is widely grown across the Upper Midwest of the U.S. with some vineyards reported as far west as Nevada. I am personally involved in a project in northern Utah where it is planted with other cold-hardy hybrids. I am excited to be working on this as there is no better way to learn about a grape than to cut your teeth with it. Frontenac is made in a variety of styles, such as sweet or dry rosés, dry red, and Portstyle wines. Frontenac Gris is made into dry white styles, and Frontenac Blanc, with the best styles reported to be dessert or Port-style wines to take advantage of its high acidity. Also understand that this is not the gospel, as many styles are possible.

As we went over in the Harvest Boot Camp, picking your style depends on the following harvest parameters: The overall condition of the fruit, sugar, acidity, pH, and tannin. I have always said that a great winemaking effort is the result of some great fruit, coming from a great vineyard, and tended by a great person. That said, the zones that these varieties are bred for actually have real weather. While they can be fairly immune to diseases, there are the physical dangers of late-spring frost, extreme heat, severe storms with hail,

Frontenac is made in a variety of styles, such as sweet or dry rosés, dry red, and Portstyle wines.

DRY RED-STYLE

FRONTENAC

INGREDIENTS

125 lbs. (57 kg) Frontenac fruit

Distilled water

otassium meta isulfite solution ei h rams of dissolve into about 50 milliliters (mL) of distilled water. When comletely dissolved ma e u to mL total with distilled water.)

5 g Lalvin D254 yeast (Premier Cuvée can be used as a substitute)

5 g Diammonium phosphate (DAP)

5 g Go-Ferm ermaid or e uivalent yeast nutrient)

alolactic fermentation starter culture ansen or e uivalent

EQUIPMENT

15-gallon (57-L) food-grade plastic bucket for fermentation

5-gallon (19-L) carboy

1–2 one-gallon (3.8-L) jugs

Racking hoses

Destemmer/crusher

Wine press nert as nitro en ar on or car on dioxide)

Ability to maintain a fermentation temperature of 81–85 °F (27–29 °C)

Thermometer capable of measuring between 40–110 °F (4–43 °C) in one degree increments.

Pipettes with the ability to add in increments of 1 mL

STEP BY STEP

1. Clean and sanitize all your winema in tools su lies and e ui ment

2. Examine your fruit and remove and poorly colored clusters and clusters showing signs of rot.

3. Crush and destem the grapes. Transfer the must to your fermenter.

4. urin the transfer add m of solution his addition is the e uivalent of m 2.

5. a e a sam le to test for ri acidity and ee the results handy

6. Layer the headspace with inert gas and ee covered ee in a cool lace overnight.

7. he ne t day s rin le the ermaid directly to the must and mix well.

8. Prepare yeast. Heat about 50 mL distilled water to i the Go-Ferm into the water to make

Yield 5 Gallons (19 L)

a suspension. Take the temperature. Pitch the yeast when the suspension is rin le the yeast on the surface and gently mix so that no clumps exist. Let sit for 15 minutes undistur ed easure the tem erature of the yeast suspension and the must. You do not want to add the yeast to your cool juice if the variance in temperature exceeds 15 °F (8 °C). To avoid tem erature shoc you should acclimate your yeast by taking about 10 mL of the must juice and add it to the yeast suspension. Wait 15 minutes and measure the temperature again. Do this until you are within the specified temperature range.

9. hen the yeast is ready add it to the top of the must. Do not mix it in yet.

10. You should see signs of fermentation within one to two days. This will appear as some foaming on the must surface and it will a ear that the berries are rising out of the medium. You need have on hand the ability to push the grapes back into the juice to promote color and tannin extraction.

11. onitor the ri and tem erature twice daily during peak fermentation down to ri ornin and evenings are best and more often if the temperature shows any indication of e ceedin in which case you would activate your cooling system i the must ait minutes mix and check the temperature again. Do this as often as it takes to keep the temperature between 80–85 °F (27–29 °C). Do not cool off to less than heat it if necessary

12. t a out ri dissolve the in a little water and mix in.

13. hen the ri reaches ero a out days transfer the must to your ress and ress the ca e dry ee the free run wine separate from the press portion for now.

14. Transfer the wine to your carboys and jugs. Your press fraction may only e a allon or two a e sure you do not have any headspace. Place an airlock on the vessel(s). The fermentation may perk up a little here as the primary fermentation completes. When activity starts to slow taste the wine for sweetness or send a sample to an outside lab. The wine is considered dry

if the residual sugar is less than 2 g/L.

15. Inoculate with your malolactic acteria over the to s with an airloc to allow 2 to escape.

16. onitor the fermentation usin a thin layer chromatography assay available from most home winemaking supply stores.

17. hen the is com lete add m of fresh solution per gallon (3.8 L) of wine. This is the e uivalent to m addition

18. easure the and titrata le acidity ost im ortantly you want a finished TA of about 6.5-7.5 g/L. If the has not reduced the acidity to this ran e consider settin u a deacidification bench trial using potassium car onate 2 3).

19. Place the wine in a cool place to settle fter two wee s test for 2 ad ust the 2 as necessary to attain m molecular 2. (There is a sim le 2 calculator at www. winemakermag.com/sulfitecalculator). hec the 2 in another two weeks and ad ust nce the free 2 is adusted maintain at this level ou ll ust need to chec every two months or so and before racking.

20. Rack the wine clean twice over 6–8 months to clarify. Consider during this period using some oak chips to add some oa flavors ut do not expose the wine too long to the oak. The amount of oak to add is your preference onsider the amount contact time is ased on the amount used ne to two wee s sometimes less is sufficient for this volume aste fre uently to your preference of extraction.

21. nce the wine is cleared it is time to move it to the bottle. This should be about eight months after the completion of fermentation.

22. a e the ro ect fun y havin a blending party to integrate the press fraction back into the free run. You may not need it all use your ud ment and make what you like.

23. f all has one well to this oint iven the uantity made it can ro ably be bottled without filtration. That said maintain sanitary conditions while ottlin nce ottled you ll need to periodically check your work by opening a bottle to enjoy with friends.

Moving to the wine phase, natural deacidification can be achieved via a malolactic fermentation (MLF).

and then, early winter. Hopefully that great person can make the best and deliver fruit that the winemaker can make visual assessments and react accordingly when the fruit is delivered. Rot or poor-quality fruit needs to be sorted out. Recent research has shown as the percentage of rot increases in a s ecific maceration its characteristics in the wine chan e Some might not perceive this, others will. A very good resource for growing grapes in cold climates is Growing Grapes in Minnesota, 10th Ed., by the Minnesota Grape Association.

I have seen where some wineries in Michigan are experimentin with ash d tente rocess in which the must is heated to 175–185 °F (80–85 °C) and then moved to a vacuum chamber where the cells burst, releasing all of their contents. The heat will kill off unwanted molds, denature deleterious enzymes, and improve and stabilize color. We will e wor in with ash d tente on the tah ro ect and am excited as it has been a process used in Europe for some time now. The practice is certainly not practical for the home

winemaker, but it stresses the importance of taking care of your fruit when it comes in. In the absence of sophisticated methods, the home winemaker needs to be diligent about sorting out bad fruit and understanding the relationship between pH, acidity, and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

Second to fruit quality when choosing the style are the remaining four parameters: Sugar, acidity, pH, and tannin. There has not been a lot of tannin research with Frontenac and one study I read fell short of recommendations for making wine. They worked with berry chemistry, which showed tannins are generally low with similar, and statistically insi nificant differences etween two vineyards one in Iowa and the other in South Dakota. Tannin levels in St. Croix and Marquette were also included with similar results. Thus, the variable here are the two climates. So, for maximum extraction for the home winemaker, getting some good heat in the fermentation (80–85 °F/27–29 °C), and a longer maceration would e the first lace would start

Sugar, acidity, and pH take us back to the vineyard where the local weather in uences hotosynthesis s we learned in grade school, sunlight is needed for photosynthesis, the process of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide and converting it to sugar to e translocated to the erry rontenac can attain upwards of 24–25 °Brix if left han in lon enou h n alifornia, we see dangerous rises in pH and si nificant decreases in acidity with varieties we select for a longer hangtime in our a riculture climate his is not the case for rontenac ra es he hi h acid levels enefit from the increased han time alic acid is ein respired by the berries, thus a decrease in overall acidity, with no effects on re orted ovin to the wine hase natural deacidification can e achieved via a malolactic fermentation areful attention to taste and lab results factor in better-informed decisions on style ty e his is an important aspect of my approaches in winemaking, even commercially, to sometimes see what have rather than tellin the wine where to o

o do this you have to understand the following relationship:

sweetness ↔ acidity + astringency/ bitterness

his is a eneral relationshi that can e used with all wines and foods t says that the erce tion of sweetness is related to the sum total of acidity and the astringency/bitterness com onent n the case of rontenac the low tannins put more emphasis on the acidity component to balance the su ar and vice versa f see hi h acidity want to sweeten the wine y possibly fortifying with ethanol before the end of fermentation to stop it, or ac sweeten if missed the earlier o ortunity to fortify hile li e wines with crisp acidity, it sometimes has to e tamed ower acidity can wor with higher sugars but consider fortifying after the fact he ossi ilities are endless and it takes knowledge and e erience to et the alances ri ht t may not ha en your first time around ut over time you will et a feel for it Keep in mind my general philosophy of wor in with what have not what want ort of a minimalist and more

importantly, opportunistic approach to uality winema in ines of the red version e hi it avors of cherry lac currant and lum ome will erceive chocolate as the wines a e he ris version features peaches, apricot, and citrus, but the wines will show some coloration ome say the ris will e re laced y the Blanc version and made into white Port-style or dessert style wines, with no coloration

No matter the style you desire to make you have a lot of opportunities with rontenac y advice to ros ective rontenac winema ers is to have a plan but be sure to keep an open mind to moving outside the bubble and experimenting when the grapes throw you a curve all have always said that life is not always the destination, but the ourney his is so true with rontenac as you choose your style ty e i and match you will find your atch

BE A PIONEER.

AND MALOLACTIC CULTURES PIONEERING PREMIUM YEAST

ENTER YOUR BEST HOMEMADE WINES IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST COMPETITION FOR HOBBY WINEMAKERS!

DON’T WAIT  SEND YOUR ENTRIES NOW! ENTRY DEADLINE: MARCH 21, 2022

Enter your wines and compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in 50 categories awarded by a panel of experienced wine judges. You can gain international recognition for your winemaking skills and get valuable feedback on your wines from the competition’s judging panel.

Entry Deadline: March 21, 2022 5515 Main Street • Manchester Center, VT 05255 ph: (802) 362-3981 ext. 106 • fax: (802) 362-2377

email: competition@winemakermag.com

You can also enter online at: www.winemakercompetition.com

will be awarded thanks to our award sponsors:

Gene Spaziani Grand Champion Wine

WineMaker of the Year

Best of Show Red

Retailer of the Year

Best of Show White

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Best of Show Dessert

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LALLEMAND BREWING

Best of Show Mead

Best of Show Country Fruit

Best of Show Sparkling

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Category Medals (gold, silver, and bronze) will be awarded thanks to our category sponsors:

34. Red Table Wine Blend (Any Grape Varieties)

35. Blush Table Wine Blend (Any Grape Varieties)

36. Grape & Non-Grape Table Wine Blend

37. Apple or Pear Varietals or Blends

38. Hard Cider or Perry

39. Stone Fruit (Peach, Cherry, Blends, etc.)

40. Berry Fruit (Strawberry, Raspberry, Blends, etc.)

41. Other Fruits

42. Traditional Mead

43. Fruit Mead

Moonlight Meadery

44. Herb and Spice Mead

45. Flower or Vegetable

46. Port Style

47. Sherry Style

48. Other Fortified

49. Sparkling Grape, Dry/Semi-Dry or Sweet

50. Sparkling Non-Grape

2. White Native American Blend

3. Red Native American Varietal

Blend (Any Grape Varieties)

RULES & REGULATIONS

1. Entry deadline for wines to arrive is March 21, 2022

Wines are to be delivered to: Battenkill Communications

5515 Main Street Manchester Center, VT 05255 Ph: (802) 362-3981

2. Send ONE (1) BOTTLE per entry. Still wines must be submitted in standard 750 ml wine bottles. Ice wines or late harvest wines can be submitted in 375 ml bottles. Meads and Hard Ciders can be submitted in 12 oz. or 22 oz. beer bottles. Sparkling wines must be in champagne bottles with proper closure and wire. All bottles must be free of wax, decorative labels and ca sules owever an identification la el will be required on the bottle as detailed in rule #5.

3. Entry fee is $25 U.S. dollars (or $25 Canadian dollars) for each wine entered. Each individual person is allowed up to a total of 15 entries. You may enter in as many categories as you wish. Make checks payable to WineMaker Only U.S. or Canadian funds will be accepted. On your check write the number of entries (no more than 15 total) and the name of the entrant if different from the name on the check. Entry fees are non-refundable.

4. All shipments should be packaged to withstand considerable handling and must be shipped freight pre-paid. Line the inside of the box with a plastic trash bag and use plenty of packaging material, such as bubble wrap, around the bottles. Bottles shipped in preformed styrofoam cartons have proven reliable in the past. Every reasonable effort will be made to contact entrants whose bottles have broken to make arrangements for sending replacement bottles. Please note it is illegal to ship alcoholic beverages via the U.S. Postal Service. FedEx Air and FedEx Ground will destroy all amateur wine shipments so do not use either of these services. Private shipping companies such as UPS with company policies against individuals shipping alcohol may refuse your shipment if they are informed your package contains alcoholic beverages. Entries mailed internationally are often required by customs to provide proper documentation. It is the entrant’s responsibility to follow all applicable laws and regulations. Packages with postage due or C.O.D. charges will be rejected.

5 Each bottle must be labeled with the following information: Your name, category number, wine ingredients, vintage.

Example: K. Jones, 9, 75% Baco Noir, 25% Foch, 2016. If you are using a wine kit for ingredients please list the brand and product name as the wine ingredients. Example: K. Jones, 22, Winexpert Selection International French Cabernet Sauvignon, 2016. A copy of the entry form, listing each of your wines entered, must accompany entry and payment.

6. It is entirely up to you to decide which of the 50 categories you should enter. You should enter each wine in the category in which you feel it will perform best. Wines must contain a minimum of 75% of designated type if entered as a varietal. Varietals of less than 75% must be entered as blends. To make sure all entries are judged fairly, the WineMaker staff may re-classify an entry that is obviously in the wrong category or has over ercenta e of a s ecific varietal but is entered as a blend.

7. Wine kits and concentrate-based wines will compete side-by-side with fresh fruit and juice-based wines in all listed cate gories.

