2022 WM JUNE-JULY

WHITE WINE CASE STUDY: LEARNING LESSONS FROM WINEMAKING DECISIONS

4 ‘CELLOS: HOMEMADE CITRUS LIQUEURS

BLENDING GRAPES & OTHER FRUITS

CALM TIPS ON HYPEROXIDATION

VineCo™ Wine Kits

Sourced from the world’s best wine-growing regions! Selecting only the finest grape juices and concentrates, VineCo™ combines the most premium ingredients, a unique process and a pure love of the craft to deliver the very best winemaking kits around!

CellarScience™ Yeast & Additives

CellarScience™ adds complexity and flavor to your wine with our carefully curated set of wine yeasts. Designed to work directly with CellarScience™ yeast nutrients FermStart™, Fermfed™, and Fermfed™ DAP Free. As with all CellarScience™ products, the value is the best in the industry.

Vinmetrica Wine Testing Speidel Winemaking Equipment

Vinmetrica offers a variety of different testing units and solutions, at a very competitive price. Accurate and easy to use, we recommend using a Vinmetrica testing unit to get it done right!

German-made Speidel is one of the premier brands for winemaking equipment. Offering equipment for home winemakers and professional wineries alike, Speidel is a brand that is known for its quality. a

22 FRUIT & GRAPE BLENDS

When a wine comes up lacking, the solution may just be blending a totally different type of wine with it. Grape wines and wines made from other fruits often have complementary characteristics that lend themselves as a key ingredient in the other.

by Maureen Macdonald

28 WHITE WINE CASE STUDY

As an agricultural product, the steps to make that perfect wine may be unique every year due to differences in the fruit. The most challenging growing seasons really force winemakers to test their skill as they face tough, on-the-fly decisions. One winemaker takes us behind the scenes during one such vintage.

by Phil Plummer

34 FOUR ‘CELLOS

Limoncello is the most popular citrus-flavored liqueur, but they can be made from other citrus fruits as well. Learn to make four citrus liqueurs: Limoncello, limecello, arancello, and mandarincello.

by Bob Peak

40 HYPEROXIDATION

As a home winemaker, you’ve likely spent years taking every precaution at your disposal to assure that your juice does not oxidize prior to fermentation. However, there are a small-yet-growing number of winemakers out there who intentionally oxidize their juice with an aim to reduce phenol content. The technique is called hyperoxidation, and it is only for the brave.

by Rick Haibach

departments

8 MAIL

One reader asks about repurposing a neutral barrel into oak alternatives and another shares a picture of three generations participating in the winemaking hobby together.

10 CELLAR DWELLERS

What is your favorite grape variety to work with? If you’re a backyard grape grower, we hope the answer is the one growing in your yard. For everyone else, there are a ton of options. We share a smattering of the responses we received when we posed that question on social media. Also learn some basics of making stone fruit wines and catch up on the latest news and upcoming events.

14 WINE WIZARD

Malolactic fermentation can be finicky even for professional winemakers, but there are protocols winemakers can follow to help avoid the headache (and heartache). Learn those along with best practices for a post-fermentation acid adjustment.

18 VARIETAL FOCUS

A hybrid grape that came out of Cornell University’s breeding program in the 1970s, Cayuga White has found great success while being made into a wide array of wine styles. Learn about its qualities plus a recipe to craft your own at home.

47 TECHNIQUES

There is no denying that oak alternatives are a lot gentler on the wallet and on the environment. Bob Peak takes a spin through oak chemistry, available options, and techniques to incorporate them to elevate your wines.

49 BACKYARD VINES

For anyone who plans on creating a small-to-moderate-sized backyard vineyard, this column should be mandatory reading. Because the best advice one can receive is to spend a lot of extra time in the planning stage, which will save an exponential amount of time later.

56 DRY FINISH

A winemaker and his brother team up to create a boysenberry wine. Join along on their adventure to crafting the perfect summer sipper.

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Dawson Raspuzzi

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Bob Peak

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Dwayne Bershaw, Chik Brenneman, Alison Crowe, Wes Hagen, Maureen Macdonald, Bob Peak, Phil Plummer, Dominick Profaci

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Jim Woodward, Chris Champine

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Charles A. Parker, Les Jörgensen

EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

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

Grape Co.

Phil Plummer Montezuma Winery

Gene Spaziani American Wine Society

Jef Stebben Stebben Wine Co.

Gail Tufford Global Vintners Inc.

Anne Whyte Vermont Homebrew Supply

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I love grilled swordfish. Since it is such a meaty fish that shines when grilled, swordfish plays well with a broad variety of wine choices. You can easily have a great dining experience with lighter-bodied reds, rosés, and crisp whites. This is a really fun food to experiment with to find your personal favorite. Right now I love reaching for a bottle of Sangiovese to drink alongside that thick steak of swordfish coming off my grill. Sangiovese is bright and light enough to stand alongside one of my favorite foods and help elevate this summer classic.

While I like a lot of foods off the grill, there is nothing I like more than my husband’s slowcooked pork ribs. He gets a lot of flavor packed into them and I find a good pairing to be a big Zinfandel or Petite Sirah . . . something with a lot of heft and bold character to stand up to the dry rub and smokiness.

Oooh this is a fun one! I do in fact have one, but it has only a small window of opportunity in these parts . . . freshly picked, ripe peaches grilled until a light char and some caramelization, paired with a bottle of Mettler Ranch Albariño. Heaven on Earth.

All contents of WineMaker are Copyright © 2022 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 Vermont office address. All rights in letters sent to WineMaker will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to WineMaker’s unrestricted right to edit. Although all reasonable attempts are made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions anywhere in the publication. All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole without written permission is strictly prohibited. Printed in the United States of America. Volume 25, Number 3: June-July 2022.

Zinfandel Wine Case Study

You’ve heard over and over the importance of taking notes during winemaking. But what do you do with those findings? Follow along the decision-making process with a professional winemaker to find out. https://winemakermag.com/ technique/wine-case-study-techniques

MEMBERS ONLY

Insects, Viral and Fungal Diseases “Backyard Vines”

columnist Wes Hagen breaks down some of the lesser-known yet highly problematic diseases that can inflict vineyards. These include insect-borne, viral, and fungal diseases that you may or may not be aware of.

https://winemakermag.com/article/ 397-insects-viral-and-fungaldiseases-backyard-vines

Used Spirit Barrel Experiment

Is aging wine in a barrel that once held spirits totally off limits? Of course it isn’t. Commercial winemakers are exploring this concept more and more. One hobby winemaker made some experimental wines to test it out himself. https://winemakermag.com/ article/used-spirit-barrel-experiment

MEMBERS ONLY

Blending Fruit Wine Country wines

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

https://winemakermag.com/technique/ blending-fruit-wines

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

Maureen Macdonald is a University of Vermont graduate with 18 years professional experience in the beverage and wine industry. She has experience in both viticulture and oenology as a Field Manager and Head Winemaker for commercial vineyards. After years of working as a consultant to many vineyards, she now is the Head Winemaker for Hawk Ridge Winery in Watertown, Connecticut, where she makes 30 different wines. When she isn’t hard at work in the lab or winery, she is often judging commercial and amateur competitions or making hard cider and beer at home.

Starting on page 22 Maureen shares the why and how of blending grape and non-grape wines.

REPURPOSING BARRELS

I have several neutral, clean wine barrels obtained recently from a trusted winemaking friend. They were maintained (sulfur candled) but I don’t make large enough batches to utilize these barrels and have exhausted my furniture projects. What I would like to do is dismantle, clean, and utilize the chopped up staves as oak adjuncts for future batches. Are there any concerns or tips on doing this?

Rich Torquemada • Stevensville, Montana

You can definitely repurpose clean, neutral barrels as oak alternatives. After taking the barrel apart the staves can be shaved so new, fresh oak that has not been exposed to wine will now be in contact with your wine in future batches and contribute that oak character you are after. For much more information on how to do this, we ran a sidebar in the story “Lifespan of a Wine Barrel” in the April-May 2021 issue of WineMaker (available at https://winemakermag.com/article/lifespanof-a-wine-barrel) that details one home winemaker’s technique for shaving staves as well as toasting them afterwards to give them the same flavor impact as a toasted barrel.

Depending on how you want to use them and the size of the opening of the vessel you’d like to add them to, you can keep them as staves or cut them into shorter pieces all the way down to cubes. The “Techniques” column beginning on page 47 of this issue details the benefits and differences of many of the oak alternative shapes (such as percent of edge grain vs. end grain), which we’d also recommend taking a look at. Good luck in your DIY!

SOURCING PORT WINE KITS

I’ve read through the WineMaker website looking for information on making Port-style wines. It has been very informative. I need some help though. I am struggling to find a Canadian Port-style kit supplier. Not too sure if there is an American supplier that can ship across borders?

Dave Maberley • via email

WineMaker’s Associate Publisher Kiev Rattee responds: “I did a quick search of Finer Wine Kits, Master Vintners, Mosti Mondiale, RJS Craft Winemaking, VineCo, and Winexpert websites and do not see a Portstyle kit in their offerings at this time. The Port-style kits are usually a smaller volume kit making 3.5 gallons (11.5 L) and often offered

Bob Peak is a retired partner of The Beverage People Inc., a home winemaking and homebrewing shop in Santa Rosa, California. Before The Beverage People, he was the General Manager at Vinquiry, a company that provides analytical services to the wine industry. Bob has authored the “Techniques” column that runs in every issue since 2013, frequently writes feature stories, and has been the Technical Editor of WineMaker since 2017. He is also a frequent speaker at the annual WineMaker Magazine Conference.

In addition to his usual “Techniques” column on using oak alternatives (page 47), Bob also shares the details on his most recent home beverage creations: Citrus liqueurs made from lemons, limes, oranges, and mandarins, which begins on page 34.