8. The origin of many Native American grapes is unknown due to spontaneous cross-breeding. For the purposes of this competition, however, the Native American varietal category will include, but is not limited to, the following grape families: Aestivalis, Labrusca, Riparia and Rotundifolia (muscadine).

9. For sparkling wine categories, dry/semidry is defined as residual su ar and sweet as >3% residual sugar.

10. Contest is open to any amateur home winemaker. Your wine must not have been made by a professional commercial winemaker or at any commercial winery. No employee of WineMaker magazine may enter. Persons under freelance contract with Battenkill Communications are eligible. No person employed by a manufacturer of wine kits may enter. Winemaking supply retail store owners and their employees are eligible. Judges may not judge a category they have entered. Applicable entry fees and limitations shall apply.

11. All wines will be judged according to their relative merits within the category. Gold, silver and bronze medals within each category will be awarded on point totals and will not be restricted to the top three wines only (for example, a number of wines may earn enough points to win gold). The Best of Show awards will be those wines clearly superior within those stated catego-

KEY DATES

Entry deadline for wines to arrive in Vermont: March 21, 2022

Wines judged: April 22-24, 2022

Results first announced at the WineMaker Magazine Conference in San Luis Obispo, California June 4, 2022

(Results posted on winemakermag.com)

ries. The Grand Champion award is given to the top overall wine in the entire competition.

12. The Winemakerof the Year award will be given to the individual whose top 5 scoring wine entries have the highest average judging score among all entrants.

13. The Club of the Year, Retailer of the Year and U-Vint of the Year awards will be based on the following point scale: Gold Medal (or any Best of Show medal): 3 points

Silver Medal: 2 points

Bronze Medal: 1 point

The amateur club that accumulates the most overall points from its members’ wine entries will win Club of the Year. The home winemaking retail store that accumulates the most overall points from its customers’ wine entries will win Retailer of the Year. The U-Vint or On-Premise winemaking facility that accumulates the most overall points from its customer’s wine entries will win U-Vint of the Year.

14. The Best of Show Estate Grown award will be given to the top overall scoring wine made with at least 75% fruit grown by the entrant. Both grape and country fruit wines are eligible.

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By Bob Peak

What’s your favorite serving temperature for red wine? Cold? Cellar temperature? Room temperature? How about hot?

Hot, spiced wine has been enjoyed for two millennia or more. When the Roman Empire expanded across Europe, vineyards and wine soon followed. Especially in colder climates, heating and spicing red wine became common practice. As this spicy beverage spread to new areas, regional specialties and national names for it developed. Most commonly “mulled wine” in English-speaking North America (more on “mulled” later), it is vin chaud or hot wine in French. In German-speaking countries, you would most likely encounter the popular winter beverage Glühwein, describing hot, spiced wine as glowing or smoldering. Variations on gløgg or glögg appear in the various languages of the Nordic countries. In many regions, serving mulled wine is associated with the Christmas season, Saint Lucia’s Day on December 13, and the year-end astronomical solstice. In South America, where it might be unpleasantly hot for mulled wine at that time of year, it is served on the opposite side of the calendar. Brazilians enjoy vinho quente during the Festas Juninas, a festival period encompassing the nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24. Similarly, Chileans toast with their vino navegado on June 23, St. John’s Eve, in celebration of the same saint.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

MAKE YOUR OWN MULLED WINE

Now that you know more about the history, are you ready to make some mulled wine? I have included my personal recipe at the end of this story and I think it’s great, but there’s no reason you can’t make up your own for friends and family as cooler weather is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. You probably have some homemade red wine in the cellar, spices in the kitchen, and possibly some citrus fruit readily available. World recipe variations provide plenty of range for exploration, although some features appear commonly.

First, although I have mentioned mostly red table wine, that is not the only choice. Versions are also made with fortified wines, white wines, hard cider, and even ale. Spirits are sometimes added in the form of brandy or whisky to make an even more potent beverage. Mulled wine is almost always sweetened, with sugar or honey filling that assignment. Sources cite a range of typical spices, but I’ll call first on one of my favorite culinary refer-

ence books, Larousse Gastronomique. That book describes red wine, lemon or orange peel, sugar or honey, and cinnamon, cloves, and mace. Our English name for it, mulled wine, derives from the spices. “Mulling” is an old apothecary term for grinding and thoroughly mixing, as with dried spice mixes. You are certainly welcome to do that in your recipe, or you can follow my lead and just use whole spices and then strain them out for serving.

As with any home winemaking project, you want to achieve both balance and complexity. That means you want a pleasing array of flavors and aromas that blend together for an enjoyable experience. Let’s explore those factors in mulled wine. First, of course, is your base wine. If it is the traditional red wine, you introduce aromas like berries and cherries, plus possible secondary notes like oak, tobacco, or cigar box. There are likely some fruity flavors, most commonly either red or black fruits like plums and cherries. There may be some bitterness, plus astringent “grip” on the

palate and tongue from grape or oak tannins. Before you mull it, smell and taste your wine critically to help build your recipe. You will be trying to enhance favorable flavors and aromas and balance out any that could make the finished drink taste disjointed or harsh.

Heat has profound e ects on the drinking experience, too. Warmer wine, especially red, may present as harsher when tannins seem to be more prominent. Bitterness may also increase and fruitiness may seem subdued. The wine may seem flat or flabby with the acid not as prominent in a cooler presentation. As alcohol becomes more volatile at higher temperatures, the vapors give the wine a heady impression and obvious spirit-like character, even if no other spirits are added. A sweetener helps balance bitterness and astringency, as well as add apparent fruitiness, which is why sugar or honey is usually added. If you choose honey, you will also be adding aromatic notes that are potentially spicy and floral. Adding citrus

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

peel or juice may add brightness and additional fruity aromas. Finally, the spices you choose will bring their own signature flavor and aromas, building your complexity. As an example, I’ll go through my own recipe.

I like to use a dry, moderately tannic red wine with deep color and a long finish. For this use, I am not looking for the fruitiness of a young red or light delicacy of something like a Pinot Noir. My 2017 Tinta Cão, a red variety often used in Port wine blends, fills the bill perfectly. For my sweetener, I decided on ordinary white table sugar. I wanted to balance any native bitterness and smooth out the astringency, which sugar would do well. I am not particularly fond of the aromas of honey, so I passed on that. I decided for the citrus component that I would use lemon juice in the wine and lemon peel in serving. I have a lemon tree, so I knew I would get fresh flavor and aroma from both.

For spices, I started with one of the most traditional; a cinnamon stick. With flavors and aromas found in many baked goods and desserts, this spice is familiar to just about everybody. It is the dried and rolled bark from one of three species of tropical trees, collectively known as cinnamon trees. Cinnamon from Sri Lanka is often considered the best in the world. Although North Americans use the spice mostly in sweet dishes, in Eastern Europe and Asia it is also found in many savory applications including stews, soups, and roast meat dishes. It has been used in cooking for a long time, including mentions in Sanskrit texts and in the Bible. With its sweet, pungent aroma and hot, spicy flavor notes, I felt it would match nicely with the sometimes “meaty” character of full-bodied red wine.

The next spice in my recipe is clove, another traditional mulling spice. Cloves are another ancient spice, this time the dried flower buds of the clove tree, another tropical tree. They have been used for millennia in sweet and savory dishes and were said to be as popular as black pepper in Europe in the Middle Ages. With strong aroma and flavor, they now appear mostly in a few specific desserts, some stews,

and in pickling. With just six of them in my blend, the influence is noticeable but restrained.

For my final spice, I used Jamaican allspice. This one is not always found in mulled wine, but I have used it in sausage making and in pickling and have enjoyed its character. Not an ancient spice of Europe or Asia, the allspice berry is a dried, unripe berry of the tree Pimenta o cinalis, native to the Caribbean and Mexico. Jamaica is the most highly regarded producer. In use, allspice carries aromas reminiscent of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, causing some to confuse it with a blend of other spices rather than a single source. Using the dried berries whole assures that you have the real thing. Combined, my recipe yields a satisfying hot drink that is both sweet and tart, with mild tannins tamed with a sweet finish. It is pleasantly spicy, with the cloves kept mild to avoid a dominating aroma.

While that is the extent of my mulling spices, I will touch on a few more for your consideration:

Mace: Also traditional in mulled wine, mace has an interesting connection to another spice. Mace is the dried, fibrous outer hull of the nutmeg seed. It can be used as is, but is more commonly ground to a powder for kitchen use. As with some of the others mentioned here, it can be used to good e ect in sausages, pickles, pork dishes, and sauces.

Nutmeg: Mace’s counterpart, nutmeg is the peeled, dried seed of the nutmeg tree, native to Indonesia. This spice, too, can be employed in mulled wine and its grated form is sprinkled on top of a number of cocktails. While I love a bit of nutmeg freshly grated on top of a frosty Pink Squirrel (showing my age), most drinkers are probably more familiar with it sprinkled on seasonal eggnog. It is equally at home among the spices for wine.

To make your own distinguished recipe, you may also consider adding ginger, marjoram, cardamom, rosemary, or even galangal. That last one is the aromatic rhizome of one of several Asian plants related to ginger. Seen now mostly in East Asian cuisine, it was common in European

cooking in the middle ages and even appears in a 1390 book of English cookery for use in mulled wine.

In writing this article, I learned a number of new things, including from my copy of Larousse, which I’ve had for about 30 years. I knew of author Alexandre Dumas from The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, but I was not aware of his posthumously published nonfiction work, the Great Dictionary of Cuisine. In that book, Dumas gives us a colorful account regarding specialty names for variations on mulled wine. He notes that it may be called “Bishop when made with red Bordeaux (because of its purple color), Cardinal when made with red Rhine wine, and Pope when made with Tokay (white).” So choose your cleric’s robe of choice (or cider or ale), get out those spices, and make a hot, tasty beverage of your own.

BOB’S CHRISTMAS MULLED WINE RECIPE

(4 servings)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups homemade dry red wine

½ cup sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

1 cinnamon stick

6 whole cloves

6 whole allspice

Lemon twists for garnish

STEP BY STEP

Combine all but twists in a stainless steel pan. Heat just to a simmer. Strain into heat-resistant glasses or small mugs. Top each with a lemon peel twist.

Photo by Bob Peak

1,893 entries judged July 23 - 25 at the Mount Snow Grand Summit Lodge in West Dover, Vermont

From July 23 to 25, 2021, a total of 1,893 di erent wines were judged at the Mount Snow Grand Summit Lodge in West Dover, Vermont. Social distancing and dozens of other precautions were put into place to make sure your wine was judged safely and with the expert thoroughness of prior years.

This year’s competition was again the largest wine competition of its kind in the world. The 1,893 entries arrived from hobby winemakers living throughout North America in 47 American states and 4 Canadian provinces and as far away as Australia. It continues to be the single largest and most diverse collection of hobby wines assembled annually under one roof. Over the course of three days, experi-

enced judging panels worked through 399 flights, examining each wine using the UC-Davis 20-point wine scale evaluating appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and overall impression. The wines were entered in 50 di erent categories and included an astonishing array of varietals and wine styles. Kit wines competed alongside fresh-grape entries in this blind tasting. Entries were awarded gold, silver, bronze, and best of show medals based on the average score given by the judging panel.

The Gene Spaziani Grand Champion Wine award was the top overall scoring wine across all categories. The Club of the Year was given to the club whose members won the most medals, and the Retailer of the Year and U-Vint of the Year awards were given to the winemaking supply stores

whose customers outperformed other similar shops. Finally the Winemaker of the Year award was given to the individual entrant who has the highest average score across their top 5 scoring wines in the competition.

Congratulations to everyone who won a medal, and a sincere thanks to our sponsors, Competition Director Ric Quental, Events Manager Jannell Kristiansen, our judges, competition volunteers, and of course everyone who took time to enter and showed great patience as we waited until we could safely hold this judging event a few months later than our normal timing. We are already busy planning for the 2022 edition of this competition so get your wines ready for the Monday, March 21, 2022 entry deadline! Cheers and thanks for entering your wines!

1,893 entries

399 wine flights

947 total judging hours

47 American states

4 Canadian provinces

6 countries

GENE SPAZIANI GRAND CHAMPION WINE

Tom Burton • Mt Washington, Kentucky

98% Vintner’s Best Hemp CBD Wine Base,

1% Lime, 1% Coconut 2020

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW DESSERT

Clinton Kent • Lexington, Kentucky

100% RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Specialty

Vanilla Fig Dessert Wine 2019

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW COUNTRY FRUIT

Robert C. Walker • Lebanon, Oregon

100% Estate Apple 2018

SPONSOR:

WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR

Mike Dault • Edgewood, Kentucky

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW RED

Brian Court • Seattle, Washington

90% Petit Verdot,

10% Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW WHITE

Glenn Sweatt • Jeffersonville, Indiana

100% Traminette 2020

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW ESTATE GROWN

Ken Stafford • Plymouth, California

100% Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2020

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW MEAD

Lincoln Mettler • Edgewood, Washington state ild ower oney

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW KIT/ CONCENTRATE

Mike Dault • Edgewood, Kentucky

100% RJS Craft Winemaking Orchard

Breezin’ Peach Perfection 2021

SPONSOR:

RETAILER OF THE YEAR

Valley Vintner • Livermore, California

SPONSOR:

CLUB OF THE YEAR

Contra Costa Wine Group • California

SPONSOR:

BEST OF SHOW SPARKLING

Matthew McIntosh • Lexington, Kentucky

75% Apple Cider, 25% Habanero, semisweet 2021

SPONSOR:

U-VINT OF THE YEAR

Vinomiro • Kitchener, Ontario

SPONSOR:

Making wine like the Aussies

by Danny Wood

In the United States, Australian winegrowers are probably still best known for powerful, quality, fruit-driven Shiraz, the Aussie name for Syrah. According to Wine Australia, about 450,000 tons of Shiraz make it to the crusher each year — roughly the same as California’s annual Cabernet Sauvignon harvest. Equally famous — or infamous — are budget wines from Down Under. These bottlings, brands like Yellow Tail and Lindeman’s, o er very qua able versions of many grape varieties for as little as five bucks a bottle.

WHO’S COMPLAINING, MATE?

However, to think of Australian wine as classy Shiraz on the one hand and budget vino on the other, is to miss a lot of Aussie wine. During the last 20 years or so a wide range of contrasting wine styles have become more of a focus for Australian winegrowers and won increasing attention from wine lovers around the globe.

Like our brother and sister winegrowers in the United States, recent years have seen the emergence of what’s sometimes described as a more European style of winemaking. There’s greater use of cooler climates for growing grapes, harvesting optimally ripe rather than overripe fruit, more sensitive use of the crusher and press, and less use of new oak. As a result, Aussie wines that were previously overshadowed have come into the light.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

In this article we’ll discuss three Aussie wine styles that any budding home winemaker should try and master. I’ve assembled some top winemakers from Down Under to show you how.

For more than 150 years, wines from the Sémillon grapes, grown in the Hunter Valley, have arguably produced Australia’s most distinctive wine. Until Chardonnay became popular here in the 1970s, Sémillon was the white of choice for many Aussies. Those glory days are wittily remembered by some as the B.C. years — Before Chardonnay! Although also a component of French dry white Bordeaux blends and sweet Sauternes dessert wines, many experts say there’s no other wine area able to produce Sémillon like the Hunter Valley. In this region, Sémillons in their youth o er refreshing acidity and delicate, lemony fruit, but when they age — sometimes for decades — the wines develop unique toasty and nutty aromas. Adrian Sparks, Chief Winemaker from Mount Pleasant Winery in the Hunter Valley will explain how he makes his versions.

GSM wine blends have come to the fore in Australia more recently. The acronym, often printed on the bottles, stands for Grenache, Shiraz, and Mourvèdre (this grape also goes by Mataro or Monastrell) and is Australia’s version of the red wines made in France’s Rhône region. It’s the Aussie equivalent of the Rhône-style blend in the United States. Winemaker, Russell Schroder’s GSM has won top accolades from Australia’s most respected wine expert, James Halliday. The Semprevino winemaker, based in McLaren Vale, South Australia, will take us through his winemaking process.

We’d be leaving a gap the size of the Sydney Harbor Bridge if we didn’t look at Shiraz, the most widely planted grape in the country. Thanks to phylloxera — the vine-root eating insect that destroyed most French vineyards towards the end of the 19th century — Australia has the oldest continuously producing Shiraz vines in the world. According to Wine Australia, these ungrafted vines date to the 1840s. The Henschke family’s Shi-

raz vines are only a couple of decades younger than that. The Henschkes, based at their biodynamic estate in South Australia’s Eden Valley wine region, are one of Australia’s earliest winegrowing families. Fifth generation winemaker, Stephen Henschke, makes a renowned, hard-to-get (many here would say iconic), Shiraz bottling. The 2016 vintage of the Hill of Grace, named after its vineyard, was rated at 99 points by the Halliday Wine Companion (the most comprehensive guide to Australian wines and wineries) and sells for about $700 a bottle.

Let’s jump in!

SÉMILLON WINES: AUSTRALIA’S GIFT TO THE WORLD

Mount Pleasant Winery in the Hunter Valley has an impressive history. One of its first winemakers, Maurice O’Shea, who died in 1956, is a cult figure among Aussie wine lovers. He’s thought to be the first winegrower to use temperature-controlled ferments in the region, which he did during the 1920s and without electricity, just blocks of ice dragged in by horse and cart! He was legendary for his tasting and blending abilities and is credited with being one of the first, if not the first, Aussie winemaker to produce consistently world class, age-worthy reds and whites, including Sémillons.

Generations later, O’Shea’s successor at Mount Pleasant is Chief Winemaker Adrian Sparks, an acclaimed winegrower in his own right. He made his first Sémillons more than 20 years ago, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he moved to the Hunter Valley and really appreciated the special conditions there, particularly at a Mount Pleasant vineyard called Lovedale.

“It’s quite a unique spot. Sandy, free-draining soils, producing a light, highly aromatic style of Sémillon for the Hunter,” he says.

Sparks adds that Australian Sémillon is completely unique and, “arguably the only wine style made in Australia that isn’t comparable to anywhere else in the world.”

He quotes British wine writer Jancis Robinson who describes it as, “Aus-

tralia’s gift to the world.”

Sparks adopts a “less is more approach” to winegrowing.

“I try to not let the winemaking hand be shown. It’s all about maintaining the vineyard characters and getting those grapes from vine to bottle in the best condition with the least intervention possible.”

Sparks picks his Sémillon at optimal flavor ripeness, which usually means harvesting at 10.5 to 11 Baumé (18.9 to 19.8 °Brix). This results in very low pH levels of 3.0 to 3.3 and high natural acidity of about 7 to 8 g/L.

“As the grapes ripen, their characters change, moving from greener notes likes beans and herbal characters into citrus and then again into tropical notes. We like to pick as soon as those green characters have all gone and you are left with fresh citrus and get a lemonade taste,” Sparks explains.

Interestingly, he says Mount Pleasant’s older vines tend to have the lower pH. “Our vines planted in 1946 would be picked around 3.0 pH, while the younger material planted in the ‘80s at around 3.2.”

When the Sémillon grapes arrive at the winery they go through a rigorous weighing and sorting process.

“If there have been any grapes picked we aren’t happy with we will remove them, or declassify the whole bin to a lower program. It’s all about having the best fruit available before you start anything,” he says.

Rather than whole bunch press as many winegrowers do, including Sémillon producers, Sparks destems and crushes the grapes right away. The idea behind whole bunch pressing is to preserve delicate fruit flavors and avoid extracting heavier phenolics from the skins. So, Spark’s approach may seem somewhat counterintuitive, ironic, or just genius. He says they crush the fruit to release more free run juice so they don’t need to apply so much pressure in the press.

“We try to extract as much free run juice as we can without rolling the press as this rolling will start to pick up phenolics and we want to minimize this.”

Sparks puts his press on a long,

slow cycle with the free run and pressings held separately. The resulting must passes through an over engineered, super powered chiller that can get the fruit down from 25 °C to 2 °C (77 °F to 36 °F) in only one pass.

“This must is air-bag pressed to stainless steel tanks for cold settling,” says Sparks. “After two days, we rack to another stainless steel tank and allow the must to warm naturally before inoculation.”

Spark’s philosophy of minimal intervention and letting the grapes speak for themselves continues with fermentation where a neutral yeast is used. “When the juice is around 14 °C (57 °F) we inoculate with a neutral yeast designed to be a strong fermenter and impart no characters. We have used DV10 over the last 8–9 years, a change from T306 used back in the day.” Both of these yeasts are usually easy to find online, or at your local home winemaking supply store in small 5- to 100-g packets.

The fermentation is kept cool, at 15 °C (59 °F), until the must reaches

about 4 Baumé (7 °Brix). This is a good temperature to maintain fresh fruit aromas. “Then we flick the cooling o to allow the ferment to finish out, and once done, we set at 10 °C (50 °F) to get the yeast lees to drop out,” he says.

The fermentation usually takes about 12 days and the low temperature towards the end inhibits a malolactic conversion (MLF), which would be undesirable in a wine renowned for fresh tasting fruit. A malolactic conversion, by changing tart malic acid to buttery lactic, would soften the wine and contribute somewhat creamy aromas.

At this point, I was expecting the Sémillon to be transferred to oak barrels of some kind. After all, where does aged Hunter Sémillon’s renowned toasty aroma come from, if not oak?

“No oak. All pressed to stainless steel. All those toasty notes you see in an aged Hunter Sémillon come directly from the bottle maturation. A lot of people new to Hunter Sémillon always say they see oak in the old wines,” says Sparks.

I’m not exactly new to it, but I feel

like I am now. That’s incredible bottle aging! (Although it is true that some Aussie Sémillons do touch oak.)

“So, the bottle does all the maturation and as it ages, it becomes like nothing else, rich and complex and an amazing thing to taste.”

Sparks uses a crossflow filter that he describes as “an extremely effective clarifier.” A small crossflow filter will set you back more than $20,000, well beyond the resources of the home winemaker. For more traditional filtration methods like plate and frame filters, Sparks emphasizes the importance of treating the cellulose pads properly before filtration to ensure the wine’s flavor isn’t tainted by a wet cardboard taste. This means rinsing and conditioning the pads, often by circulating a citric acid solution and then flushing with water.

Sparks does add sulfite, but only after fermentation. He believes lots of small sulfite additions require more movement and exposure of the wine to air, which can lead to oxidation.

“Around 100 ppm of sulfite and

Photo by Elfes Images

Adrian Sparks is Chief Winemaker at Mount Pleasant Winery in Australia’s Hunter Valley.

usually there may be a small touch-up prior to bottling. We aim for one addition post ferment and generally this works well.”

Sparks also does a heat and cold stabilization to remove proteins and tartrates (wine diamonds) respectively. This is typical for whites to safeguard the wine from cloudiness due to proteins and for stopping tartrates from forming when the wine is stored at cool temperatures.

“To be honest it’s probably more of an aesthetic thing for age-worthy Sém (Sémillon), as people can be put o by slightly cloudy wines or wine diamonds forming,” says Sparks.

The Hunter Valley winemaker advises anyone having their first go at making a Sémillon to “treat it with respect.” He also recommends getting to know your grape source to better appreciate the qualities of the vineyard.  “Those unique expressions from the vineyard are so important,” he says.

GSM BLENDS, UFOS, AND POPES

Aussie GSM blends, like Rhône blends in the United States, are red wines made from the same grape varieties used by winegrowers for centuries in France’s Rhône region. There are about 30 varieties there, but Southern Rhône reds are the closest match to versions made by our New World pretenders. These wines traditionally focus on Grenache in combination with Syrah and Mourvèdre, but Cinsault, Terret Noir, and Counoise are regular blend components too.

Both Australian and U.S. winemakers started producing Rhône-inspired blends in the 1980s. The stories of how that happened are pretty odd and need to be told.

California’s Randall Grahm introduced a Rhône blend in 1984 that marked the rise of this blend in America (he retired it in 2019). This creative wine guru named his Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre combination “Le Cigare Volant,” which means

“The Flying Cigar.” The name was inspired by an unusual 1954 bylaw in the famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine region that prohibits UFOs from landing on vineyards.

Not to be outdone, in Australia the first Rhône blend was developed in 1988. Charles Melton made the wine in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, an area known more for Shiraz. Unlike the U.S., Australia has a long history of planting Grenache (since the 1830s). However, during the 1980s many winemakers were pulling it up because of an oversupply of red grapes. Melton refused to follow this trend and, like Grahm, was inspired by wines made in Châteauneuf-duPape. He thought he was directly translating the name of his inspiration when he called his wine Nine Popes. Unfortunately for Melton, the correct translation of Châteauneufdu-Pape is Pope’s New Castle, not Nine Popes! But the labels were on the bottles and it was too late to change

Photo courtesy of Semprevino

Russell Schroder is the Winemaker at Semprevino in McLaren Vale.

the name. This wine launched the blend Down Under. Melton’s winery still makes one, and they still call it Nine Popes.

Today, GSM blends are a hallmark of the Aussie wine industry. Semprevino Winemaker Russell Schroder’s 2017 McLaren Vale GSM scored 95 points from the 2020 Halliday Wine Companion Grenache is the dominant variety in Schroder’s version.

“I love Grenache, it’s full of sweet fruity characters but it needs something to carry it along — Shiraz giving palate structure and Mourvèdre adding complexity and savory notes.”

The mechanical engineer-turnedwinemaker says he only adds Shiraz and Mourvèdre to complete the wine and aims to maintain what he calls its Grenache signature.

He describes his winemaking style as “old fashioned” and sources fruit from cooler parts of South Australia’s McLaren Vale region where fruit ripens with lower sugar levels.

“I like to preserve fruit characteristics that not only reflect the variety but also the site on which the fruit is grown. I use old French barriques (barrels) for maturation to ensure there is no overpowering oak influence on the nose or palate — fruit characters remain at the forefront.”

He emphasizes the importance of fruit ripeness. “Typically, for Grenache this will mean a Baumé around 14.5 (26.2 °Brix), or maybe higher. You are looking for flavors like strawberries, cherries, and confectionary — think boiled lollies (hard candies). Hopefully a pH around 3.6 and an acidity of 6 g/L tartaric, although this can be challenging in Australia.”

Summertime temperatures consistently soar well above 38 °C (100 °F), reducing acidity and boosting sugar levels in the grapes.

He says for the Shiraz and Mourvèdre, a slightly lower Baumé of 14 (25.2 °Brix) is su cient, as long as there are no green aromas. Grenache and Shiraz are harvested at about the same time. Mourvèdre tends to be two to three weeks behind. Schroder says that, generally speaking, his winemaking process is the same for each variety.

On arrival at the winery the grapes are destemmed, lightly crushed into small, open fermenters, and cooled down via a must chiller to 10 °C (50 °F). He adds 75 grams per tonne (82.7 grams per ton) of sulfite and makes any sugar, pH and acid adjustments.

“I like a two-day cold soak before inoculation. I find it helps to preserve the fruit characters of the grapes.”

Schroder likes Rhône yeasts and often uses Lallemand 2323. According to Lallemand, this yeast is designed for high alcohol production, extraction of phenolic compounds and low volatile acidity. 500-g packets are the norm but local winemaking shops may stock smaller dosages.

“After inoculation I am looking for a gradual rise in temperature, peaking at 32 °C (90 °F), when the Baumé has reached zero (0 °Brix).”

This peak temperature is on the warm side for reds and a good one for extracting color, tannins, and phenolics but many experts — including the Wine Wizard Alison Crowe herself — would recommend caution to make sure you do not let your fermentation get any hotter than this. Ferments above this temperature can reduce aromas, kill the yeast, and produce a cooked or stewed fruit aroma in the wine. To guard against this, Schroder uses cooling plates on the fermenters to manage possible temperature spikes and control the fermentation rate.

During fermentation Schroder does regular pumpovers, depending on the rate of fermentation. This cap management ensures the cap of skins that forms on top of the juice/wine during fermentation is broken up to keep grape solids soaked in wine, extract phenolics, and prevent spoilage. Pumpovers use a hose attached to a pump to circulate the juice/wine from the bottom to the top of a container.

“At the peak of ferment, Baumés of between 10 and 4 (18 and 7.2 °Brix), pumpovers would be four to five times per day.”

An alternative, gentler technique — and probably more accessible for home winemakers without access to an electric pump — is the punchdown. This method is hard, physical

labor and involves pushing down the cap by hand using a plunger tool.

Schroder says an 8–10 day ferment is typical, although the wines are usually on their skins for up to 2 weeks in total, depending on taste and palate structure development. Then it’s press time.

“The decision to press is based on flavor and palate structure. I taste ferments morning and night to determine when a wine is ready to press. I think the best advice is to wait until a ferment tastes like wine. Obvious, really,” he says.

Schroder prefers to use a bladder press. “It achieves the same results as a basket press in much less time and you tend to lose less to the hard pressings fraction.” A bladder press (also known as pneumatic membrane or air bag press) can press up to about 20 tons of fruit in one go. The more traditional basket press can only manage about 5 tons at one time.

Press cuts are also made based on taste, taking into account vintage and varietal di erences. Schroder says he does sometimes press the Grenache harder than the other two varieties.