Rick Haibach is an engineer with an unusually high passion for wine, winemaking, and grape growing. You may know him from The Home Winemaking Channel on YouTube, where he creates content for winemakers of all skill levels. His science background, winemaking experience, and ability to find creative yet simple solutions has helped winemakers worldwide produce professional quality wines on a small scale. Rick has a small R&D vineyard in his backyard near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he grows many different wine grape varieties using modern techniques. As an engineer, Rick has over 50 patents and patents pending in the medical device space and was heavily involved in developing an emergency use ventilator for the COVID19 pandemic.

Rick makes his WineMaker writing debut beginning on page 40 as he explores one of the scariest techniques in winemaking: Hyperoxidation.

MAIL

only as seasonal or limited releases. I do see some available through online retailers and would suggest contacting your local suppliers and U-Vints to see if they have any in stock. Each of the Canadian kit manufacturers listed earlier (Mosti Mondiale, RJS Craft Winemaking, VineCo, and Winexpert) have ‘find a retailer’ sections of their websites:

• https://mostimondiale.com/store-locator

• https://www.rjscraftwinemaking.com/find-your-store

• https://vinecowine.com

• https://winexpert.com/#section_locator

Hope that points you in the right direction to getting your own Port-style wine in the fermenter soon!

3 GENERATIONS OF WINEMAKERS

I wanted to share a photo with WineMaker — this is a photo of us getting some bottles ready for next year’s WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. Three generations of Drews bottling wine: Grandson, Joe, filling bottles; son, Larry, on the “Italian rowing machine”; and me, grandpa, passing between. It’s truly a family hobby that brings us closer.

Jay Drew • via email

Italian Wine Equipment in Stock!

Store Location: 575 3rd St. Building. A, Napa CA 94559 - Inside the Napa Expo Fairgrounds www.NapaFermentation.com

RECENT NEWS UPCOMING EVENTS

Chemical Analysis of Smoke Taint

Phil Crews, a research professor of chemistry at UC-Santa Cruz and winery owner (Pelican Ranch Winery) teamed up with fellow researchers and chemists to form a nascent qualitative and quantitative way to measure smoke taint in potentially affected grapes. Using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and quantitative mass spectrometry and focusing on phenolic diglycosides that are undetectable by smell or taste until post-fermentation tastings, the group, led by Crews, has started to form a big picture of all the complex interactions that occur when wildfire smoke impacts post-veraison grapes. Their analysis focused on six biomarkers that the Australian Wine Research Institute had honed in on in their research into the same issue. Crews’ team found that two of the biomarkers were not indicative of potential smoke . . . hence the fact this analytical research is still a work in progress. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.2c00028

Microbiota’s Impact on Terroir

In the April-May 2021 issue we reported on how the concept of terroir was proven by a group of scientists studying several vineyards in the Mendoza region of Argentina. But the root cause of terroir is still yet to be determined. One camp argues that the microbiota found growing wild on the grapes plays a major role in determining a vineyard’s terroir. The other camp says the wild microbes have little to no impact and its expression has more to do with what happens underground with the interaction of the roots, soil, and the microbiota as well as the microclimate of the vineyard. Where do you stand on the issue? https://www.winemag.com/2022/03/17/indigenous-yeast-real/

JUNE 2 & 5, 2022

In-Person Boot Camp space is still available at our 13th annual WineMaker Conference, which will be located in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California. Join fellow hobby winemakers from across North America in a small audience setting to learn hands-on from experts to help you make your own great wine. While the main conference is sold out, there is still space on June 2nd and 5th to take part in seven topic-specific WineMaker Boot Camps to choose from. https://winemakermag.com/ conference/conference-overview

JULY

9, 2022

Come to the Home Winemakers Classic in Napa on July 9th 4–6:30 p.m. at the Marriott in Napa Valley, California. There is no charge to serve your wines, but there is a $25 fee per wine in order to get them judged. Or simply come as a guest and taste others’ wines. In its 39th year, this event fundraises for the Mt. Veeder Fire Safe Council’s community outreach for wildfire safety and prevention. Serve, sip, and bid for world-class wines and gift packages, and support wildfire safety. More info and registration details at www. homewinemakersclassic.com

JULY

15, 2022

Home Wine Lab Skills Online Boot Camp with Bob Peak. It’s very difficult to make great wine if you don’t know how to properly and accurately test your wine. WineMaker’s “Techniques” columnist and Technical Editor Bob Peak will take you step-by-step online over four hours teaching you live how to properly test your wine for sulfites, malolactic, acidity, sugar, and pH. You’ll have the chance to learn visually how to run these tests on your own wines at home. You’ll also have access to the recorded sessions after the live event.

https://winemakermag.com/bootcamp

Photo by Pat Henderson

Photo by Frank Crowe

GOLD

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru Select

Barolo

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Spanish

Tempranillo

Winexpert Private Reserve

Argentina Malbec

Winexpert Private Reserve

Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru

International Italian Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Italian

Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking RQ Spanish

Monastrell

Winexpert Classic Tempranillo

BRONZE

Cellar Craft Showcase Argentina

Malbec

Mosti Mondiale Meglioli Italian

Nebbiolo

RJS Craft Winemaking Cru

International Chilean Malbec

RJS Craft Winemaking En Primeur

Chilean Malbec

RJS Craft Winemaking En

Primeur Winery Series Chilean

Carménère

RJS Craft Winemaking Grand Cru

Bergamais

Winexpert Fiero Primitivo

Winexpert Italian Negroamaro

Winexpert Spanish Tempranillo

Winexpert World Vineyard Chilean

Malbec

Other Red Vinifera Varietals

Here is a list of medal-winning kits for the Other Red Vinifera Varietals category chosen by a blind-tasting judging panel at the 2021 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition in West Dover, Vermont:

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE GRAPE VARIETY TO WORK WITH?

Alan O’Neal: Lagrein or Grenache, but so many to choose from.

Lee Lictenwalner: The ones already crushed, screened, and filtered.

Steve Race: Wine grapes. Cheers!

Brandon Anders: Syrah!

Leki Kasapi: The king of white wine, Chardonnay.

Penny Walker: Gosh, so many to choose from . . . probably Mourvèdre.

Joseph Hulbert: Diamond

Jes Blancas: Cabernet Sauvignon

Jim Stangl: Sangiovese

Shirley Moore: Muscat Canelli . . . I can’t find the juice to buy anywhere lately!

Michael Echeveria: Cabernet Sauvignon

Thomas Ash: The ones that survive.

Kerrylea Alborough: Cab Sauvignon

Zachary Hritz: Syrah

Todd Brescia: Zinfandel

Rob Utzig: I prefer alternatives to grapes. Everybody does grapes and directions are easy to find — but try to find a recipe for watermelon or maple sap wine.

Jeff Smith: Riesling . . . you can really let the fruit dictate the type of wine you make!

Tatz Peter: Either Cab Sauvignon or Zin, preferably dry farmed and organic.

Mabhuti Nyamfu: Shiraz

Zac Brown: Pinot Gris made into the Ramato style.

Doug Van Tornhout: Cabernet Franc

Stephen Daniel Miller: Riesling is king!

Kathy Iske-Ondrus: Muscat

Randall Heier: Merlot!

Anders Norberg: Solaris, can be used for all types of wine, ripens early and is free of diseases.

Jeffrey Priddy: Viognier or Sangiovese.

BEGINNER’S BLOCK

BY DAVE GREEN

Stone Fruit Wines S

tone fruits are categorized by the pits found in their core. Think cherry, apricot, plum, peach, mango . . . even olives are considered stone fruits. In botany they are known as drupes and the stone contains the seed while the outer flesh and sugar is what the plant uses to coax a member of the animal kingdom to eat it and spread its seed afar. And of course we as winemakers can use the sugar, plus some yeast, to produce wine. Let’s run through some of the main concepts for crafting wines with stone fruit.

SOURCING THE STONES

Just like with grape wines, there is a whole range of possible routes you can take: Fresh fruit, frozen fruit, juices, purees, concentrates, etc. Using locally picked or homegrown fresh fruit is generally seen as the pinnacle, but frozen fruit is a close second, as they will be picked at the height of ripeness before being frozen. Fresh fruit found at the grocery store will often have been picked well before ripeness in order to allow the fruit to ripen during shipping, which means it wasn’t allowed to fully mature in character.

Aseptic juices are another really good pick as they are about as close to fresh juices as possible without having to deal with the actual fruit. An example of aseptic juice we are all familiar with is not-from-concentrate orange juice. Buying locally sourced, unpasteurized, refrigerated juice is typically the best juice though. You can make wine from pasteurized juice, but the pasteurization process does drive-off or chemically alter delicate aromatics.

Next up are concentrates, which can make good wines if used properly but are often better used to enhance the fruit character in the backsweetening process. If you want to give a fruit boost to an apple cider, the easiest thing to do is add in a can of frozen concentrate from the grocery store after stabilizing but before bottling. Unfortunately it’s

not as easy to source a peach or plum juice frozen concentrate, but a range of concentrates typically are available at larger wine supply stores.

There are extracts and flavorings available as well, which can come in handy if your wine needs a boost of fruit character or you’re looking to simply add an element of a fruit’s character to a grape wine. For example, adding a little blueberry extract to a white Merlot might elevate that porch-sipper a level.

KEYS TO STONE FRUIT WINES

There are two things that have to be discussed when dealing with any wines outside of those produced by Vitis vinifera grapes: Starting Brix and acidity (pH). While stone fruits generally have lower sugar levels than wine grapes, they’re often not too far behind and only moderate chaptalization (the addition of sugar) may be required to bring the alcohol levels up to standard wine strength. For example, let’s say vinifera grapes are roughly 23 °Brix (23% sugar) when harvested; mangoes are typically 14 °Brix, cherries and plums are generally 13 °Brix, and standard peaches are 8 °Brix (these are highly variable though). Compare that to raspberries that are more typically 4 °Brix while strawberries are around 5 °Brix. Chaptalization is typically still recommended for stone fruit wines because higher alcohol wines are less susceptible to microbial problems.

Acidity may also be an issue needing to be addressed. If you have the ability to test for pH it is recommended for microbial stability issues. Targeting white wine’s pH levels of 3.2–3.4 is a good starting point as most of these wines will have low to no polyphenols to help stabilize the wine. Malic acid is the main acid of stone fruits and it’s recommended to sulfite your wine after fermentation to suppress possible malolactic bacteria activity.

CHERRIES

This was my first love in the fruit wine

category. Sour cherries (sometimes called tart cherries) are the preferred cherry type for making wine. Sugar levels in this category can range from 8 °Brix up to 22 °Brix depending on variety and growing season. Total acidity typically ranges from 1.3–2.3 g/L. These numbers are a pretty good starting place for winemaking. Add in the fact that cherries provide a modest level of polyphenols, and it is easy to make the case for why cherry wine is so popular. Sweet cherries can also be used; the main difference between the two is that sweet cherries have less acidity and higher pH. Be sure that pits are discarded prior to fermentation if using fresh fruits as cherry pits (and some other stone fruit pits) contain low concentrations of a compound that can be converted to toxic hydrogen cyanide.

PEACHES/NECTARINES

While generally lower in sugar than cherries, peaches and nectarines are another great choice for a stone fruit wine. Since their character is a little more subtle, they can make great blending partners with white grape wines. Extracts and flavorings can be utilized as well if fruit character is lacking after fermentation and aging. Fully ripened peaches and nectarines can allow sugar levels to get up towards 14 °Brix in some varieties, while pH levels generally range from 3.3 up to 4.1. Supplemental yeast nutrients are highly recommended for peach and nectarine wines.

PLUMS

Like cherries, plums do contain some polyphenolic compounds and ripe plums typically come in with similar sugar levels starting around 9 °Brix and ranging up to 20 °Brix, depending on variety. Their pH levels do have a high variability; from as low as 2.8 all the way up to 4.3, so getting a pH reading of your juice is important.

For recipes and variety recommendations, check out: https://winemaker mag.com/article/stone-fruit-wines

BY ALISON CROWE

MALOLACTIC PALOOZA

Also: The importance of pH

QTHIS YEAR’S HARVEST FROM MY 20 CABERNET FRANC VINES MADE 7 GALLONS (26.5 L ), WHICH I FERMENTED IN TWO PLASTIC FERMENTERS TO A GRAVITY OF 1.000 AND THEN STARTED MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION. I THEN TRANSFERRED INTO TWO 3- GALLON (11- L ) CARBOYS AND A 1- GALLON (3.8- L ) CARBOY. IT HAS NOW BEEN JUST ABOUT 10 DAYS AND MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION SEEMS TO BE GOING WELL ( SLOW BUBBLING ) BUT ONE OF THE CARBOYS HAS NICE, FAIRLY CLEAR RED WINE WHILE THE OTHER HAS CLOUDY WINE. I CHECKED p H AND THE CLOUDY WINE WAS 3.77 WHILE THE CLEAR WINE WAS 3.57. CAN YOU OFFER ANY EXPLANATION?

DONALD COUSTAN JAMESTOWN, RHODE ISLAND

AWell, it’s tough to say what would make one cloudy and the other clear, except for the fact that they may not have been identical coming from your fermenters. If you did blend/homogenize after pressing, then it’s possible you’re seeing the cloudy wine (pH 3.77) going through the MLF (malolactic fermentation) a little more quickly for whatever reason (is it stored in a slightly warmer place than the other one?), and, as MLF de-acidifies, it makes sense that the pH on the cloudy one is a little higher (high titers of microbes can cause cloudiness). Cabernet Franc isn’t necessarily more prone than other wines to having delayed MLF. Even if your postpress lots didn’t start out with the same acid levels, those are both perfectly fine pH levels to have healthy MLF.

Most MLFs, no matter what the varietal, are finicky things. The ML bacteria are greatly affected by the following: Low pH, high alcohol, low storage temperature, or high sulfur dioxide levels (free SO2 above 10 ppm or a total SO2 above 60 ppm). ML bacteria (usually Oenococcus oeni and various Lactobacillus and Pediococcus species) are also nutritionally fastidious, mean-

ing that if the balance of nutrients in their environment isn’t correct, things can go off the rails.

Before you have any further issues with one of your Cabernet Franc lots having a delayed MLF, I will offer some tips on how you can have a successful malolactic fermentation every time.

TIPS TO ENSURE A HEALTHY MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION

Temperature: Is it temperature that stopped your ML bacteria? Sometimes when a cold end to the harvest season follows our warm primary fermentations, the temperatures where we store our wines (basements, garages, outbuildings, etc.) drop right along with the thermometer. Temperatures much below 55 °F (13 °C) spell bad news for active MLF so try to keep your fermenters warm until they are through both primary and secondary fermentation. Keeping temperatures above 50 °F (10 °C) will help bacteria survive, and above 55–60 °F (13–16 °C) will keep them happy and fermenting. If you can’t change the environment itself, try a low-temperature ML bacteria strain. Lalvin 31 (see lallemandwine. com for product information) and

Temperatures much below 55 °F (13 °C) spell bad news for active MLF so try to keep your ferments warm until they are through both primary and secondary fermentation.

Photo by Dominick Profaci

Malolactic fermentations can be finicky and are greatly affected by the levels of pH, alcohol, sulfur dioxide, and the temperature.

low-temperature-tolerant strains like it should help through challenging conditions. Each strain should have a minimum temperature it will ferment at, so check manufacturer’s details. Want to warm up one or both of your carboys? Try wrapping an electric blanket around them on a very low setting. But be sure to monitor to make sure they don’t get too hot!

pH: In other parts of the winemaking world, especially colder areas where grapes get less sunlight during the growing season, low pH (high acidity) is frequently the anti-MLF culprit. Most bacteria just simply like to live in an environment with lower acidity levels (higher pH). Even though your pHs are both fine for red wine work, it is definitely possible your ML bacteria are just getting off to a slower start in the 3.56 environment. In situations where I’ve got a pH under 3.4 I use CHR Hansen Viniflora CH35, which is well suited to low pH and high total SO2 situations. It is especially helpful in years where you might add more SO2 at the crusher due to rot or Botrytis

Alcohol: Alcohol can degrade the delicate cell membrane of both yeast and bacteria, which is part of the reason that yeast cells decline and eventually die as the alcohol levels climb during primary fermentation. Alcohol levels much over 14.5% can be a challenge for yeast and ML bacteria alike, which is one of the reasons I always recommend adding sufficient water to bring your Brix into a safe fermentation level — under 25 °Brix if possible. If hydration isn’t your thing, Lalvin’s VP4 and PN4 products are both suited to high ethanol concentrations, 15.5% and 16% respectively. I’m not sure what your alcohol is right now, but since you can’t change it at this point, you’ve got to move other levers here in this situation.

SO2: High sulfur dioxide (free or total) can be damaging to malolactic bacteria. You can probably add up to 60 ppm SO2 to must or juice before fermentation and enough will get bound up so you will still be able to carry out an MLF a couple of weeks later when the wine is dry, but free SO2, especially when in finished wine with alcohol over 13%, is

extremely harmful to lactic acid bacteria. Did you put in a lot of sulfur dioxide as you crushed the grapes? The best way to avoid having high free SO2 in your wine being a barrier to MLF is to not add too much at the wrong times in the first place. Never add more than 60 ppm before primary fermentation (30–40 ppm is much more reasonable) and never add SO2 post-fermentation until MLF is complete, unless it just won’t go through after you’ve tried everything, at which point you should add SO2 to save what quality you have and move on.

Micronutrients: Sometimes, especially with over-ripe or rot-infected fruit, the must or juice will be low in micronutrients that ML bacteria need in order to thrive. If you anticipate MLF troubles, especially if you know you’re dealing with some of the adverse conditions I have already mentioned, it might be wise to invest in a dose of ML bacteria nutrition. They may seem expensive, but usually a tiny dose is all you need. These nutrients may be an item you want to buy together with your home winemaking club or group of winemaking buddies. That way you can buy a bigger package and save money and ensure that what you do buy will be used up by each of you.

Robust culture: For home winemakers I almost always recommend using a direct-add (i.e., freeze-dried and powdered) ML bacteria instead of the old-fashioned liquid cultures. With the direct-add powder there are just fewer ways human error can get in the mix. If you do use the freezedried culture, be sure that it has been stored appropriately, which most often is in the freezer. Don’t keep ML bacteria around for longer than a single harvest; be sure to buy new bacteria each year. Similarly, don’t use bacteria where the package has been open for a long time.

I’m not sure if you were looking for a primer on malolactic fermentation, but I’ve laid out a lot of information my winemaking veterans out there can use too. I think you’re going to be fine; 10 days is not very long into a malolactic fermentation, which, depending on ambient temperatures, can take many weeks or even a few months to complete.

QMY 2021 MERLOT ( I’M UP IN WASHINGTON STATE ) FINISHED OUT FERMENTATION WITH A p H OF 3.85. I ADDED SOME TARTARIC ACID ( ABOUT 0.5 g/L ) RIGHT BEFORE FERMENTATION, BUT THAT p H IS A LITTLE HIGHER THAN I’D WANT. IS IT OK TO ADD TARTARIC ACID AFTER FERMENTATION? ANY TIPS ON HOW TO DO IT SO I DON’T OVERDO IT?