“You can extract more from Grenache, given its skin tannins are less aggressive, but you do need to be wary of seed tannins,” he says.

The pressed wines go into stainless steel tanks for settling and a natural malolactic fermentation. During this time, Schroder is tasting the separately fermented Grenache, Shiraz, and Mourvèdre components of his wine and making blending decisions.

“I will always blend my GSM parts prior to barreling down. Amalgamation of the parts will be better over the longest period of time possible,” he says.

Whatever wine you are making, when to blend is a very interesting question. Schroder’s decision to do it early — before barrel aging — is supported by many winemakers. Advocates say the resulting wines are better balanced.

However, plenty of others monitor the evolution of their separate blend components in barrel and then blend. The oenologist Michel Rolland, probably France’s most well-known

winemaking consultant, is known to prefer blending once barrel aging of the di erent varieties or vineyard lots is completed.

A third option, possibly a compromise of the first two, is blending early but holding back press wine to add later. In the end, you get to choose!

After several weeks of settling and preferably completion of MLF, Schroder’s GSM wine is racked to used — often 10-year-old — French barrels for maturing.

During this time, he keeps wines at 90 ppm total SO2. “I like this number as it keeps the wines fresh and microbially stable. At bottling, I am happy with a little less, assuming they have 25 ppm free SO2.”

If MLF hasn’t already completed when the wine is racked to barrels, Schroder adds less sulfite to make sure it happens there.

“I am looking for zero oak characters in my GSM – just a touch of developed aging to add complexity to the wine. Old French barriques is my preference.”

Sourcing French or American barrels can be a real problem for some wineries, but not for Schroder. “Not many modern wineries like to keep their barriques for more than 10 years, usually less, so they are easy to buy.”

In fact, Schroder says the older the oak, the better.

He prefers not to filter. Instead, during barrel maturation he’ll rack the wines three or four times to remove sediment and that usually eliminates any need for filtration.

Schroder doesn’t heat or cold stabilize either.

“I don’t think it is necessary. I have thought about cold stabilization from time-to-time, particularly when a wine is on pour in a bar or restaurant and you know that last glass is going to contain a mouthful of crystals! Cold stabilization messes with the integrity of the wine, so I have held firm.”

He advises the home winemaker who’d like to try making an Aussie-style GSM to source grapes from a quality Grenache vineyard. The older the vines, the better.

“Old vines give flavor intensity and a sense of place to the wines they

produce. Grenache is grown widely in the U.S., particularly in California, so finding grapes via a supplier shouldn’t be too hard.

At the blending stage, he says, start with the Grenache foundation, then play around with the Shiraz additions and finally add Mourvèdre. “See how much Mourvèdre the final blend can take — it won’t be a lot!”

Grenache makes up between 6075% of Schroder’s final blend. The Shiraz usually makes up 20–35% and Mourvèdre 5–10%. He says Aussie GSM’s tend to be in the proportions 70/20/10. However, like U.S. Rhône styles, there are versions that don’t lead with Grenache. For example, there are SGM, MGS, and MSG wines. The letter order in the acronym tells you which grape contributed most to the blend.

Schroder says the resulting wine shouldn’t be too powerful, ready to drink while young and with possible medium-term cellaring potential.

“Others may see it di erently, but for me a GSM should be fun,” he adds, in typical, laid-back Aussie style.

AUSSIE SHIRAZ: FROM BALL BUSTING TO ELEGANT

Australians drink more of their homegrown Shiraz than any other wine. There are bold, fruity, easy-drinking bottlings, but also more complex, structured versions, and, in recent years, more delicate ones are even calling themselves Syrah!

For example, in typical, old school Aussie fashion, the well-named Ball Buster from Tait Winery in the Barossa Valley is a big, flavorful Shiraz (with 16 consecutive 90+ scores from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate). There’s also the world famous Penfold’s Grange, a Shiraz-based blend, considered Australia’s iconic red equivalent of a French Château Haut-Brion or a Napa Stags Leap. A new generation of winemakers have also pushed the range of Shiraz styles, developing lighter, arguably more nuanced o erings.

Somewhat elusively, fifth generation winemaker Stephen Henschke says his family’s iconic Shiraz that grows in the Barossa

region’s Eden Valley in South Australia, “has greater continentality” than most other Aussie Shiraz. What this means is that in the Eden Valley climactic conditions are less impacted by the moderating influence of the ocean and the altitude of 1,300 to 1,650 feet provides relatively cool temperatures. There’s also a greater temperature di erential between day and night, which, Henschke says, maintains acidity, aromatics, and elegance. He says this helps make a Shiraz that displays aromas of spicy, ripe dark fruits, black pepper, crushed herbs, and a layered, textural palate with velvety tannins and a long finish.

The Henschke approach to winegrowing involves very careful attention to organic and biodynamic practices in the vineyard and then handpicking the fruit.

“As caretakers of old-vine shiraz, we use biodynamic compost covered with straw mulch, zero tillage, native grasses and native flowering plants to encourage predatory insects to control pests,” he says.

Harvesting takes place when the grapes have flavors of ripe berry fruits, such as blueberry, blackberry, and dark plum. He says when you chew on the skins and seeds the tannin flavors should be mature and not taste harsh and bitter. Henschke recommends harvesting at a pH of 3.4 or lower (or to adjust to that level in the winery), 13–14 Baumé (23.5–25.2  °Brix), and 6–7 g/L of natural acidity.

“We sort, destem/partial crush, transfer to fermenters and add 20 ppm PMS (potassium metabisulfite).”

The fermenters and containers used can be stainless steel, cement (although only if wax lined), ceramic, or oak barrels. For Shiraz they generally use wax-lined concrete submerged cap fermenters. Henschke says this is in accordance with tradition, thermodynamics, and practicality. “We never use plastic,” he adds, saying that it can contribute o -flavors and contain plasticizers made with contaminants that are a risk to people’s health.

Henschke likes to use a strong neutral fermenter like EC-1118 Champagne yeast. This yeast is read-

ily available to home winemakers in small 5-g sachets.

“We do cool ferments at around, or less than, 24 °C (75 °F). The ferments take 7–10 days.”

Many winemakers push their Shiraz fermentations well into the upper 20s °C/lower 80s °F. Henschke’s lower temperature contributes to preserving fresher fruit characters and extends the primary fermentation for more time on the skins and gentle extraction of phenolics.

Henschke uses submerged cap fermentation. Rather than cap management using punchdowns or pumpovers, this technique uses timber heading boards or a stainless mesh screen to trap the skins and other solids in the middle of the tank to keep them in constant contact with the fermenting juice. Henschke prefers submerged cap because he says it is very gentle, minimizes mechanical maceration, and leads to more elegant wines and less extractive chewy tannins.

After primary fermentation they add pure culture malolactic bacteria in a  temperature-controlled, stainless steel tank kept to 20 °C (68 °F).

Before sending the wine to press, Henschke tastes for mature tannin, flavor, and structure.

“After a gentle press cycle, we settle overnight in a stainless steel tank. We then transfer the wine to seasoned French or U.S. oak with no more than 20–30% new.”

They only filter if necessary. “A clear wine is essential so a careful and/or gentle filtration can be positive,” says Henschke.  “We check the turbidity. If necessary we filter with a 20 micron stainless mesh screen.”

Turbidity is the particulate level in wine, in other words the amount of suspended solids. Yeast, bacteria, and crystalline material are among these particulates. If a wine’s nephelometric turbidity units (NTUs) are less than 1, it is usually regarded as ready to bottle. For the home winemaker without filtration media like a metal mesh, or pads, letting the red wine settle after fermentation and then racking is usually su cient.

After malolactic conversion Henschke adds around 40 ppm of sulfite.

“It is important to stabilize the free aldehyde and reduce the risk of Brettanomyces or other spoilage yeast and bacteria,” he says.

They don’t bother with a heat or cold stabilization for their Shiraz.

“With reds, neither are important. In saying that, it is easy to hold the

reds cold over winter to cold stabilize by default,” he says.

When it comes to barrel aging his Shiraz, Henschke is careful to use correctly seasoned oak, adding that choosing the perfect toast level that complements without overshadowing the wine takes years of trial and error. “Shiraz is one of the few red varieties that shows a strong sense of place. Hence, the vineyard character is much more exciting than an oak forest flavor!”

Henschke’s advice to a budding Aussie Shiraz winegrower? “You are not a winemaker, you are a nurse. Select only the best quality fruit — organic and biodynamically-grown if possible — and treat it gently.”

My wife is a nurse, so I will be trying to channel her if I ever make an Aussie-style Shiraz.

Trying these three wine styles would certainly give you some Aussie winemaking credibility. However, like many other wine-producing countries, there are plenty of other wine styles. When you’ve had a go at a Sémillon, a GSM, and a Shiraz, you could try your hand at a Cabernet-Merlot blend, a Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc, or a straight Grenache. Good luck, mate!

Photo courtesy of Henschke

Stephen Henschke is the fth eneration ine a er at en h e in o th tralia den alley.

DISTILLATION

WHEN WINE BECOMES BRANDY

by Aaron Hyde

There are few places in the world where home distilling is legal. I am lucky to live in one of them right now, New Zealand. I am from the United States where it is a federal crime, a felony, to distill spirits for consumption. I know plenty of people who have home distilled in the United States, but that does not make it any more legal. Keep local laws in mind as you journey ahead!

The art and science of distilling is what separates making wine from making brandy. You might not realize it, but your wine is halfway to brandy, the spirit of apples, grapes, and any other fruit you can think of. Although numerous spirits can be made from fruit, brandy is the base spirit that comes out of the still when you distill your wine, sometimes referred to as a wash when it is coming out of the fermenter for distilling.

As a winemaker, the addition of a still can add a fun layer to the hobby of home winemaking. Let us look at what steps are needed to make brandy as a home winemaker from start to finish. Although this may not include everything you need to feel comfortable to start, I hope it gives you an idea of the process and what might be involved should you want to make the leap into distilling.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

USING FRUIT FOR DISTILLING

Fruits are a fun fermentation project and make a great “wash” (fermented wine) to distill. Often fruit adds its flavor to the finished spirit, creating a lovely brandy reminiscent of the fruit you harvested, foraged, or purchased. Fruit varies significantly in its sugar content but fructose and glucose, the sugars present in fruit, are easily fermentable. For easy fermentation at home fruit is often frozen and then thawed to break down the cellular structure; from fresh or frozen it is then crushed, pressed, squeezed, or mashed directly into the fermenter. The yeast has an easier time getting to the sugar in liquid form than trying to get to it through the solid fruit flesh or skin.

Although fruit is the core of any brandy, it can also be used for schnapps, sweetened liqueurs, gins, and vodkas. The most common fruits used for fermentation are apples, pears, and grapes. The easiest way to use fruit in fermentation is to start with pure fruit juice. You can also use fruit concentrate, which can help increase the level of alcohol in your fermentation as it is not as diluted as juice. Sometimes fruit and sugar are added to the same wash to increase the ABV potential of the fermentation. Some fruits may only give you 4 to 5 percent ABV in a wash, quite low compared to most washes. Grapes, on the other hand, are little sugar ves-

sels and, just as in wine, may give you sugar that produces a wash from 12 to 14 percent ABV. Just remember the more you can break down the fruit, the better chance it has to completely ferment. Fresh fruit is often added to a fermenter in a nylon bag or in a muslin cloth so that the leftover solid matter can be removed at the end of fermentation. Prior to that, leave it in — it still contains some sugar!

Let us look at a general overview of the entire process from fermenting, to distilling, to bottling.

STEP 1: FERMENTING

Turning sugar into alcohol is a critical step in the winemaking process, and also in the distilling process. While you can purchase wine, beer, or cider with the intent to distill it, these beverages were not made for distilling, so your results may vary. When you ferment your own alcohol, you have more control over the outcome. You will choose a yeast that is quite e cient at absorbing sugar and creating alcohol as a by-product. At times, you may choose a yeast to pro-

vide and emphasize flavors from the sugary fruit, while other times you may select a yeast to produce a clean, neutral flavor. Thus, by fermenting you are in the driver’s seat during the creation of alcohol and the initial flavor development.

You likely already have the basic equipment needed for fermenting your wash, as it is the same as for fermenting wine. This includes:

Fermenter (at least 6 gallons/23 liters) with a lid or stopper

Airlock

Specific gravity hydrometer

Racking cane with plastic tubing or auto-siphon with plastic tubing

STEP 2: DISTILLING

The distilling process itself is the one step unique to making spirits (as opposed to making wine), in that you are separating and then concentrating the alcohol. That’s the basis of distillation — separate the alcohol from the water as vapor in the boiler of your still, and then recondense it into liquid in the condenser of the still for collection.

CherrySwitzerlandKirsch

Apricot, pear, plum, cherry

HungaryPalinka

GrapeChilePisco

Plum, grape, sour cherries

Eastern Europe

PlumCentral and Eastern Europe

Rakia (Rakija)

Slivovitz

PlumRomaniaTuica

There are many stills on the market that vary in design and material. Research what will work best for your intended purposes.

Photo from How to Distill

Wine usually isn’t over 15 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) for a reason: It hasn’t been distilled. Many spirits are around 40 percent ABV, though sweetened aperitifs and liqueurs are often less. Let’s assume you will use a still to do this, though there are other methods such as freeze distillation. Still types are covered in more depth in my book How To Distill, but you’ve probably seen one online, at a homebrew shop, or maybe on a distillery tour. It has:

• A boiler

• A closed dome or column on the top for some amount of refluxing (re-condensing of vapor inside the still)

• A condenser arm or tube that cools the vapor back to liquid form

The use of a still to perform distillation to concentrate alcohol is the biggest di erence between making spirits and making wine.

The equipment you will need for distilling includes the following: Still (a pot still is preferred for brandy)

Proof and tralle hydrometer for measuring alcohol of spirit

12 to 15 collection jars (16 oz. or 500 mL) for making cuts

Distiller’s parrot or 250 mL glass test jar (cylinder) for measuring your spirit proof

Water source for condenser arm of still

Heat source for still boiler

Boil enhancers/chips (optional, for a more even boil)

If you’re unsure about how or what from your cuts jars to blend when doing a single distillation run, it’s a good idea to be more cautious and put less in from your heads and tails (roughly the top third and bottom third, respectively) than you’d estimate. A safe volume is 60% (though you could do less if you’re not happy with the flavor of the jars) of what you collected, working from your middle jar. So, if you collected 10 jars, your six middle jars could be blended to form your brandy for aging or drinking.

STEP 3: POLISHING

If you are looking for a nice, clean, and neutral-flavored spirit post-distillation then polishing is the answer. This filtration step can improve your spirit by taking out impurities created mostly during fermentation.