CLAY JOHNSON LEAVENWORTH, WASHINGTON

AGreat topic and great questions. If you’ve read my columns over the years, you’re familiar with my mantra of acid being the “backbone” of wine, as well as the importance of having the correct pH for long-term aging. The higher the pH (lower acidity), the more spoilage organisms like Lactobacillus and Acetobacter can get a foothold and perhaps eventually spoil your wine. Additionally, having a higher acid level helps your free SO2 additions be more effective; the lower the acid level, the more SO2 you must add for a comparative efficacy. Post-malolactic

fermentation (MLF) I like to keep my red wines below 3.65 pH and my whites below 3.5. Oftentimes, as you know, the pH will creep back up after primary fermentation or, post-press, will be much higher than you anticipated, even with a pre-fermentation acid addition. This is extremely normal and happens even to professional winemakers (shhh, just don’t tell anyone!). Because post-primary fermentation pH is really hard to predict, tweaking that pH back down with a little tartaric acid can be just the ticket.

Here’s how to plan for and think about your post-fermen-

tation acid additions:

Add at the right time: While it’s always best to do “big moves” on wine chemistry as early as possible (this gives the wine time to adjust and integrate over time) by acidulating before you begin primary fermentation, it’s OK to adjust afterwards. I recommend doing this immediately after MLF has completed so you don’t give potential spoilage organisms a chance to get much of a foothold. Another reason not to wait: If you add acid right before bottling it can stick out style-wise like a sore thumb and will not taste like a natural, integrated part of the wine.

Do bench trials first: Ah, the Wine Wizard’s other mantra: “Do your bench trials, my children!” (How many years have you been hearing me say that?) Well, I repeat it so often because it’s so important. There’s nothing worse than trying to make a little tweak only to find that you’ve made your wine so tart it’s undrinkable. The solution is to do tiny trials using small, measured amounts of your wine as well as your additive. My favorite volume to work with is 50 mL of wine. Then you can either measure in dry powder (if you have a scale that goes down to units that small) or dose in little amounts of a 10% (10 g/100 mL) solution of tartaric acid until you get to a level that has the taste and balance you want.

If you’ve got a pH meter and can check what kind of final

WINE EDUCATION

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measurement that gives you, even better. If you’re serious about winemaking (or brewing, or kombucha, or cider, etc.) you’ll want to invest in a couple of micropipettes (Eppendorf is a classic brand, but there are other, cheaper options available. Micropipettes, which can measure out 5–100 or 100–1,000 microliters. Note that 1,000 microliters = 1 mL) to allow one the ability to run all sorts of bench trials on small amounts of wine and even smaller amounts of additives.

Another great benefit of acidulating after your wine is pressed is that you can measure out exactly how much you’ll need, an almost impossible task when your grapes are sitting on skins.

Re-check post-addition: After you make your tartaric addition (after your bench trials show you the indicated amount), make the addition, stir it into the wine completely, and re-check the pH and titratable acidity, or TA, (if you can) about 24–48 hours afterwards. This will help to ascertain if your addition was done correctly.

Keeping your acidity at appropriate levels (high enough, pHs low enough) after malolactic fermentation is complete is critical for proper wine health and aging. Not only will an appropriate acid level make sure spoilage bacteria have a harder time getting a foothold, it’ll make your wine taste more balanced and will make your free SO2 additions more effective. Best of luck with your wine!

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VARIETAL FOCUS

BY CHIK BRENNEMAN

CAYUGA WHITE Get hooked on its feeling

Spring has sprung, fall has fell, summer is here, and, well, it’s hotter than . . . well you get the picture. It’s called farming and in the world of grapes, we left out one season: Winter. As I write this article it’s spring here in California, but I am sitting in my office, high in the Sierra Nevada mountains watching it snow and really developing a kinship to my colleagues across the country that are challenged with these conditions on an annual basis. That is not to say that in California we do not have our share of viticultural challenges, but I have to say that these conditions make the grape grower a hardy person . . . just like the grape varieties they are growing. Some grapes are better than others for certain climates and it always seems like there is a new and better version on the horizon. A relatively old variety, by modern breeding standards, that is well known in the interspecific hybrid community gets our attention in this issue.

CAYUGA’S ORIGINS

The original cross that created Cayuga White (New York 33403, G.W. 3) was carried out in 1945, at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. The breeders were John Einset and W.B. Robinson. The two worked with a well-known grape breed pedigree Seyve-Villard 5-276, from the better-known Seyval line, and a lesser-known grape named Schuyler. Seyval has a genetic background consisting of several vinifera varieties, V. labrusca, as well as several non-labrusca American species. Schuyler, which was formally introduced two years later in 1947, is a cross between Zinfandel and Ontario. The latter being an early white American grape cross of Winchell and Moore’s Diamond. The fruit was first described in 1952 and was selected for

further trial, working its way to what is referred in the breeding world as a “25-vine trial” in 1964. The trial took place over the next eight years and the variety was formally released commercially in 1972. In the original paper, published that same year, the breeders described Cayuga White as a grape with a “complex origin and appears to be a blend of some of the most desirable characters of its progenitors.” At the time it was also classified as one of the most productive and disease-resistant varieties grown in New York.

IN THE VINEYARD

The vine is late-budding, vigorous, high-yielding, and rated as medium hardy (cold tolerance rating), depending on where it is grown. The late budding helps protect it from spring frosts, which is good because the secondary buds are not productive. Select your location carefully. Cold hardiness, in the scientific realm, refers to the grapevine tissue’s ability to survive cold temperatures during autumn and winter. It is defined as the temperature that causes mortality of 50% of the primary buds in mid-winter, or LT50 (LT stands for lethal temperature). The LT50 for Cayuga is -10 to -15 °F (-23 to -26 °C). A 50% bud kill can be catastrophic, but vines do gradually develop tolerance to low temperatures to reach a maximum tolerance level that is dependent on the variety, the environment, and cultural practices. A good review of cold hardiness and mitigation efforts can be found here: https://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/vitwine/ 2018/05/10/cold-hardiness/). Check with your local university extension programs for more specific information for your area.

Cayuga White is reported to be moderately susceptible to crown gall and downy mildew; and slightly susceptible to black rot, Botrytis bunch rot,

The late budding helps protect it from spring frosts, which is good because the secondary buds are not productive.

CAYUGA WHITE Yield 5 gallons (19 L)

INGREDIENTS

100 lbs. (45 kg) Cayuga White fruit or approximately 6 gallons (23 L) commercially available juice

Distilled water

10% potassium metabisulfite (KMBS) solution (Weigh 10 grams of KMBS, dissolve into about 75 milliliters (mL) of distilled water. When completely dissolved, make up to 100 mL total with distilled water.)

5 g Lallemand QA23 yeast

10 g Fermaid K (or equivalent yeast nutrient)

5 g Diammonium phosphate (DAP)

Malolactic fermentation starter culture (CHR Hansen or equivalent)

EQUIPMENT

5-gallon (19-L) carboy

6-gallon (23-L) carboy

6-gallon (23-L) plastic bucket

Airlock/stopper

Racking hoses

Equipment cleaning and sanitizing agents (Bio-Clean, Bio-San)

Inert gas (nitrogen, argon, or carbon dioxide will do)

Refrigerator (~45 °F/7 °C) to cold settle the juice. Remove the shelves so that the bucket will fit

Ability to maintain a fermentation temperature of 55 °F (13 °C)

Thermometer capable of measuring between 40–110 °F (4–43 °C)

Pipettes with the ability to add in increments of 1 mL

STEP BY STEP

1. Crush and press the grapes. Do not delay between crushing and pressing. Move the must directly to the press and press lightly to avoid extended contact with the skins and seeds.

2. Transfer the juice to a 6-gallon (23-L) bucket. During the transfer, add 16 milliliters of 10% KMBS solution. (This addition is the equivalent of 40 ppm SO2.) Move the juice to the refrigerator.

3. Let the juice settle at least overnight. Layer the headspace with inert gas and keep covered.

4. When sufficiently settled, rack the juice off of the solids into the 6-gallon (23-L) carboy. Add Fermaid K.

5. Prepare yeast. Heat about 50 mL distilled water to 104 °F (40 °C). Do

not exceed this temperature as you will kill the yeast. Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the heated water and gently mix so that no clumps exist. Let sit for 15 minutes undisturbed. Measure the temperature of the yeast suspension. Measure the temperature of the juice. You do not want to add the yeast to your cool juice if the temperature difference exceeds 15 °F (8.3 °C). Acclimate your yeast by taking about 10 mL of the cold juice and adding it to the yeast suspension. Wait 15 minutes and measure the temperature again. Do this until you are within the specified temperature range. When the yeast is ready, add it to the carboy.

6. Initiate the fermentation at room temperature ~(65–68 °F/18–20 °C) and once fermentation is noticed, (~24 hours) move to a location where the temperature can be maintained at 55 °F (13 °C). If your fridge is too cold (colder than 55 °F/13 °C), consider placing the carboy in a water bath and add ice as needed while monitoring the temperature.

7. Two days after fermentation starts, dissolve the DAP in as little distilled water required to completely dissolve into solution (usually ~20 mL). Add directly to the carboy.

8. Normally you would monitor the progress of the fermentation by measuring Brix. One of the biggest problems with making white wine at home is maintaining a clean fermentation. Entering the carboy to measure the sugar is a prime way to infect the fermentation with undesirable microbes. So at this point, the presence of noticeable fermentation is good enough. Sanitize anything in contact with the juice.

9. Leave alone until bubbles in the airlock are ticking at about one bubble per minute.

10. After about two to three weeks it is time to start measuring the sugar. Sanitize your thief; remove just enough liquid to use for your hydrometer. Record your results. If the Brix is greater than 7 °B wait another week before measuring. If the Brix is less than 7 °B; begin measuring every other day. Continue to measure the Brix every other day until you have

two readings in a row that are negative and about the same. This should be -1.5 °Brix or lower for a dry wine.

11. Taste the wine. If the wine is dry, rack to the five-gallon (19-L) carboy and control for headspace. Consider adding your malolactic bacteria if the acidity is very high. Depending on acidity levels, to either prevent MLF starting, stall MLF from going to completion, or once MLF is complete add 3 mL 10% KMBS solution per gallon (3.8 L) to begin stabilizing the wine. Lower the temperature to ~45 °F (7 °C).

12. Let the lees settle for about two weeks and stir them up. Repeat this every two weeks for eight weeks. This will be a total of four stirs. This is called the bâtonnage. You’re doing this to enhance the mouthfeel. This process is known as sur lie aging.

13. After the second stir, check the SO2 and adjust to 30–35 ppm free SO2 (see note later).

14. Let the lees settle after the final stir. At this point, the wine is going to be crystal clear or a little cloudy. If the wine is crystal clear, then that is great! If the wine is cloudy, then presumably, if you have kept up with the SO2 additions and adjustments, temperature control, kept a sanitary environment, and there are no visible signs of a refermentation, then this is most likely a protein haze. If you choose to, you can fine with bentonite to clarify.

15. While aging, test for SO2 and keep maintained at 30–35 ppm. Titratable acidity target is about 6.5 g/L. The pH target is around 3.4–3.5, but rely more on the TA as that is going to contribute to mouthfeel. You do not want an overly acidic (by mouth) wine.

16. Once the wine is cleared it is time to move it to the bottle. This would be about six months after the onset of fermentation. If all has gone well to this point, given the quantity made, it can probably be bottled without filtration. Your losses during filtration could be significant. That said, maintain sanitary conditions while bottling and you should have a fine example of a clean, creamy, dry Cayuga White wine. Enjoy!

and powdery mildew. It is highly susceptible to anthracnose and slightly susceptible to Phomopsis cane and leaf spot. This cultivar is listed as having low sensitivity to sulfur but somewhat sensitive to injury from copper when applied under cool, slow-drying conditions. It is somewhat susceptible to injuries from 2,4-D and dicamba.

Where is Cayuga White grown? Being a firm believer of growing the right variety in the right place, you will find it fairly popular across the eastern United States. In New York you will find it planted on the slopes above Seneca and its namesake Cayuga Lakes in the Finger Lakes region. Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Nebraska report Cayuga as being grown within their borders. It is found elsewhere in the Midwest, but its cold hardiness limits its growing possibilities and there are several other great cold-hardy varieties coming out of the University of Minnesota to replace it that work better in those climates. The 2011 Wisconsin Viticultural survey reports that while not a major variety there, there was an active phase of removing some Cayuga vineyards.

Viticulturally, its high yields need to be managed so the vine ripens optimally for your region. The clusters are me-

dium to large and medium compact. Average cluster weight is about a half a pound (230 g). One report from a trial in Oregon listed a yield of 13 tons per acre. The author’s conclusion suggests undertaking a “green-harvest” to reduce the crop load to help distribute the vine’s energy amongst fewer clusters. While winemakers think the lowest yields produce the best grapes, the grape grower deserves some respect in that they need to make some money. Again, your local extension specialists can assist with this practice. Green harvest is practiced in all winemaking regions of the world when the growing seasons can be cut short by an early fall.

IN THE WINERY

The grape is extremely versatile in that wines can be made dry, semi-sweet, and even sparkling. The drier white versions even blend well into oak. The general classification of its varietal wines is of having medium body and good balance. But to make wines from Cayuga, you need to look at your harvest conditions. Harvest levels of 17–19 °Brix are well regarded for producing dry wines with some fruity character and possibly higher acidity. The acidity can be balanced with the back addition of sugar in the form of grape concentrate or juice, which

The grape is extremely versatile in that wines can be made dry, semi-sweet, and even sparkling.

can enhance not only the sweetness but also the wine’s fruit character.

Cayuga White grapes fermented dry can be made into sparkling wine and over time take on those yeasty, nutty characteristics lovers of bubbles appreciate when properly aged on the lees. But when left on the vine too long, Cayuga, like many of its relatives, can take on some of the strong hybrid aromas as a result of its labrusca heritage. In another report, it was listed as “hanging well” two to four weeks after normal harvest numbers of 17–19 °Brix. So it should do well as a later harvest wine but be aware of the appearance of the American “foxy” characteristic.

It is a variety that pairs well with food. There is a bevy of possible dishes to pair with based on the residual sugar, acidity structure, and overall fruitiness of the wine you have on hand. These wines are typically not age worthy (unless you’re aging on the lees) so taking advantage of its rich pairing possibilities when young is paramount. Going to a clambake? Take a bottle or two of dry Cayuga. In general, most seafood works well with this varietal. My preference is for higher acidity wines to accompany fish similar to the traditions of Muscadet and the fare of the lower Loire River. While most Cayuga is made in these dry styles, the sweeter versions match well with glazed ham or baked chicken. Finish the evening with a sparkling version and your cheese plate!

The snow is abating somewhat, but I still feel the connection with my colleagues. I heard reports of cold weather in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania. My placement in the cold of this weekend was strictly my choice. The place you choose to grow grapes may not be an option. But you are now provided with a bevy of information regarding this “old” hybrid variety to help determine what’s right for you. The popularity and relative longevity of Cayuga makes it an optimal variety, as there is plenty of advice from folks that have worked with this grape for decades. But stay on top of the latest research and information and do what you do best. Make the highest quality wine you can! Because if you are not going to make good wine, why bother?

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by Maureen Macdonald

istorically, people have made wine from any ingredients they can find that will ferment. What most likely started as wild foraged fruits, vegetables, herbs, and honey, gradually evolved with civilization to commercially produced agricultural products. These commercially grown fruits have even further evolved in the modern era to pasteurized juices and concentrates that are easily sourced and shipped to any home winemaker to create a consistent and tasty homemade wine. Homebrewing and winemaking have transitioned from an ancient technology to a modern art with the resurgence of interest in DIY and homesteading practices. Sometimes referred to as “country” wines, non-grape fruit-based wines have traditionally been a smallbatch, relatively unknown product, staying in the cellars of their home creators or as special projects in commercial wineries located outside of traditional wine regions. In recent years, the popularity and interest in these fruit-based wines has increased and become less of a novelty and more of a well-respected winemaking product.

Perhaps the unique qualities of fruit-based wines have been overlooked and may have not only earned their own spotlight, but also may be a key ingredient in successful grapebased wines as well. Here we will present the possibilities of fruit and grape wine blending, examine the benefits and challenges of the practice, and look at specific case examples of its delicious success.

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

Grapes have historically been the most popular ingredient in winemaking. Grapes naturally contain a high sugar level and acid content that is conducive to producing a balanced and palate-pleasing product. Unfortunately, any seasoned home winemaker can attest that not all grapes are created equal, and some may be lacking upon fermentation. Some wines, for one reason or another, lack strong fruit flavor and character. Perhaps the fermentation got too hot, perhaps heavy rains prior to picking diluted the grape phenolic content, perhaps a new yeast strain selection didn’t provide the desired character that the winemaker had envisioned. For any of these reasons and a myriad of others, a resulting wine may lack strong flavor or character. This may be an excellent opportunity to look to other fruit-based wines as blending components to improve the overall character and flavor of the grape wine. The possibilities of flavor combinations are endless when considering all of the options available.

A natural course of thinking when blending would be to select a nongrape wine that has the flavor you would like to enhance within the grape wine. An example could be cherry flavors in a Pinot Noir. If a Pinot Noir ferments too hot and fast, some of the fresh cherry flavors common to the variety may not manifest as such, instead coming across as cherry jam, cooked cherries, or not at all. By blending in some cherry wine, a more dominant and fresh cherry character can be achieved. A similar example for white wines could be found in a Riesling. If a Riesling wine has a problematic hot fermentation or the grapes have a tough growing year, the resulting wine could lack some of the expected fruity characters of stone fruits and citrus. By blending in some apricot or peach wine, the vibrancy of fruit flavors can be increased in the Riesling, resulting in a more pleasing, fruit-forward wine for the drinker.

BLENDING CONSIDERATIONS

Sounds easy enough, right? Just take some delicious fruit wine and blend it into a less desirable grape wine

and get something delicious. As any winemaker knows, it is never that simple. There are some wine chemistry aspects that should be considered and evaluated before any blending begins. Most notably, consider the sugar and acid makeup of the fruit wine.

When selecting your raw ingredients, be sure to use quality fruit or juice from a reputable vendor. After processing, take careful measurements of the sugar and acid content of the juice or must material. Fruit wines often need a significant amount of chaptalization (added sugar) to achieve an alcohol content that will adequately preserve the wine from spoilage. The acid content of other fruits is also very different from the acid content of grapes. While tartaric acid is the dominant acid in grapes, this is not true for other fruits. Berries and citrus fruits have much higher levels of citric acid and apples and pears have higher levels of malic acid than traditional grape musts. A good starting point for an inexperienced fruit winemaker may be to follow a successful fruit wine recipe from a trusted source such as Jack Keller or WineMaker magazine. There are many fruit winemaking forums online as well as articles on WineMaker’s webpage that will offer important information and tips to making a successful first batch of non-grape wine. Even an experienced grape winemaker should do some thoughtful research into the different chemical composition of the new variety of fruit to be fermented.

It is recommended that the fruit wine is balanced in its flavor before blending it into a grape wine. If the fruit wine is too acidic tasting, this astringency will manifest in the grape wine as well. That said, part of the magic of blending can be finding balance by combining wines that are a bit out of balance that complement each other. This is not the same as blending faulted wine with the hope that it will magically no longer be faulted after blending. Most experienced winemakers will agree that if you blend even a small percentage of a bad wine into a good wine, the bad wine

will somehow still manage to dominate the flavor profile of the newly blended wine.

Some fruit wines, such as apple, lack a strong acid content. An addition of acid blend (pre-mixed tartaric, malic, and citric acids) can bring up the acidity of fruit wine and help with its stability, flavor, and preservation. A properly balanced apple wine could give excellent fruit character to a lackluster Chardonnay or Cayuga White. Any adjustments to a wine pre- or post-fermentation should always be carefully evaluated in bench trials to give physical evidence of a positive change in the wine with the desired adjustment. With grape as well as non-grape wines, always keep in mind that blending two stable wines together may result in an unforeseen instability, such as tartaric stability or protein instability.