If you are aging your spirit on oak, a small amount of these flavors can be good! But if not, they can leave a nasty o -flavor and aroma in your clear spirit. If you are careful how you collect your alcohol, leaving the heads and tails separate, you can blend these in post-distillation in smaller quantities that cut down on the harsh flavors, and maybe add some character to your spirit. Or, if you are making a whiskey that is going to be aged a long time, a polishing step can be less critical and maybe not even necessary.

The equipment you will need for polishing brandy (optional) includes

the following:

Activated carbon

Carbon filter to hold the activated carbon

Collection vessel for polished spirit

STEP 4: AGING

Aged or matured spirits are usually easy to identify. The yellow, amber, or brown color you see in spirits like whiskeys, rums, brandies, and tequilas comes from the aging process, usually from contact and time with toasted or charred oak or another type of wood. The burnt parts of the wood begin to color the spirit almost immediately and new bold and beautiful flavors like vanilla and caramel will develop in the spirit given time. At home, this can be done with charred oak chips, staves, or spirals in a glass jug or jar, or by putting your spirit directly in a small toasted or charred

Blending cuts is a part of the art of distillation.

Photo from How to Distill

wooden barrel.

The equipment you will need for aging brandy (optional) includes the following:

Toasted or charred oak barrel (minimum 2 gallons/6 to 8 liters) or oak chips, staves, or cubes

Muslin cloth (or co ee filters)

Glass aging jug or vessels (if not using a barrel)

Glass or stainless steel barrel thief or wine thief (for taking samples if using a barrel)

Stainless steel racking cane and silicone tubing (for transfer if using a barrel)

STEP 5: BLENDING AND BOTTLING

There are numerous things you can still do after distilling, polishing, and/ or aging to improve your spirits. The first that comes to mind is blending, which gives many home winemakers a leg up as they already have experience blending wines. Part art, part science, the title of master blender is a position at many large distilleries that takes years of apprenticeship and experimentation, learning the common flavors and o -flavors associated with distilling and aging — and really understanding your own palate. Honing your own sensory skills can be valuable to blending your own spirits. Obviously, to blend spirit, you’ll need more than one around. This can be created from a single run by leaving some spirit clear and unaged, or by aging spirit on di erent types of charred or toasted wood.

Packaging your spirit in a properly corked, waxed, and labeled bottle may not be seen as critical by all in the hobby distilling community, but it is a nice touch. True, maybe you will decide your collection jug is the best final package for your particular spirit! However, the classic way to finish most spirits is a clear glass bottle (500 or 750 mL being common sizes), as a clear bottle o ers a good look at the spirit itself.

The equipment that you will need for blending and bottling include:

Glass or stainless wine thief

Assorted small glass test jars

or beakers

Journal or note pad

Tasting glass

100 to 250 mL graduated glass

test jar for blending

Spirit bottles of your choice

Glass or stainless pitcher or auto-siphon with silicone

tubing (optional)

Spirit bottle corks or caps

Bottling wax and tin can for melting the wax (optional)

Labels

Now that you’ve read a general overview of the process you might be quite interested in moving ahead with learning more and purchasing a still. A pot still will be the way to go if you’re interested in brandy. A column still, which is quite easy to identify by its taller cylindrical column coming straight up o the boiler, o ers more reflux than a pot still. Reflux is the process by which vapor rises in

the still and recondenses inside the still falling back toward the boiler to be revaporized. This creates a higher proof alcohol from the still, but also strips the spirit of flavor. A pot still o ers less reflux, which in turn means more flavor in your brandy. A simple way to begin is by investing in a small stovetop still, or by purchasing something like the Still Spirits Air Still. Most stovetop stills are pot stills, as is the Air Still. If you also brew beer and use an electric brewing system, consider seeing if still attachments are available, as they are for some models.

If you are unfamiliar with much of the distilling equipment, start researching what’s available to you. If you haven’t yet purchased a still or are interested in digging deeper into the process, be sure to check out the book How To Distill from which the prior text and the following recipe are excerpted.

Photo from How to Distill

i ard the r t o t of yo r till alled the fore hot hi h an ontain ethanol.

EASY BRANDY RECIPE

The following recipe is about as easy as it gets to make 5 gallons (19 L) of wash for brandy. As you’ll notice, it’s an overly sim lified home wine reci e f you have wine in a fermenter this can e used ut for your first distillation keeping it simple. Not using a more expensive and delicate wine seems a good idea to me. This recipe will make about 5 gallons (19 L) of wash:

• OG: 1.040–1.060

• FG: 0.990–0.992

• ABV: 5–8%

YOU WILL NEED:

• 5 gallons (19 L) 100% grape juice or 100% apple juice

• 5 tsp. Fermax Yeast Nutrient

• 5 g Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

• 60 g light to medium char oak chips (see the sidebar if you would like to toast your own oak chips)

TOAST YOUR OWN CHIPS

Even if you have found toasted oak chips or cubes, maybe even used barrels that have been repurposed into chips, you might want to play with your own toasting. Perhaps you want to try out a different local, indigenous hardwood. Simply take your chips, cubes, or staves and preheat your oven to around

Lay out the wood on a baking sheet, not too deep, maybe a couple of layers at most. Place it in your oven and after an hour check your chips (you can check earlier if they were already toasted). They should now be at a nice medium toast. You can play with temperatures will accentuate wood character; will im art sweetness will add vanilla and toasted avors hi her will achieve avors of almond and burnt sugars.

Make sure all equipment and surfaces have been cleaned and sanitized.

MAKE THE WASH

1. Add 5 gallons (19 L) of room temperature juice into your empty fermenter f usin stir in the ts of yeast nutrient.

2. Sprinkle the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast over the juice.

3. Close your fermenter with a lid or stopper and airlock. Let it ferment between for days

DISTILLING AND AGING

4. Follow the instructions that came with your still, as they should guide you toward producing a clear spirit, our current goal.

Once you are ready to distill, be sure to:

• iscard the first m s out of your still. This is the foreshots and can contain methanol.

• Begin collecting in bulk, slowly ramping up the temperature on your still, stopping collection around 20% ABV.

• After emptying your still of the backset (the leftover liquid), transfer your collected wash to the still again for a double distillation, making cuts every 500 mLs, stopping collection around 20% ABV.

5. Starting with the jar from the middle of your run begin blending your cuts jars together. Taste and smell the jars. Be sure when blending cuts to keep spirit with some of the fruit aroma as it is critical for the drinker to understand and appreciate the fruit in the brandy. You may only use small parts of jars nearer the start and end of your run. Optional: Age on medium char oak for a minimum of three weeks and up to two years.

6. Take the portion of your spirit run you’ve decided to keep and cut (dilute) to 40 percent ABV with clean water. Bottle and enjoy!

Tips:

You can make brandy from a traditional wine kit as well, which will produce a stronger wine (wash) from which to distill from. This means you’ll get more brandy in the end!

This article contains excerpts and images from the book How To Distill by Aaron Hyde, printed by Harvard Common Press and releasing November 2, 2021.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

HERE IS WHAT TO KNOW (AND DO) BEFORE TAKING THAT LEAP

by Christina Musto-Quick

It is very clear that once you catch the winemaking bug you cannot help but think about being a full-time winemaker or owning your own winery. Wine is the best combination of art, science, and community. How could you not daydream about going from home winemaker to pro?

If you are serious about making the move to professional winemaker, I have some tips and suggestions to get you ready for the transition along with some case studies of people who made the jump from hobbyist to full-time winemaker.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

WINEMAKING SKILLS

Going from making 6 gallons (23 L) to larger, commercial-sized production can be challenging. The equipment, the nutrient additions, and so on can be confusing at that scale and attention to detail is key. Before jumping into the pro winemaker role it is important to hone your skills as best you can. You can do this in several di erent ways.

• Focus on the skills wineries are looking for in a head winemaker. Reading the job descriptions on Winejobs.com helps give you an idea on what to focus on and where you can grow your skill set.

• Volunteer or intern at a winery. Volunteering at a winery will give you some of the best experiences that you cannot learn in school. You can volunteer in the vineyard, as a cellar hand, in the winery lab, in the tasting room, event department, or doing any other odd jobs one of your local wineries could use some help with. Volunteer anywhere you can to get your foot in the door. No matter where you start you will have access to a wealth of information and real-world experience — take advantage of it.

Pro Tip: Usually the smaller the winery, the better the experience. This is because in smaller businesses people wear a lot of hats. You will be involved in multiple aspects of winemaking and will get a more in-depth winemaking experience.

• Go to a young wine region. If you can travel for harvest or live in a small winemaking region then you are in luck. Working in a small or young wine region allows for a wealth of winemaking and wine growing experience. Everyone is learning and experimenting in these areas. Mistakes are a given, and everyone is learning from each other and harvest time is full of creativity.

• Experiment with home batches. Experimentation is key. The more you learn, the better! Many people play it safe to avoid making mistakes. In winemaking, knowing how to correct

mistakes is one of, if not the, most powerful tool in your toolbox. Wine is a living, breathing thing. You never know what will happen year-toyear so you need to be ready for anything. The best winemakers I know have made some of the most colossal mistakes and are better for it. The more you experiment, mess up, correct, and learn, the better a professional winemaker you are going to be. And getting this learning experience at the relatively low-risk time as a home winemaker will benefit you greatly vs. learning on the fly in a commercial setting.

When going up for a winemaking position, owners and head winemakers like to see what types of winemaking you have been exposed to. Not every winery solely makes dry wines. Lots of wineries make sweet wines, sparkling wines, and fruit wines. The more wines you have tried to create, the more exposure you have and the more knowledge you have obtained. Experimenting will help you learn how to make di erent wines and be ready for whatever your first winemaking job throws at you.

• Explore your palate.

You must be very careful and make sure to avoid cellar palate as a winemaker. Cellar palate is when your wine palate gets used to only one style of wine and therefore cannot be judgmental of wine quality. You want to be able to taste wine and pick out if it is balanced, flawed, and complex.

Taste, taste, and taste away! Try everything. Red wine, white wine, fruit wine, sparkling wine, vegetable wine, sake, mead — try it all! The more your palate is exposed to the better you will be at identifying positive components in wine.

Faults and flaws will always be present in winemaking. Taking a class, tasting, and smelling faulted and flawed wine helps train you for what you should avoid. If you know the smell of rotten eggs means hydrogen sulfide issues you can be quick to correct it with di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) before it develops into a worse problem. This skill will keep you from losing batches, and money.

• Consume Content.

There are so many resources out there now. Consume as much wine and winemaking content as you can. It serves as education, inspiration, and exposes you to all facets of the industry. A good professional winemaker understands the business of wine. Below is a list of resources I’d personally recommend, but there are many more as well. Soak it all up!

GET IN THE KNOW

Outside of building up your winemaking abilities, there are some more ar-

Resources home winemakers should utilize to learn more on their quest to go pro

• WineMaker magazine

• WineMaker Magazine Conference and Boot Camps

• UC-Davis distance learning courses

• Local state college programs – Fresno State, Washington State University, Cornell University, Penn State, and Virginia Tech are just some of the great options

• Facebook and other internetbased winemaking groups/ forums (but be careful, sometimes people unintentionally share false information in these types of groups)

• Winemaking podcasts (such as Inside Winemaking)

• Winemaking books (one of my favorites is Techniques in Home Winemaking by Daniel Pambianchi)

• Winemaking blogs (such as Blog.juicegrape.com)

• Winejobs.com

• Classes at trade shows

• Somm TV

• Documentaries (Tin City on Amazon is one of my favorites!)

• WinemakingInstructions.com

— virtual winemaking classes at your fingertips

• Talking with professionals in your local wine area

eas to focus on if you want to make a career out of this hobby.

• Network.

Networking is a great way to get your foot in the door. The wine community is very small and inviting. Everyone in the industry is passionate and wants to see others succeed. The mindset is that the more you succeed, the more I will succeed too. Ways to network are via trade shows, classes you take, wine events, social media, winery visits, winemaking groups, online seminars, and forums.

• The Business of Wine.

As a home winemaker you have the luxury to make any wine you choose. However, once you get a commercial winemaking job you are no longer making wine for you. You are making wine for the public. You have got to get in tune with what they like as your wines will need to appeal to the masses. This may include sweet wines, wines infused with fruits, and other popular styles. When making the move from home winemaker to pro, research and see what is selling best in the area you hope to secure a job. Remember that your paycheck is not the only one that matters. If you are a professional winemaker, you are making wine to be sold to support your salary and the salary of everyone else who works there.

Brush up on legal requirements for the state in which you will be working. Sulfites, blend percentages, sweetening, labeling, local vs. nonlocal grapes/juices, etc. There are di erent wine regulations for each state and sometimes the county. Being armed with this information will show that you are committed and serious about a head winemaking position.

You will need to keep a budget. One of the key things that sets a head winemaker apart from an assistant winemaker or cellar hand is the ability to budget your winemaking. Be ready to keep track of costs and everything that goes into that bottle and if/where you can save money. Wineries are notorious for being money pits. Any way you can help the bottom line will give you an edge over other winemakers

going up for the job.

• Have Confidence in Your abilities. Do not forget your wine experience when applying for a job. You bring something special to the table. Your story, how you fell in love with wine, how you got started out in the winemaking hobby. Talk about those special moments. Think about what your winemaking point of view is. Is it all about experimentation? Place? History? Specific styles? What gets you excited about winemaking? Try to find a producer that is in line with you and then go for it! Reach out to them, offer your services, and get that winemaking job!

CASE STUDIES

Top skills wineries are looking for in a head winemaker:

•Good communication

•Works well with a team

•Strong attention to detail

•Ability to work long hours

•Experience with lab procedures and basic analyses (titrations, pH and dissolved oxygen measurements, etc.)

•Understanding and experience in all cleaning and sanitation procedures

•Experience in daily pumpovers, yeast inoculations, and nutrient additions

•Ability to utilize all winery equipment for the purpose of crushing, fermenting, pressing, and aging wine

•Ability to oversee all barrel work, track all wine movements, filtration, general cellar work, racking, bottling, and warehousing

•Experience in seasonal vineyard work

MAUREEN MACDONALD Hospitality to Head Winemaker

Maureen started in the hospitality industry and created her own winemaking curriculum while working multiple jobs. She was an Assistant Manager at a restaurant and worked in a winery tasting room part-time. Through the help of her mentor she was able to piece together classes via University of Connecticut, Naugatuck Community College, and Capitol Community College in Connecticut. Once she finished her education, she got the job as Head Winemaker at Cassidy Hill Vineyards in Coventry, Connecticut. From there she moved on to work with Musto Wine Grape Company as the Head of Winemaking Consulting and Education, and now is the Head Winemaker at Hawk Ridge Winery in Watertown, Connecticut.