In my professional winemaking experience I have made and contributed to a few wines that are interesting examples of blending fruit and grape wines. There are two varietals that I have blended in different proportions to create two very different styled wines: Petite Sirah and blackberry wine. Petite Sirah naturally can have strong blackberry flavors after fermentation. I did have a vintage that had a difficult growing year and after a controlled, healthy fermentation, lacked the vibrant fruit character of previous vintages of this wine. After trying numerous fruit enhancing tannins in bench trials, I was still not greatly impressed with the results. Luckily, I had a smaller batch of blackberry wine in the winery that was of excellent varietal character. It was boldly fruity and flavorful, with a reasonable pH of 3.65. In my experience, blackberry and raspberry wines are an excellent choice for a beginner fruit winemaker as they retain their dominant flavors and colors after fermentation. Obtaining these qualities can present a challenge with many other fruit varieties. After a few bench trials to see which percentage of blackberry wine would enhance the fruit character of the Petite Sirah, I found that a 5% addition brought out the fruit character I was looking for.

Even a small fruit wine addition can greatly enhance a grape wine that lacks a characteristic fruitiness, such as blending some blackberry wine with a lackluster Petite Sirah.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

This small addition of the blackberry wine significantly revived the lacking Petite Sirah and created a wonderfully fruity, full-bodied red wine and in some respects saved the vintage.

I found this blend to work favorably in another wine in the portfolio as well. The first batch of blackberry juice that I fermented came out beautifully from a sensory and chemistry standpoint. The acidity numbers were great at 9 g/L and a pH of 3.78 after fermentation. The wine was rich in flavor and color and had a bright acidity to the finish that was very enjoyable due to the high levels of citric acid in blackberries. I decided to make this wine into a fortified style to really embrace the rich blackberry flavor. While I was content with the flavor and color, the mouthfeel was decidedly lacking. I make Petite Sirah every year in abundance, and it was the wine in my winery with the highest natural tannin content and the roundest, most lush mouthfeel. Again, bench trials lead me to a harmonious blend of a 10% Petite Sirah addition to the blackberry wine, which added enough tannin to create the rounder, fuller mouthfeel that I desired in the fortified wine.

When conducting bench trials with fruit wines and red grape wines, the vintner does need to take some cautionary steps to preserve the integrity of the wines they are blending. If a red grape wine has undergone malolactic fermentation and still has live, active bacterial cultures within the wine then it can cause the malolactic fermentation to continue in the fruit-based wine that it is introduced to. This would also be true for a Chardonnay that has undergone malolactic fermentation and is then introduced to a fruit wine. Due to the usually higher levels of malic and citric acid in fruit wines, the malolactic bacteria can dramatically alter the fruit wine, with potentially disastrous results. The metabolization of malic acid into lactic acid in fruit wines could result in a very flabby wine with diminished fruit character. The potential metabolization of citric acid in a fruit wine could lead to a development of volatile acidity or diacetyl,

a wine fault that displays unwanted flavors of butter or buttered popcorn. A simple way to stabilize the wines and help to eliminate an accidental bacterial fermentation of the fruit wine acid would be to utilize a product such as Stab Micro by Enartis. The product will kill both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria found in the wine and when used in conjunction with proper sulfite levels and additions, can provide the winemaker with a stable blending product.

BLENDING AT TAYLOR BROOKE FARM WINERY

Aside from my own experience blending fruit and grape wines, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with Nikki Auger, Owner and Winemaker of Taylor Brooke Farm Winery in Woodstock, Connecticut. Taylor Brooke Winery was founded in 2004 by Dick and Linda Auger. Nikki joined the family business in 2016, learning the family recipes and winemaking practices from her father. She carries on his talents and legacy today managing 7.5 acres where seven grape varieties are grown. As the Field Manager and Head Vintner, she is very busy creating a large and diverse portfolio of vinifera, hybrid, and fruit wines. In recent years, she has launched some very successful new wines in the portfolio that are blends of grape and fruit wines, or co-ferments of grapes with other fruits.

Petite Veraison is a sparkling apple cider that is fermented on red wine grape skins. In two various vintages, Nikki has used both vinifera (Petite Sirah) and hybrid (Corot Noir) grape skins in the fermentation of locally grown and pressed apple cider. Auger sources a specialty blend of more dessert style apples to get a pressed cider with a higher pH value than typical cider blends. She prefers a less tart cider in anticipation that it will blend with hybrid grapes of stronger acidity levels. For the 2021 vintage, Corot Noir skins were reserved after pressing, vacuum-sealed in bags, and kept under very cold refrigeration until it was time to ferment the cider. The primary fermentation of the Corot Noir did utilize a separate strain of

Saccharomyces and malolactic cultures. Auger has had success with the refrigeration technique to arrest any fermentation or oxidation of the skins until they are ready for their next use.

When the apple juice is ready, the skins are placed at the bottom of a large macro bin and the apple juice is poured on top and the yeast set. She creates a very strong healthy yeast starter culture and utilizes a yeast nutrition program to ensure the yeast she has selected for the cider fermentation dominates over any remaining Saccharomyces cells within the Corot Noir pomace.

After fermenting to dryness, Nikki presses off the cider and stabilizes quickly with sulfites and Stab Micro to stave off any malolactic activity. Coarse filtration soon follows to further lend stability to the young cider. At this stage, the cider is deep ruby in color with luscious apple flavor but lacking in body and acidity. Auger blends in a small amount of Corot Noir rosé, made from the same vintage, bled off via the saignée method during the primary fermentation. The rosé lends additional mouthfeel and subtle tannin to the cider blend as well as the acid necessary to create a balanced product. After aging and clarification filtering, the resulting product is force carbonated and bottled for sale at their winery and brewery.

The 2020 vintage of this cider was fermented on Petite Sirah skins, giving it a deeper magenta hue than the Corot Noir vintage, which retained more of a ruby tone. It greets the drinker with luscious berry and apple flavors and has excellent bubble retention. While the wine is boldly fruity with refreshing apple character, it does have the drying character and tannic mouthfeel from the contribution of Petite Sirah skins. The acids and tannins give it excellent palate clearing attributes and a refreshing quality.

Not all blending projects go as smoothly, and Auger was candid about some of the more challenging fruit and grape blending that she has accomplished. One of the most popular wines in her portfolio is a Cranberry Riesling. The wine is a gorgeous

bright ruby with overt, bold cranberry character. To achieve this blend, Auger starts with fresh Riesling juice from Lodi, California. She prefers this growing region for her Riesling as it generates a lower acidity wine upon fermentation. She prefers the higher pH to that of an East Coast Riesling, which due to a cooler growing climate may have significantly higher levels of acid.

She ferments fresh cranberries separately as well. The crushing and pressing process is significantly more laborious than grapes due to the hard flesh of the cranberries. The fresh pressed cranberry juice can have pH levels as low as 2.6 with acidity counts as high as 77 g/L. Nikki will lower the acidity as much as possible using potassium bicarbonate to get a fermentable pH ideally above 2.9. The primary acid within cranberries is citric acid, so the acidity is challenging to adjust as the bicarbonate reacts with the tartaric acid components of the cranberry juice. She relies on pH more than the total acidity counts for the cranberry wine to account for the varying acids. The fermentation is typically long and slow due to the high acidity. In her experience, fermenting the cranberry juice to dryness results in a wine that lacks cranberry flavor and is more tart than anything else. By stopping the fermentation early with approximately 5 °Brix remaining, she can retain more of the cranberry flavor and character that she desires in the resulting blend.

Once the cranberry and Riesling wines are stabilized and clarified independently, they will then be blended in a proprietary ratio, along with a small amount of Corot Noir rosé, to create the Cranberry Riesling.

With a core base of tried-and-true family recipes and new, avant-garde methods and techniques, Nikki is redefining East Coast winemaking. Utilizing a wide array of grapes, both homegrown hybrids as well as purchased vinifera grapes from other regions, and now various fruits, she uses every quality ingredient available to her to create complex and unique wines. Both the Petite Veraison and the Cranberry Riesling sell very well

on premise. When discussing modern trends in the consumption and craft of wine beverages, Auger thinks that the younger generations are having more of an impact on sales. Younger drinkers enjoy new ideas and combinations and are less concerned with historical winemaking standards and profiles. With the rise of popularity of ciders and flavored seltzers, it is not surprising that the bold fruit flavors of the Petite Veraison finds a niche with younger drinkers.

“That’s how we are making wine on the East Coast, thinking outside of the box and outside the historical standard,” states Auger. “With climate change, we may have to adapt and change our winemaking practices and ingredients.”

This statement rings true for many winemakers who chose to grow grapes in non-traditional growing regions. Weather patterns continue to shift every year, and over time, certain grape crops might not perform as they once had. Exploring other fruit crops for winemaking may make more environmental and economic sense as time marches on.

Many varieties of fruits have been utilized since the dawn of winemaking to create tasty beverages. While grapes rose to prominence in winemaking — regarded for their chemistry to make the “benchmark” wines we have all embraced — as tradition, modern curiosity, climate change, and ingenuity have led to a revaluation of other fruit wines and their place in winemaking. When used in blend post maturation or in the primary fermentation, we can see the myriad of possibilities and combinations that can develop a whole new style of wines. And there may be no better place for this continued experimentation than on the home winemaking scale!