Maureen advises that, “Even if you do not have access to a direct program

— try to find an expert in the area who you can mentor with and piece together what you can. It is all about who you know. Show the mentors that you are serious and opportunities will open up to you.”

Maureen said there was a learning curve when she started getting into commercial winemaking in many areas, including some in which she hadn’t considered previously. One example is the way in which wine must be stabilized to withstand poor treatment after it is bottled and out the door — which may not be something home winemakers have to worry about as their wines are generally staying in their own possession.

“The learning curve with understanding that you don’t have control over how your wine is stored once it is purchased is a big factor. You do not have control over how that wine is going to be stored and you need to take extra precautions to stabilize that wine. You need to prepare that wine to face the worst. Whereas a home

winemaker, you can use less sulfite, etc. Get familiar with heat stability and cold stability tests to make sure that wine is stable going into that bottle,” she said.

he had always wanted to be a farmer. He even worked on an ostrich farm in New Zealand when he was 18 years old. The farming aspect of wine is what drew him into the industry, and he has never looked back. The Plumpton program consisted of one year of viticulture study, one year of enology, and a third year focused on lab study. He liked this program because it was very hands-on. He related it to Fresno State’s program in California. And when he wasn’t in classes, Sandy tried to get as much experience in the industry as he could.

“During every school holiday, I either worked at a di erent vineyard, winery, or judged at the International Wine and Spirits Competition,” Sandy said.

wife Erin, Dogwood & Thistle Wine Company, in California’s Napa Valley.

Although winemaking wasn’t his first career, Sandy says it feels like a natural fit now. “If you are starting this career later in life keep making wine at home. If you can, make more! Explore all aspects of the wine industry and make di erent wines. Go and do it! No matter your age,” he said.

FRANK RENALDI

Engineer to Consulting Winemaker (and

when retired, full-time Winemaker)

Sandy went back to school at age 26 after a career in insurance to study winemaking at Plumpton College in England. Growing up in Hong Kong

After receiving his degree, Sandy got a full-time job as an enologist at Merry Edwards Winery in Sebastopol, California in 2007. Now he consults wineries in Northern California and around the U.S., while making wine for the wine label he started with his

Frank Renaldi started making wine 18 years ago. If you can believe it, he barely drank wine before he started making it. An engineer by day, Frank went from making wine the “old school Italian way” to now consulting for commercial wineries and helping home winemakers learn to make wine at WinemakingInstructions.com and Musto Wine Grape Company.

“When I started, I didn’t know the di erence between a crusher and

Rules: Entrants may send labels, labels already stuck to bottles, or email PDF files of labels to dave@winemakermag.com. Please do not submit labels for commercial wineries – home winemakers only. All other rules are made up, as always, by the editors of WineMaker as we go along. All labels will be judged in one category, open to graphic artists and amateurs alike, so ultimate bragging rights are on the line. And we have a request: When submitting your labels, tell us abit about the artwork and its inspiration. Is it hand-drawn? Created on a computer? Ripped off from the Louvre? Send us your best labels and good luck!

SANDY ROBERTSON Insurance Agent to Consulting Winemaker and Wine Brand Owner

a press!” says Frank. What helped him the most was “understanding that in winemaking you can never stop learning.” Frank attended the WineMaker Magazine Conference five years straight, took Musto Wine Grape’s Bootcamp Class (which he now teaches), and read every book and magazine he could get his hands on.

Frank’s biggest takeaways from his winemaking journey are “that you need to taste your wines and know what is right or wrong about them. You can never make good wine out of bad grapes. Try everything, experiment, and always take that class or seminar, you never know what you will learn.”

Even if winemaking would be your second or third career, there is always an opportunity available. Just because you did not go to UC-Davis and start right out of college, does not mean you cannot make it as a professional winemaker, as Frank can attest to.

BEN MATTHEWS

R&D Manager at P&G by day, Winemaker/Wine Brand Owner by night

while studying abroad in Mosel and Rheingau. He was blown away by the beautiful vineyards, history, and delicious wines.

When he got back to the U.S., he started researching the Cincinnati, Ohio wine industry and discovered that at one point it was the center of wine for the state of Ohio before Prohibition. Discovering the local wine history inspired him to plant a hobby vineyard and start making wine. After dabbling in winemaking for a few years, he stumbled upon Jim Duane’s winemaking podcast Inside Winemaking. He then flew to Napa and took Duane’s winemaking class, created a friendship with another harvest intern, Cameron Laurent, and now they all share a wine brand together –Terratorium Wines — as a side gig to his day job at Procter & Gamble.

Ben said that a big part of his winemaking success can be attributed to the fact that he authentically connected with people in the industry. “I connected with a lot of people on Instagram and through those online friendships I met the right people to help me to where I am today.”

“The best decision I ever made was to start at the smallest scale possible and from there take on one small chunk at a time,” he said.

After hearing about his trials and tribulations from home winemaker to where he is today, not to mention the amount of time and work that went into making that transition, I asked Ben if after everything he would do it all over again.

“Seeing people enjoy our wines is the greatest feeling; I would absolutely go through it all over again.”

CONCLUSION

Even if you hit some roadblocks, keep persevering. As we can see from these four pros, there are many ways to get to the finish line, and they don’t all require traditional routes.

Ben’s journey to winemaker started in Germany. He fell in love with Riesling

Maybe you do not get a job right away, but maybe in the end you create your own wine brand, or something even better than you ever expected! No matter how you start out making wine; If you love wine, you will fit right in.

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GOING THE DISTANCE

Crafting age-worthy wines

Many homemade wines are fermented to drink young. They may be white wines, rosés, or light, fruity reds hey have ri ht cris avors and are sometimes made in an off-dry style. When I make wines like that, I start drinking them within a year. Sometimes, though, we want to craft a wine for the ages. Usually big, bold reds, these wines tend to be full-bodied, tannic, deeply colored, starting as red or purple and turning brick or tile-colored as they age. If not a big red, an age-worthy wine may be Port-style, Sherry, or late harvest, including white varieties.

In Concepts in Wine Chemistry, author Yair Margalit, Ph.D., says, “One of the main quality characteristics of wine varieties is their potential to age well.” This means wines that improve, at least for a while, with time in the cellar. Unlike early drinking wines, these are wines to keep around for years or decades. The preferences of wine drinkers differ and the nuances of a well-aged, brick-hued Cabernet Sauvignon that please one wine lover might just seem tired and lacking in fruit to another. Home winemaking objectives come in many forms. Some may include simply making enough wine so the cellar never runs empty. Another may be making wine from your own vineyard, vintage after vintage, to observe how it evolves. If you decide to emulate the great age-worthy wines, there are techniques to help you get there.

Wine aging chemistry is mostly about polyphenolics. Two broad classes of these compounds in grapes and wine are anthocyanins and tannins. Other factors that affect ageability include alcohol, sulfur dioxide, pH, other reducing agents, and storage conditions. The polyphenolic compounds share a basic building block, phenol, which is a type of six-carbon ring (known as an

“aromatic ring” in organic chemistry). In plants and fruits, polyphenolics often confer protection from pests or accommodation to adverse environmental conditions. In grapes, the anthocyanins and related avonoids hel confer rotection from excessive sunlight. Since these compounds go on protecting wine from oxidation during aging, it makes sense that you want dark, well-ripened fruit to ferment into age-worthy wine. Over time, the anthocyanin pigment molecules in wine combine with tannins to form the “brick red” compounds that are indicative of a long wine life.

The other chemical partners, the tannins, need to be present for long aging as well. These compounds are similar to (or the same as) various materials used for tanning animal hides. They bind with and precipitate proteins, making them less water soluble — in tanning, turning skin into leather. In wine, they provide the tannic “grip” of red wine on your palate. Like the anthocyanins, they develop in grapes during growth and development, probably providing some protection against damage by insects and predators. As harvest approaches, the tannins “mellow” and become less harsh tasting.

In a grape crop, about 60% of the total tannin content is in the seeds. Another 20% is in the stems, 16% in the leaves, and only about 4% in the skins. Juice and pulp contain very little tannin. Since the anthocyanins are concentrated in the colored skin, fermenting on skins and seeds introduces most polyphenolics in red wine. Cautions against breaking seeds can be explained by the possible doubling or tripling of the tannin load if the seed tannins are easily extractable. Tannins provide structure to a wine’s mouthfeel and help balance any possible sweetness from residual sugars or even from ethanol. They help avoid an overly soft or a y character in the wine. In supporting aging well,

BY BOB PEAK

Wine aging chemistry is mostly about polyphenolics.

Photo by Jesse Walker

TECHNIQUES

they condense with anthocyanins to stabilize color. They also act as antio idants fi htin remature s oila e and o idation

hrou hout the develo ment of your wine you have o ortunities to ma imi e your tannin rofile for a in here are ste s to e ta en in the vineyard if you row your own ra es fter that you can ma e im rovements at crushin durin vinification durin ul a in and while cellarin n the vineyard sun e osure is your est friend our trellisin lan and leaf ullin ro ram should leave you with a out layers of leaves etween direct sunli ht and your ra es n his hand oo Sunlight into Wine r ichard mart descri es several techni ues for assessin sun e osure on ri enin fruit ou may need to chan e your trellisin or runin ractices ull leaves or dro fruit to rin the cro in alance with what your vines can do ou want to harvest dee ly colored fruit with very uniform ri eness

t crush you need to tear the ra e s ins to release anthocyanins and tannins nclude the seeds ut avoid reain them clude stems and leaves lthou h they contain tannins they also contain ve etative matter that may cause reen ve etal avors in your wine f stems are very well develo ed and rown li nified you may consider addin ac u to a out of them as a wood contri ution durin fermentation f reen and e i le leave them out old soa in of crushed ra es efore initiatin fermentation may lead to etter color e traction urin rimary fermentation unchin down the ca at least twice a day will hel with tannins and anthocyanins consider three or

four times a day if you are tar etin an a e worthy wine f you have the facilities and e ui ment for it you may want to try rac and return delesta e instead of unchdowns n rac and return the fermentin wine is drained from a lower valve usually throu h a sieve that collects seeds he wine is then ra idly oured ac over the ca rea in it u astin re ularly you may return the seeds for more e traction at the same time or remove them to avoid further harshness tended maceration holdin the wine in the fermenter after rimary is done e oses remainin s ins and seeds to an alcoholic soa that may e tract more oly henolics ess common techni ues for im roved e traction include um overs su mer ed ca fermentations or rotary fermenters hese re uire more advanced e ui ment than asic home winemain and are found mostly in commercial settin s ut you can certainly try them if you are interested nother techni ue to im rove color sta ility and a e worthiness is to add o y en early in your red wine fermentation erative unchdowns where you s lash the wine each time you lift the unchdown tool are easy and low tech y en added at this sta e stren thens the rowin yeast colonies and hel s tannins condense with anthocyanins ou may want to consider some additions for etter color and sta ility f course lendin in a hi hly colored or tannic wine li e etite irah or licante ouschet will alter the contours of a li ht red wine ess o viously you can ma e a ros durin the same vinta e and add ac the ressed red s ins to your red ferment ou can even free e the s ins for a while if ros ress-

ing day does not line up with red crush day. Even white grape skins, pressed from juice, can be added to a red primary to help stabilize tannins and colors. For my homegrown Pinot Noir, I sometimes achieve skin “addition” to the red wine by removing some pink juice. After an overnight soak on the skins, I plunge in a perforated stainless steel strainer, scoop out some of the uice and fill a car oy to ma e a sai n e ros hat leaves the red wine fermentation stron er in skins and seeds.

Finally, you can add exogenous tannins. If your red wine is likely to come up too light and thin for long aging, consider what source you want for added tannins, when you want to add them, and then do it. Oak is the traditional choice and you can begin by adding oak chips to the primary fermentation hese may e neutral or toasted de endin on what you want to do with your avor rofile he ne t sta e is bulk aging, where oak barrels are the best choice if you can manage the volume. In addition to adding oak tannins, barrels facilitate a low transfer of oxygen to the aging wine to help condense tannin polymers. Other oak products such as sticks, staves, spirals, or beans can add tannins, but they do not contribute oxygen stability like barrels do. If you get close to bottling and still need a tannic boost, you can use liquid or powdered oak extract products. Beyond oak, there are tannin addition products made from woods like Quebracho, oak gall nuts, and even citrus wood.

ther a in in uences are also wor in durin ul stora e ulfite is actin to revent micro ial s oila e and retard

oxidation. Alcohol helps inhibit microbial spoilage. Other reducing agents like volatile reduced sulfur compounds (VRS) can e tend a in y scaven in o y en from the wine hey may age out and resolve nicely, but they may not — leaving the wine with an off-odor. Steady, fairly low cellar temperatures will facilitate long-term aging by slowing and moderating all of its effects. While 55 °F (13 °C) is considered ideal, avoidin heat s i es or uctuations is more im ortant than a s ecific tem erature

Some wines are inherently ageable. Port-style wines are traditionally made y addin alcohol and sulfite to a artially com leted red wine fermentation he hi h alcohol level stabilizes the wine against spoilage. If allowed deliberate oxygen exposure in barrel, Port develops brick-red colors and are called tawny hat wine is resistant to de radation for decades. Many Sherries, and wines like Marsala and Madeira, are also allowed to oxidize in bulk storage and are very stable after bottling. All of these share aspects of brownish colors and nutty savory umami or carameli ed aromas and avors Late harvest wines, very high in residual sugar, also age extremely well. Usually considered dessert wines, many are high in alcohol and show signs of oxidation.

o ma e your wine a e worthy ma imi e oly henolics in the vineyard. Extract them effectively into the wine. Add more skins or tannins if you need to, from one or more sources.

ta ili e the resultin reaction roducts hen ta e care of your pampered beverage as it spends years aging toward its own perfection.

BACKYARD VINES

BY WES HAGEN

MAKING LEMONADE ineyard fi es for underwhelmin ra es

As this issue hits mailboxes and newsstands, harvest 2021 is in full swing, or for many, just wrapping up here in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s no better feeling than walking through a tidy, harvested vineyard into a arn filled with topped up wine barrels and carboys. It’s the winemaker equivalent of being a CPA in late April. Crazy times will come again next year, but for now we can relax and take stock of the successes and failures we had in the 2021 vintage.

The purpose of this column is to identify aws and deficits in a vinta e of wine we grew ourselves, and then to discuss and detail cultural practices and tweaks to our farming to address those issues. Not all problems in wine can e fi ed es ecially for a small roduction/home vineyard sized operation. Many problems with a wine/vintage are endemic to the terroir and year in which they were created. Some home vineyards, to be blunt, have the wrong grapes in the wrong place.

I hear many of you, “But I buy my fruit from a vineyard.” Is there any use in further reading? Yes! Knowing viticultural tricks of the trade gives you expertise from which you can ask your grower to fine tune your sections n short there is no downside to being vineyard-literate as a winemaker.

Here are the “Top Three Complaints” I hear from small-scale growers/ winemakers and some pro tips and tricks to help:

avoid) can make a wine that does not offer good color, fruit, extract, or length of finish o one wants to ic their backyard vineyard at 20 °Brix, but if a hailstorm or the remnants of a tropical storm or hurricane are expected to ood or elt the vineyard you mi ht not have much of a choice. Some solutions to help build a healthy vineyard that makes sweet fruit might include: Dropping some crop if it’s too heavy, to allow the remaining fruit to sweeten up quicker. Try to maintain a leaf:cluster ratio of between 12–15 leaves per cluster, and do expose the fruit to as much sunlight as is safe not to burn the skins. Expect heat spikes, as they almost always come near harvest, so don’t leave your clusters exposed and susceptible to sunburn. Another great strategy in a red wine vineyard is to change your winemaking style to match the fruit ripeness that vintage offers. In a perfect year where the fruit comes in between 23–25 °Brix, make red wine. If the weather wreaks havoc and the fruit is underripe, say 19–22 °Brix, make a skin-contact rosé. If a white wine vineyard harvests at low Brix, try your hand at making a pét-nat sparkling wine (see June-July 2021 issue for more on this style) if you have the courage to give it a try. Of course, even thou h the avors will not e rich and dense, you can always add sugar to the must for a little more alcohol and mouthfeel. I suggest a 50/50 blend of white and brown sugars. Add slowly and as early after crush as possible, before ferment, to raise the Brix on reds to 24, and on whites to 23.

Causes/Solutions:

Low Brix: Picking fruit at low Brix (under 23 °Brix for red wine and under 22 °Brix for white to choose my own personal levels of ripeness I prefer to

High acid, low pH: imilar difficult vintages that produce low sugar in the grapes will usually show high acidity and low pH. Because pH impacts mouthfeel so strongly, I tend to use it as a measure of acidity, and rarely measure total/titratable acidity (TA) unless I think knowing both pH and TA would be help-

“MY WINE IS THIN, GREEN, OR UNDERRIPE.”

If the weather wreaks havoc and the fruit is underripe, say 19–22 °Brix, make a skin-contact rosé.

Grape bunches that show more than 2⁄3 affected grapes, by rot or other disease, should probably be dropped and left on the vineyard floor.

ful he avor ro lems associated with low hi h acid wines are un alata le tartness and sourness metallic avor loss of alance and often a wine that is difficult to en oy consider or lower in red wine ra es to e low hi h acid and under in whites ow is definitely fi a le in uice or must usin the addition of food rade otassium icar onate ddin this material at a rate of rams allon rams liter will reduce and raise y a out and it is not recommended to use more than rams allon rams liter or a shift hat would ta e to almost as the rise will e sli htly more than usin otassium icar onate f course allowin the ra es to stay on the vine lon er if ractica le is always referred to chemical intervention

Lack of phenolic ripeness: ines that lac henolic ri e ness taste much li e an unri e straw erry that is white and crystalline in the middle instead of a ri e lood red erry that is sweet and luscious throu hout the esh ine is not made delicious and alanced y causin the vines to suffer and shut down ou mi ht e a le to raise the ri on your ra es y turnin the water off and ma in them concentrate the su ars y dehydration dim lin ut you mi ht as well ust add su ar to your must as the ra es are not develo in avor richness and color unless the vines are healthy enou h to com lete the ri enin of the fruit throu h harvest o as you consider your waterin re ime summer fall rainfall alancin the vineyard and choosin a harvest date lease consider that healthy vines han in a healthy cro with wor in reen leaves is what rin s in a harvest that alances avor ri and ro winema ers mi ht add a it of ra e concentrate to must that lac s henolic ri eness and you can always chec with a winema in su ly com any to see if they have roducts that a ro imate e a ur le

Poor weather/rain/lack of heat/degree day accumulation:

s mentioned at the e innin of this section there are times when we must ull the tri er on wine ra e harvest due to weather eyond our control here are also years ut not many recently here in alifornia where the weather stays cloudy and cool in the summer and the ra es do not achieve tar et ri eness ine ra es are usually rown etween the th and th arallels of latitude ut we are startin to see that shift as lo al tem eratures rise and vines are now ein lanted in traditionally colder areas of uro e sia and orth merica ven thou h we would ima ine that warmer tem eratures mi ht hel our vineyards achieve etter su ars climate chan e also seems to e increasin the fre uency and severity of summer and fall storms so we need to ta e the ood with the ad e atient reali e that a it of rain doesn t im act the vinta e as much as some fol s thin and if it loo s li e sunny weather will follow the rain ri led winema in veterans usually now from e erience that waitin a storm out unless it s a delu e can still ma e for a ood vinta e e atient ut now when nature forces your hand

Poor canopy management: arietal wine ra es rown in shade taste ve etal and her aceous ruit rown with at least of am ient sunli ht ec in the fruit without urnin it is the ey to roducin rich fruit avors in the wine unli ht de rades the molecular structure of metho y yra ine the

com ound res onsi le for ell e er avors in red wine and ala e o asilla chili avor in whites ith ro er sun ec in on the fruit the yra ines shift chemical onds and ecome monoter enes a hu e onus for the avors of all wines showin white ower character in aromatic whites and hi h toned erry character in reds n o en airy cano y that still rotects the fruit from sun urn in heat events is what we shoot for his cano y mana ement style also decreases humidity rot mildew ressure ma es the fruit one inhos i ta le to ests and critters and will also ma e your s rays far more efficacious

Causes/Solutions:

Mildew/rot: ortin rot mildew at harvest is vital to ee your wine from tastin musty and acterial teach my ic ers to reco ni e mildew lac rot and Botrytis and to cut it out of clusters efore they are thrown in the uc et and then sort a ain at the crusher cluster that is more than affected is tossed on the vineyard oor under my direction n su se uent years u your s ray ame to ee the mildew and rot under control f you can see mildew or rot it s li ely too late for control in the current vinta e isi le fun us means the vineyard is already massively infected he main causes for a mildew rot infection are under owered s ray ri s no ene tration into the cano y ran cano y with minimal mana e ment o en it u without urnin the fruit and inconsistent or la y s ray schedules t or ust under mildew affected fruit will im act the sensory elements of any wine ort it out and ne t year farm clean

Insects in the ferment: nyone else already sha in their fist at a anese eetles hey have to e hand ic ed from the vines efore harvest and removed destroyed sin le eetle li e the a anese can cause off avors in a small atch fer ment n alifornia we have a lot of earwi s or incher u s that li e to clim in clusters to cool off in the hot harvest months have seen hundreds clim in to the to of red wine cold soa in after crush ortunately they don t cause off a vors that have found ut we ut a lastic shovel on to of the soa in ra es and the u s all seem to clim on it li e a safety oat and then we remove them and dis ose of the u s efore they die and sin to the ottom of the fermenter ruit ies are a winery issue ut are the most serious vector of Acetobacter which causes volatile acidity and starts a wine on a slow and terri le road to turnin into vine ar ruit y tra s stic y ta e and other control measures should e stron ly im lemented to ee fruit ies well under control f they are visi le on arrel un s or car oy sto ers or worse they are layin e s there you need to wor harder on elimi natin them year round

Shaded fruit: s descri ed in the oor cano y mana e ment section reviously shaded fruit ma es ve etal wine ro er cano y mana ement is often defined as always havin no more than etween the sunli ht and the fruit li e to ull leaves around and elow the clusters so that early mornin and late afternoon sunshine can athe the

“MY WINE HAS FLAWS AND BAD FLAVORS THAT I ATTRIBUTE TO THE VINEYARD.”

BACKYARD VINES

clusters, but they are protected with a “sombrero leaf” above during the hottest parts of the day, say 10 a.m.–4 p.m. If your fruit still burns in this system, leave a few more leaves, but do thin all the leaves in the middle of the fruiting zone that do not shade the clusters — these will just produce water vapor/ humidity that increases mildew/rot pressure and attracts pests by giving them a shaded, protected home. If the notes on your homegrown wine include references like “canned olive,” “bell pepper,” “green,” or if the wine lacks color, richness, or persistent fruit character, a little more sun on the fruit may be just what you need. Do some experiments each year with different rows/vines and see how much leaf-pulling in the fruit zone can be accomplished without burning the crop.

Bird pecked/damaged fruit. In short, you should be netting your vines at or right before fruit softening/veraison. Red wine grapes get more than twice the attention of birds than their white counterparts. Red means “go” to a bird! Buying bird net that drapes all the way over the vine row is preferable, but I have seen success in fruit zone netting — using a 2–3 ft. (0.6–0.9 m) strip that is clipped on the canopy and only excludes the birds from the fruit area. But I do prefer netting the whole vine, and folding/gathering the net at the bottom and securing it so birds and squirrels/skunks, etc., can’t climb inside the vine. Some birds are learning to hang off the net and peck at the fruit, so if there’s a little billowing space between the fruit and the net, that’s even better! Taking the nets off for harvest is a wonderful feeling, seeing pristine clusters with nary a berry pecked. Pet cats and even dogs can reduce bird and pest pressure in a backyard vineyard, as can propane cannons and shotguns, but those are generally frowned upon by residential and even suburban neighbors. In the end, if you are forced to make wine with bird or insect damaged fruit, double the amount of SO2 you use at the crusher, up to about 100 ppm for highly damaged fruit to sterilize the fruit and knock out some volatile acidity that has likely already developed.

Lack of proper field ripeness testing: If you can’t accurately measure field ri eness efore harvestin it is nearly im ossible to be able to have the foresight and data tools to make consistently ri e alanced delicious wines oin a field sample without randomizing protocol will almost always produce results that show 1–2 °Brix higher results than what you will see after picking, crushing, and testing. Some folks learn this the hard way and then try to go the other way and test fruit that they have chosen because it’s not as ripe, and then they end up with overripe fruit they weren’t expecting. This is why I always test my own fruit from vineyards I buy from using a protocol that has proven amazingly accurate. Choose an odd, prime number besides 1. I usually choose 3, 5, or 7 for small vineyards, and if you only have a dozen vines, 3 might be the best. Go three vines in, then three clusters in, take a berry from the shoulder, middle, and bottom of that cluster and put it in a Ziplock bag or a small bucket. Then switch rows by turning around as lon as it s the same varietal or you lan to field blend at the crusher), go three vines down, three clusters in, grab the berries top, middle, and bottom, and keep going. Try to choose a representative sample from the entire vineyard, the more vines, the bigger the sample. This prevents you from usin your natural ift of findin the ri est fruit he randomness of the sample should provide accurate ripeness models. Make sure to test and calibrate your tools for measuring Brix, pH, and, if you’re an overachiever, TA. Inaccurate tests are a waste of time and labor, and can negatively impact the target avor rofile of your home rown wine

Causes/Solutions:

Waiting too long to pick: How luxurious it must be to get fruit as ripe as you want it every year! Many home winemakers in places like California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and other sunny areas have the enefit of allowin ri eness to not only be achieved but overachieved. We can all imagine the tendency to love big, rich, ripe, high-octane wines that approximate a high-scoring wine from Robert Parker or in Wine Spectator. If 25 °Brix last season made great wine, maybe 27 °Brix will make a better wine this year. And why not 30 °Brix if the vines will allow it? It is not my job to tell you your business stylistically in crafting wines. But if the wines you make start tasting like raisins or Port when they are young and the wines are lac in structure alance or verve and these are avors styles that you don’t appreciate, you may want to pick just a it earlier each year until you achieve the alance and avors you aim for in a wine. I have made very good wines from fruit at almost 30 °Brix in a crazy Santa Barbara heat spike, but I did water the must back to 25 °Brix and added acid to get the pH at 3.5 after cold soak, when I pitched the yeast.

Poor sorting at harvest/at the crusher: You spent a whole year growing that crop of grapes, let’s put in enough work at the harvest vessels, crusher/sorter table to improve the quality of the resulting wine. Make sure every picker at harvest knows what a good and bad cluster looks like, and show them how to snip away little raisins, rot, mildew, or pest/bird damage. Make sure they know if there might be Japanese beetles or other pests on the fruit, and inform them to pick them off and be careful that one doesn’t get in their bucket. I do not personally believe in berry-by-berry sorting, as I believe the oxidation of the juice negates any positive impact, but sorting cluster by cluster makes a lot of sense in a small-production winery setting. This can also be done by just lifting individual clusters into the crusher as you are evaluating/clipping out problem parts, etc. Raisins and heavily dimpled berries over will certainly ive the wine a ort li e raisiny avor and the sugars will spike in the fermenter as much as 3–4 °Brix as the sugar spreads from the raisins to the juice.

Too much leaf pulling/sun on fruit zone: Sunburned fruit means you likely pulled too many leaves from your fruiting zone before a heat event, your vines are too young to protect the fruit with a full canopy, or a heat event surprised you and burned the fruit with a level of leaf pulling that is usually dialed in for your region. Raisins and dimpling can usually be cut out or left in small amounts in the wine for added sugar, ut can roduce ort li e aromas and avors some would consider a fault. If the fruit is burned into tiny brown or black grapes, in other words, “to a crisp,” I suggest rubbing your picking snips along the affected areas and the burnt little buddies will fall off the rachis (stem) quite easily.

“MY WINE IS SOFT, FLABBY, AND OVERRIPE.”

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

ALABAMA

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.

ARKANSAS

FERMENTABLES

3915 Crutcher St. North Little Rock (501) 758-6261

www.fermentables.com

Complete wine, beer and cheesemaking shop.

CALIFORNIA

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 more avor 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 more avor 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 more avor com

www.morewinemaking.com/showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

2315 Verna Court

San Leandro 94577 (510) 351-3517

srsanleandro more avor 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. anufacturers of lees filters unch down 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”

COLORADO

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

CONNECTICUT

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!

FLORIDA

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.

ILLINOIS

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.

INDIANA

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.

IOWA

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.

KANSAS

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.

KENTUCKY

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.

MARYLAND

THE FLYING BARREL

1781 North Market St. Frederick

(301) 663-4491 fax: (301) 663-6195

www yin arrel com

Maryland’s 1st Wine-On-Premise & large selection of homewine supplies! Wine judge on staff!

MARYLAND HOMEBREW

6770 Oak Hall Lane, #108 Columbia 21045

1-888-BREWNOW

www.mdhb.com

We carry the VinoSuperiore frozen Italian must along with Winexpert Kits. Everything you need to make your own wine & cheese. Visit us in-person or online. We ship everywhere

MASSACHUSETTS

BEER AND WINE HOBBY, INC.