Related Link:

• Blending two wines to create a new wine better than its parts is the goal, but it isn’t something to do on a whim. Learn how to conduct bench trials to get your blends right every time: https://winemakermag.com/ technique/performing-bench-trials

WHITE WINE CASE STUDY

A winemaker’s review of a challenging vintage

by Phil Plummer

Winemaking isn’t brain surgery, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy either. Even in the most picture-perfect growing seasons, challenges arise that force a winemaker into tough, on-the-fly decisions that can make or break a wine in a matter of moments. There’s no time to ruminate; action must be taken, and this action can change the trajectory of the wine, for better or worse. Often, these decisions mean the difference between good wine and great wine; in the most dire of cases, they mean the difference between wine and vinegar. We’re well acquainted with this idea here in New York’s Finger Lakes region. Our cool, damp climate presents a host of challenges that can be maddening to even the most seasoned cellar rats. But if you’re a Riesling fan, and I most certainly am, there’s no better place to ply your trade. Using a Riesling wine I made this past harvest, grown in some of the toughest of conditions we’ve faced and causing a lot of on-the-fly decisions, I’ll share a case study of one particularly pesky wine, the decisions I faced, and remedies I threw at it. While the challenges you’ll face sooner or later may be similar or entirely unique to my own situation, I hope that this insight gets everybody thinking about what can happen, and how to approach challenges when they arise.

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

Riesling didn’t bring me to the Finger Lakes wine region, but it set its hooks over the last 12 years. This grape’s unmatched versatility and food-friendliness are a dream for any young winemaker looking to forge their own path.

In my short career as a professional winemaker, I have had the opportunity to produce just about every style of Riesling I could imagine; bone dry to late-harvest sweet, skin-fermented to sparkling — I’ve tried every style I could get away with in my pursuit of understanding this noble grape. Well, every style except one. Until 2021, there was one traditional iteration of Riesling I had yet to attempt: Süssreserve.

SÜSSRESERVE

Popularized in Germany, süssreserve (translated to “sweet reserve”) is a winemaking technique in which unfermented juice is blended to a nearly finished fermentation to add sweetness and temper alcohol. It’s not uncommon to leave residual sugar in Riesling, in fact it’s often necessary to balance its trademark acidity. Typically this is achieved by arresting the fermentation via chilling and/or filtration before it reaches full dryness. With süssreserve, however, the addition of unfermented juice at the end of fermentation delivers a more robust array of unfermented sugars and organic acids, having a unique effect on the sweetness, balance, and

aromatic complexity of the finished wine. The correlated drop in alcohol content further reinforces this shift to a fresher, livelier profile.

Süssreserve Rieslings had been on my radar since I first set off to pursue winemaking, but they re-entered my awareness with a Canadian example I encountered on a visit to the Niagara region in the winter of 2018. Its fresh fruit, balanced sweetness, and sprightly acidity occupied space in the forefront of my mind for months following that tasting. I knew that as soon as I had a chance, I needed to attempt one of my own. It would be a few years before that opportunity materialized, but in the months leading up to the 2021 harvest season, the pieces fi-

Exceptionally wet summers can cause all sorts of problems for vineyards including Botrytis bunch rot, seen here. The rot spreads quickly, forcing the hand of those involved in harvest decisions.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

nally appeared to be falling into place. The right fruit, resources, and strategy were all there. As I salivated over the vibrant, juicy Riesling that could be, Mother Nature stood by, ready to increase the degree of difficulty that laid ahead.

A TALE OF TWO VINTAGES

Viewed purely through a winemaking lens, 2020 in the Finger Lakes was about as picture-perfect as anybody could imagine; 2021, well . . . not so much. The 2021 growing season opened with plenty of promise — an unusually warm spring got us off to an excellent start. As spring turned to summer, however, consistent rain accelerated disease pressure. By the time

fall rolled in, things only got worse; as deluge rains split berries and bunch rots exploded in vineyards throughout the region. Given these conditions, you might expect a winemaker to play it safe and cut their losses, but I’ve never been one to do things the easy way. Tough vintages give you the opportunity to test your skills in the face of adversity, and I wasn’t about to let that opportunity slip away.

I understood that if I was to pull off a süssreserve Riesling that lived up to my expectations, I’d need to source the fruit from a vineyard that knew how to navigate a difficult year. Luckily, I had just the farm. Airy Acres Vineyard on the west side of Cayuga Lake is a relative newcomer as far as Finger Lakes grape growers go, but they’ve quickly become one of my favorite vineyards for Riesling. The Bassette family, who owns and manages the vineyard, takes an innovative and hands-on approach to growing premium fruit, and that meshes perfectly with my approach to winemaking. We started sourcing fruit from Airy Acres in 2018, a vintage with challenges that bore shocking resemblance to those we encountered in 2021. The Bassettes and I learned a lot about their farm’s potential in 2018 — even in a rough year, the Riesling we produced was so stunning that we opted to leave most of it as a single-vineyard reserve offering. In the vintages that followed, we learned how beautifully their Riesling held onto its acid — even in warm years — making it the perfect building block for wines with residual sugar.

Vigilance in the vineyard is critical in any winegrowing season, but it’s even more important in a difficult vintage. I generally start monitoring fruit development immediately post-veraison, walking the rows on a weekly basis until the fruit is harvested. In most years, I’m keeping close tabs on ripeness and cleanliness, making suggestions to the grower about projected harvest timelines and any proactive or reactive measures that may be taken to prevent or reduce any disease pressure that may arise. In years like 2021, there’s a sense of sacrifice attached to these visits; the

disease pressure is already there, so I’m left pondering how much more ripeness can be gained week-toweek and weighing that against the prospect of losing tonnage or quality should the disease become unmanageable. By the third week of October, I’d seen enough: Enough ripening to know I had something I could work with, enough Botrytis to know that the spread of rot was accelerating, and enough rain in the forecast to know that this was no time for indecision. It was go time.

PRESSED FOR TIME

The Riesling finally came off the vine on October 20. Due to the almost-universal labor shortage of the past year, we opted to sacrifice selectivity for speed and harvested the fruit mechanically. In a perfect world, hand-picking would give us an opportunity to sort rotten bunches at the vine, ensuring that we had the cleanest possible grapes to process, but if there was a theme to the 2021 harvest season, it was that we weren’t existing in a perfect world. We had to get this Riesling off the vine and onto our crush pad as quickly as possible.

When the fruit arrived, we started processing it right away. Harvest data was as follows: pH: 3.02, TA: 7.95 g/L, and 18.4 °Brix. It was crushed directly into a horizontal membrane press and treated with two different pectic enzymes: Scott Labs’ CinnFree and HC. In order to minimize the sensory impact of the bunch rot that was present, the press fractions were separated: Low-pressure juice (extracted under 0.75 bar of pressure) and high-pressure juice went to separate tanks for chilling and settling. The idea here being that more of the rot-driven flavors and aromas would be present in high-pressure juice; this would allow us to keep the low-pressure lot clean, while presenting an opportunity to assess and correct any flaws in the high-pressure lot. I’d use the light-pressure juice for my süssreserve fermentation and blend the high-pressure juice for other products. Though it may seem foolish given the condition of the fruit, I opted not to add any SO2 at pressing.

I employ several non-Saccharomyces yeasts in our Riesling fermentations, and they have notoriously weak sulfite tolerance. Adding SO2 at this stage might prevent wild fermentation, but it’d also limit my ability to push in the stylistic direction I wanted.

The Airy Acres lot wasn’t the first Riesling we harvested in 2021, but it was in very similar condition to the other lots we’d harvested previously. I had an idea of what to expect from cold settling: It would be problematic. The colloids contributed by ever-present Botrytis prevented juice and solids from separating as cleanly as I would have liked, so I opted to hold the juice at 35 °F (2 °C) for a whole week, hoping that extended settling time would increase my yield. When I proceeded to rack, however, these hopes were dashed; of 515 gallons (1,950 L), only

Chart 1:

Challenge

Heavy Disease Pressure in Vineyard

316 (1,200 L) were clear enough to ferment. This wasn’t going to work for me — I’m almost pathologically waste-averse, so I pumped as much of the remaining lees as possible into an IBC (intermediate bulk container) and tucked it into our walk-in cooler for a longer, more aggressive clarity enzyme treatment with Scott Labs’ heavy hitter: Spectrum.

FERMENT TO BE

Following settling, I allowed the little juice I was able to clarify on the first attempt to warm for two days prior to inoculation. The fermentation was initiated with Flavia, Lallemand’s preparation of Metschnikowia pulcherrima. Flavia is my preferred non-Saccharomyces yeast for most of our Riesling fermentations, as it amplifies the concentration of both thiol and terpene precursors while also

Possible Solutions

• Hyper vigilance (increased monitoring of fruit condition).

• Break vineyard contracts and wait out vintage.

• Allow nature to take its course and deal with the consequences.

producing glycerol, a textural component that is of great help in balancing acid. Non-Saccharomyces yeasts are great for getting fermentation started, but they’re not equipped to carry it for more than a few percent alcohol — for that I turned to my other favorite Riesling yeast: Anchor’s Exotics Mosaic.

After two days of fermentation with Flavia, the Riesling was inoculated with Mosaic. This unique hybrid Saccharomyces strain has quickly become one of my favorites across the board, but especially for Riesling. Mosaic reveals the rich tropical and stone fruit aromas present in Riesling, and can reliably be stopped by crashing the fermentation temperature — a very attractive attribute for leaving behind residual sugar. The fermentation was allowed to run cool and slow, proceeding for 19 days at 58 °F (14 °C)

Reason for Decision

We never like to leave our growers in a tough spot, so breaking contracts was off the table. Allowing nature to take its course would have been disastrous in every dimension. This was an easy call — hyper-vigilance allowed me to get a sense for how quickly we’d be able to get it off the vine and into production.

Lack of Options for Speedy

Hand-Harvesting

• Wait until a crew became available, and have them sort rot at the vine.

• Machine harvest ASAP.

While hand-picking would have allowed us to minimize the amount of rot included in our bins, waiting around for a hand-picking crew to materialize would have further jeopardized fruit quality.

Rotten Fruit Interspersed with Clean Fruit at Pressing

• Sort fruit at crush to exclude rotten berries.

• Press-fraction juice to segregate rot in heavy press fraction.