85 Andover St. Danvers 01923

1-800-523-5423

e-mail: bwhinfo@beer-wine.com website: www.beer-wine.com

Brew on YOUR Premise™

For the most discriminating wine & beer hobbyist.

THE WITCHES BREW INC.

12 Maple Ave.

Foxborough 02035

(508) 543-0433

steve@thewitchesbrew.com

www.thewitchesbrew.com

You’ve Got the Notion, We’ve Got the Potion

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

MICHIGAN

ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING

6071 Jackson Rd.

Ann Arbor 48103

(313) 277-BREW fax: (313) 583-3294

e-mail: wine@homebrewing.org

Visit us at www.AdventuresinHome brewing.com

Premium Wine Kits, Fruit, Honey, Fruit Presses, Apple Crushers, and Fermentors. Everything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.

ADVENTURES IN HOMEBREWING

23847 Van Born Rd. Taylor 48180 (313) 277-BREW fax: (313) 583-3294

e-mail: wine@homebrewing.org

Visit us at www.AdventuresinHome brewing.com

Premium Wine Kits, Fruit, Honey, Fruit Presses, Apple Crushers, and Fermentors. Everything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.

BREWERS EDGE

HOMEBREW SUPPLY, LLC

650 Riley Street, Suite D Holland 49424 (616) 399-0017

www.brewersedgehomebrew.com

e-mail: brewersedge@gmail.com

Your local Winemaking & Homebrewing Supply Shop...get the Edge!

MACOMB VINTNER SUPPLY

44443 Phoenix Dr. Sterling Heights (248) 495-0801

www.macombvintnersupply.com

Purveyor of grapes and grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva Bella, Mosto Bella & Chilean Bello Brands, and Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.

MID-MICHIGAN VINTNER SUPPLY

Grand Rapids & South Lyon (517) 898-3203

www.Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com

info@Mid-Michiganvintnersupply.com

Purveyor of fresh grape juices for the winemaker. L’uva Bella, Mosto Bella & Chilean Bello Brands.

MORGAN VINEYARD

15775 40th Avenue

Coopersville 49404 (616) 648-3025 morgangrapes@gmail.com

MorganVineyard.com

Supplier of high quality wine grapes conveniently located in West Michigan.

SICILIANO’S MARKET

2840 Lake Michigan Dr. N.W. Grand Rapids 49504 (616) 453-9674 fax: (616) 453-9687

e-mail: sici1@sbcglobal.net

www.sicilianosmkt.com

Largest Wine Making inventory in West Michigan. Now selling beer and winemaking supplies on-line.

TAYLOR RIDGE VINEYARDS

3843 105th Ave.

Allegan 49010

(269) 521-4047

bctaylor@btc-bci.com

www.taylorridgevineyard.com

18 Varieties of Wine Grapes and Juices. Vinifera, New York State, Minnesota and French hybrids. Providing wine grapes and juices for over 30 years.

MISSOURI

HOME BREWERY

1967 West Boat St. Ozark

1-800-321-BREW (2739) brewery@homebrewery.com

www.homebrewery.com

Since 1984, providing excellent Service, Equipment and Ingredients. Beer, Wine, Mead, Soda and Cheese.

NEW YORK

DOC’S HOMEBREW SUPPLIES

451 Court Street Binghamton 13904 (607) 722-2476

www.docsbrew.com

Full-service beer & wine making shop serving NY’s Southern Tier &PA’s Northern Tier since 1991. Extensive line of Winexpert kits, supplies and equipment.

FULKERSON WINERY & JUICE PLANT

5576 State Route 14 Dundee 14837 (607) 243-7883

fax: (607) 243-8337

www.fulkersonw inery.com

Fresh Finger Lakes grape juice available during harvest. Large selection of home winemaking supplies. Visit our website to browse and order supplies. Open year round 10-5, extended seasonal hours. Find us on Facebook and follow us onTwitter @fulkersonwinery.

MAIN STREET WINES & SUPPLIES

249 Main St. Arcade 14009 (585) 492-2739

fax: (585) 492-2777

mainstwines@yahoo.com

Plenty of wine kits available to make your own wine. Full line of winemaking supplies and accessories for your convenience. Tue-Fri 10-6; Sat 10-3 or by appt. Like us on Facebook.

NIAGARA TRADITION HOMEBREWING SUPPLIES

1296 Sheridan Drive Buffalo 14217 (800) 283-4418 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

249 Rte 32 S. New Paltz 12561 (845) 255-5201 or (845) 706-5152 (cell) pantanowineandbeer@yahoo.com www.pantanosbeerwine.com

Find Us On Facebook. Your source for wine & beer making supplies and equipment. Grapes and Juice from California, Italy & Chile in season, wine kits and all juice pails (6 gal) year round. Classes available. We now carry Distilling Products and Stills.

PROSPERO EQUIPMENT CORP.

123 Castleton St. Pleasantville 10570 (914) 769-6252 fax: (914) 769-6786

info@prosperocorp.biz www.prosperocorp.biz

The source to all your winemaking equipment.

SARATOGA ZYMURGIST

112 Excelsior Ave. Saratoga Springs 12866 (518) 580-9785

email: szymurgist@gmail.com

www.SaratogaZ.com

Let us be your guide into the world of Zymurgy. Reaching the Adirondack Park, Capital District, Southern Vermont and beyond! Great online store.

TEN THOUSAND VINES WINERY

8 South Buffalo St. Hamburg 14075 (716) 646-9979

mike@TenThousandVines.com

www.TenThousandVines.com

Wine supplies, juice and advice.

WALKER’S WINE JUICE

2860 N.Y. Route 39 – Since 1955 Forestville (716) 679-1292

www.walkerswinejuice.com

Over 50 varieties of “Hot-Pack”

Grape, Fruit and Berry Juice, Requiring No Refrigeration, shipped by UPS all year. Supplying over 300 wineries in 37 states!

NORTH CAROLINA

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (BELMONT)

1500 River D., Suite 104

Belmont 28012

Advice Line: (704) 825-8400

Order Line: 1-800-365-2739

www.ebrew.com

44 years serving all home winemakers & brewers’ needs! Come visit for a real Homebrew Super Store experience!

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (CHARLOTTE)

3911 South Blvd.

Charlotte 28209

Advice Line: (704) 825-8400

Order Line: 1-800-365-2739

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.

ALTERNATIVE BEVERAGE (CORNELIUS)

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 its in redients 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.

OHIO

THE GRAPE AND GRANARY 915 Home Ave. Akron 44310 (330) 633-7223

www.grapeandgranary.com

Concentrates, Fresh 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

OKLAHOMA

HIGH GRAVITY 6808 S. Memorial Drive Tulsa 74133 (918) 461-2605

e-mail: store@highgravitybrew.com

www.highgravitybrew.com

Join our Frequent Fermenters Club!

OREGON

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

Providing equipment, supplies and advice to winemakers and homebrewers for over 40 years.

PENNSYLVANIA

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!

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

NITTANY VALLEY TRUE VALUE

1169 Nittany Valley Drive

Bellefonte

(814) 383-2809 fax: (814) 383-4884

Supplies - Equipment - Classes. Fresh 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 1964, 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. Fresh 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!

TEXAS

AUSTIN HOMEBREW SUPPLY

15112 N. Interstate Hwy 35 Austin 78728 (512) 300-BREW

email: hops@austinhomebrew.com

Visit us at www.AustinHomebrew.com

Premium Wine Kits, Fruit, Honey, Fruit Presses, Apple Crushers, and Fermentors. Everything for the beginner and the seasoned winemaker.

HOMEBREW HEADQUARTERS

300 N. Coit Rd., Suite 134

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!

WASHINGTON

BADER BEER & WINE SUPPLY

711 Grand Blvd.

Vancouver, WA 98661

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

Fresh grape pick-up in Underwood, WA

Frozen grapes in Portland, OR

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.

JON’S HOMEBREW AND WINE SUPPLY

1430 E. Main Ave., #1430C

Puyallup 98372 (253) 286-7607

jon@jonshomebrew.com jonshomebrew.com

Puyallup’s home for Home Beer and Winemaking supplies!

WISCONSIN

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 Competitive 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

Beer, Wine, Cider, Mead, Soda, Coffee, Tea, Cheese 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 headquarters for over 40 years. Fast, affordable shipping to anywhere. Use promo code WineMaker at checkout for discounts. Free expert advice too!

READER SERVICE

CANADA ALBERTA

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.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

BOSAGRAPE WINERY & BREW SUPPLIES

6908 Palm Ave.

Burnaby V5J 4M3 (604) 473-WINE

fax: (604) 433-2810

info@bosagrape.com

www.bosagrape.com

Ingredients, equipment, labware & supplies for brew & winemaking. Still Spirits, Hanna, Stavin Oak, Brehm Vineyards, Mosti juices, Brewcraft, Marchisio, Accuvin, Chemetrics, Vintner’s Harvest, Lalvin, Buon Vino, Vintage Shop.

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO ALL OF OUR ADVERTISERS’ WEBSITES, GO TO WWW.WINEMAKERMAG.COM/RESOURCE/READER - SERVICES

AMERICAN DISTILLING INSTITUTE .......................................52 www.distilling.com

BLICHMANN ENGINEERING, LLC...11 www.blichmannengineering.com

BUON VINO MANUFACTURING, INC. ..................12 1-855-522-1166 www.buonvino.com orders@buonvino.com

DISTILLERYUNIVERSITY ..............54 www.distilleryuniversity.com

EASYCAPPER ...................................51 www.easycapper.com info@easycapper.com

FERMENTISBYLESAFFRE ............11 www.fermentis.com

FERMTECHLTD..............................57 www.fermtech.ca

FERRARIGROUP ................................1 +39 0521 687125 www.ferrarigroup.com info@ferrarigroup.com

FINERWINEKITS ..............................9 www.labelpeelers.com

THE GRAINFATHER ...............Cover 2 www.grainfather.com

LALLEMANDINC................................5 www.lallemandbrewing.com/wine homebrewing@lallemand.com

MOREWINE!........................................3 1-800-823-0010 www.morewine.com info@morewinemaking.com

MUST...................................................1 707-963-4966 / 707-967-0553 www.mustfabricate.com orders@mustfabricate.com

MUSTOWINE

GRAPECO.,LLC .....................7 & 56 1-877-812-1137 or 860-278-7703 www.juicegrape.com www.winemakinginstructions.com sales@juicegrape.com

NAPAFERMENTATION SUPPLIES .........................................57 707-255-6372

www.napafermentation.com napafermentation@aol.com

NOONTIMELABELS ........................12 561-699-0413 www.noontimelabels.com customerservice@ noontimelabels.com

STILLSPIRITS .................................53 www.stillspirits.com

VINMETRICA ....................................17 760-494-0597 www.vinmetrica.com info@vinmetrica.com

THEVINTAGESHOP .............Cover 3 604-590-1911 www.thevintageshop.ca info@thevintageshop.ca

VINTNER’SBEST® ..............................7 1-800-321-0315 www.ldcarlson.com

WALKER’SWINEJUICE .................20 716-679-1292 www.walkerswinejuice.com

WATERLOOCONTAINER COMPANY ...........................................5 1-888-539-3922 www.waterloocontainer.com

WINEMAKERDIGITAL DOWNLOADS ...................................51 www.winemakermag.com/shop store@winemakermag.com

WINEMAKERINTERNATIONAL AMATEURWINE COMPETITION ...........................22-25 802-362-3981 ext. 106 www.winemakermag.com/ competition competition@winemakermag. com

WINEMAKERLABELCONTEST .....50 dave@winemakermag.com

WINEXPERT ...........................Cover 4 www.winexpert.com info@winexpert.com

WYEASTLABORATORIES,INC......21 Fermentation Cultures: Beer, Wine, Cider www.wyeastlab.com customerservice@wyeastlab.com

XPRESSFILL.....................................20 805-541-0100 www ressfill com

BY LINDA M c GLOCHLIN WOLFF

GOING PRO Is the time and money worth It?

So was it worth it? It depends if you ask the question around April 15th. Yes, the tax writeoffs are great if you have other income. However, if you are risk averse and are uncomfortable writing a multitude of checks, then a different business investment is probably a better choice. The key words are “business investment.” Going pro is just that, a business investment that should be looked at within the context of your financial means and overall investment portfolio. Yes, you may be a talented home winemaker who makes fabulous wine and has dreams of going pro, but dreams need to be tempered with a keen understanding of the complexities involved in such an alluring business venture.

I often consider myself the unknown poster child for WineMaker magazine I read the magazine, I have attended eight WineMaker Conferences since 2010, I have entered several WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competitions, as well as attended several WineMaker Boot Camps. I am a California professional geologist and my husband is a California licensed architect. We own a small Pinot Noir vineyard (12,000 vines) in the Carneros District of Napa Valley and have been selling our Pinot Noir grapes to Napa Valley wineries since 2005. In 2018, when California wineries were burdened with an oversupply of grapes, we were in the unfortunate position of getting a non-renewal notice for our longstanding grape contract with a prominent winery. Faced with not being able to sell our grapes due to the grape glut, we made the decision to take the plunge and start our own wine brand, Ammons Horn Wines (ammonshornwines.com).

You’ve heard the saying, “God looks out for fools and babies . . .” It must be true because we are still moving

forward on this venture. First let me explain that I am a good winemaker but I never aspired to become a professional winemaker.

At our Napa vineyard where we live, my husband constructed a small home winery in the first level of our chateau-style guesthouse. The home winery was meant to be my retirement “she shed,” but instead we choose to bond this little 200-gallon (760-L) per year winery through Napa County’s home occupation permit. At the bonded home winery, I am the winemaker for a less expensive wine brand in our portfolio of wines. In summary, our more expensive branded wines are produced at the custom-crush facility under the direction of our professional winemaker and our less expensive wines produced at the 200-gallon/year (760-L/year) home winery are made by me.

Development of our brand (identifying our target consumers, selecting the style and number of our Pinot Noir wines, working with a label designer for our labels, working with the website designer and marketing consultant, etc.) has taken far more time and expense than anticipated. Yes, people do judge a book by its cover, and they will judge your wine brand by your wine labels, your wine website, and your advertisements. Spending time on the consumer appeal of your business is hugely important. The venue where consumers taste your wine is also extremely important, but that is the topic for another article.

But the hard work developing a wine brand does have its rewards. On March 8, 2021 (the day our wine website became fully functional) we learned that our 2018 Reserve Pinot Noir won the Packaging Sweepstakes at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition along with double gold and gold medals for our still Pinot Noirs and rosé wines. As I said, God looks out for fools and babies.

First let me explain that I am a good winemaker but I’ve never aspired to become a professional winemaker.

Photo courtesy of Linda McGlochlin Wolff