• Keep press fractions together and treat aggressively with fining agents and SO2.

Sorting at crush wasn’t an option, so press-fractioning was the next best thing. This allowed us to keep our low-pressure juice very clean and SO2free while we waited to evaluate the impact of rot in the heavy fraction.

Incomplete Settling of Juice Solids

• Discard juice lees and write it off as a loss.

• Lees filter juice lees.

• Set aside juice lees at low temperature and treat with more aggressive enzymes.

I wasn’t about to walk away from hundreds of gallons of lees without at least making an attempt to reclaim some of them. Lees filtration is timeand labor-intensive, so it wasn’t the right choice here, either.

Challenges presented during the 2021 production of süssreserve Riesling

before the Brix fell below zero.

In the time it took for the clarified juice to ferment, I’d decided that my reclaimed juice lees were just the piece I needed for my süss addition. After a few weeks and several additions of Spectrum, I managed to clarify a substantial portion of the muck that I’d set aside at the initial juice racking; when the fermentation fell below 0 °Brix, I blended in enough juice to increase the overall volume by 20%, driving the sugar up to 4.4 °Brix. Following this addition, I allowed the fermentation to proceed overnight in hope of reinvigorating some esters before crashing the tank temperature the next afternoon; in that time the sugar reading had fallen to 3.9 °Brix. The wine was held at 35 °F (2 °C) for two days and was subsequently racked and centrifuged to remove any remaining yeast. The finished product was cold stabilized and sterile filtered, landing at 41.64 g/L residual sugar and 8.8% ABV.

WAS THE SÜSS WORTH THE FUSS?

At the time of this writing, our 2021 süssreserve Riesling is awaiting bottling. It’s destined to become part of a new series of wines introduced under our Montezuma Winery brand last year: Voleur. French for “thief,” Voleur wines are my love letters to the wine regions and winemaking traditions that made me choose this crazy profession in the first place. These are wines with big personalities and stories to tell, and boy does this Riesling have a story.

Set in one of the world’s great Riesling regions during one of said region’s tougher vintages, it’s got Old World inspiration, New World innovation, and a cast of characters that range from forward-thinking farmers to a scrappy winemaking team that sometimes bites off a little more than it can chew. There’s anticipation, plot twists, narrowly avoided heartbreak, and, most of all, triumph. I’ve done my best to tell that story here, but by the time this article is published it’ll be more than ready to speak for itself. I’d highly recommend you track down a bottle and hear it out.

Sorting out rotten grapes is the best option for home winemakers; however, if that is not an option, then the next best solution may be to separate press fractions, as the juice yielded at low pressures will contain much less negative contributions from the rot compared to the heavy press fraction.

Photo by Dominick Profaci

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Creating citrus-fl avored liqueur at home

by Bob Peak

Limoncello is the most popular citrus-flavored liqueur, but they can be made from other fruits as well. Today we will take a look at my recent production of four di erent kinds of citrus liqueur that I am calling the four ‘cellos: Limoncello, limecello, arancello, and mandarincello.

Citrus trees can thrive in Sonoma County, California, where I live. Indeed, the city of Cloverdale at the north end of the county has an annual Citrus Fair complete with carnival rides and a wine tasting. Commercial growing is rare here, though, because most of the county experiences freezing temperatures every winter that make citrus risky as a cash crop. It’s left to home hobbyists who grow fruit for themselves, friends, and neighbors. Before she passed away several years ago, my mother had friends all around Petaluma (where she lived in our granny unit) who had lemon trees — it seems to be the most popular local citrus and does very well. When a heavy crop would come in, her friends would give Mom bags of lemons and she would try to use them up. She turned to me for assistance on one project she came up with: Limoncello.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIMONCELLO

Sweet, very aromatic, and smoothly spirited, limoncello (also sometimes spelled lemoncello) originated in Italy. It is usually presented in small glasses after dinner and served very cold. There are many stories of its origin, most dating to about 1900 but some claiming that it is an ancient monastic liqueur. Since I was introduced to it by a grandmother living in what might be considered a guest house (my mother in her granny unit), I like the origin story told by the Federvini — the Italian federation that unites producers and export/import companies involved in wine, liquor, and related products. Their story is that Signora Maria Antonia

Farace was living in a guest house on Isola Azzurra around the turn of the last century. She tended a garden of lemon trees and treated guests to her homemade lemon liqueur: Limoncello. Her grandson later used her recipe to produce and serve limoncello in his restaurant and bar, then his son in turn went into the commercial production of it. You can read the Feder-

vini story in Italian and the automated English translation is pretty good: https://www.federvini.it/trend-cat/ 215-breve-storia-del-limoncello

While limoncello dominates the citrus segment of liqueur shelves, other flavors are commercially available. Limoncello with an “i” reflects the Italian word for lemon, limone. Similarly, the related orange-flavored liqueur is called arancello, from arancia, meaning orange (the fruit). Some non-Italian brands and some home recipes call it orangecello, but I stayed with the Italian for mine. Italians use two words for lime fruit, limetta and lime. In using limecello, I named mine in both English and Italian. Mandarino is the Italian word for mandarin fruit, so mandarincello works fine for the name. I chose these four fruits because I grow them along the driveway in my front yard. Specifically, I used Lisbon lemons, navel oranges, Bearss limes, and Satsuma mandarins.

I planted my little citrus grove about eight years ago and it had been longer than that since I last made limoncello. Pompelmocello is a grapefruit version of the liqueur, but I don’t

grow grapefruit. The same process could be followed if you like the flavor of grapefruits.

TIPS FOR MAKING ‘CELLOS

There are many recipes for the main version, limoncello, whether homemade or commercial. It is usually made using lemon zest, the outer layer of the peel without any pith. The zest is infused in grain alcohol or other neutral spirits and the liqueur is finished with a simple syrup made of sugar and water. Most versions come in at about 30% alcohol by volume (ABV). My mother’s recipe was one she found in the San Francisco Chronicle food section. Getting it out again and reviewing it, I decided to make a few changes. As written, the recipe used 100 proof (50% ABV) vodka for the zest infusion and aged the limoncello in bulk for 80 days. With liquor availability varying in different states and countries, I decided to rework the recipe with more common 80 proof (40% ABV) vodka instead, with the final ABV target unchanged at about 56 proof (28%). This was my first time making ‘cellos without Mom’s help, but I have previously made infusions of fruits and spices to make aperitifs and to flavor homebrews. The 80-day infusion period seemed much longer than necessary, so I shortened it to four weeks. Each batch of my recipe makes about 3.5 L (just under a gallon) of liqueur. If you are calculating gift-giving, that is enough for 14 of those square 250-mL flint (clear) bottles that your home wine supply shop probably sells, or about nine conventional 375-mL wine bottles. I used screw-cap 375’s for mine, but T-tops in cork-finish bottles should work fine, too.

Before getting to the tasting notes, I’ll touch on some process tips that may help you use my recipe (on page 39). I used 1-gallon (3.8-L) wide mouth mason jars for this project. I only made half batches because I would be producing a lot of liqueur for just my wife, Marty, and I. As a result, pictures of my progress show the jars only half as full as they will be if you make the full batch size. To peel the fruit without getting any pith, I tried

Photo by Bob Peak

two different peelers. The pull-type potato peeler worked very well for me and I preferred it to the sideways push type. It was easy to remove just the outer layer of citrus skin and leave the pith on the fruit. Since my recipe uses no juice or pulp, you may reserve the peeled fruit for another recipe.

I wanted to use a neutral-tasting vodka, which means I stayed away from expensive imports that are well known for being flavorful. I chose Skyy vodka, but any well-filtered and low-flavored vodka will work well. I picked all of my fruit on the same day. A full batch requires 16 to 18 small fruits like limes or mandarins, about 15 average size lemons, 7 or 8 oranges, or three or four grapefruits. As the peel made contact with the vodka, the orange and lime showed some color within minutes. As you can see from the picture on page 36, only the lemon ultimately showed a bright hue, yellow with hints of green. The others surprised me by turning out mostly pale yellow-green. The lack of green in the limecello is at least partly due to the fact that the limes were ripe when I picked them. Bearss limes turn yellow at full ripeness, although they are typically picked while green to meet the visual expectations of the consumer. The flavor is unchanged as the color develops.

The amount of sugar for the simple syrup dissolved easily when brought to a boil with the specified water. I used RO water because I have a reverse osmosis system (that I also use when I brew beer). Any clean, good-tasting water will be fine.

Citrus fruits have a long history of cultivation and crossbreeding. That results in many similarities of aromas and flavors. Limonene, chemically a monoterpene, is the most prominent aroma compound in citrus peels of all kinds. Like limoncello, it takes its name from the Italian limone. Citrus peel waste is used as a commercial source for the extraction of limonene to be used as a flavoring agent in other foods. It is also used as a more fragrant alternative to turpentine in paint and varnish cleanup. The shared characteristics of citrus have come about through extensive crossbreeding and

The citrus bounty I picked for ‘cello production from my trees.

The citrus flavor in these ‘cello recipes comes from the zest of the fruits, which can be peeled off while avoiding the bitter white pith.

Photo by Bob Peak

Photo by Bob Peak

hybridization of the plants since ancient times. Domestication of the genus Citrus began in tropical Asia and nearby Pacific islands, spread over centuries by canoe to the other Pacific areas and by ancient trade routes into the Mediterranean. Eventually various species and hybrids became distributed throughout the warmer parts of Europe and then on to the Americas. With hundreds of citrus fruit cultivars today, the earliest fundamental species are considered to be citrons (Citrus medica), pomelos (C. maxima), and mandarins (C. reticulata). All the other lemons, limes, oranges, and so forth owe some of their origin to these. By the time of ancient Rome, botanists were describing citrus cultivation in the Roman empire and carbonized citrus seeds are among the relics of Pompeii.

THE CITRUS FRUITS

For our tasting of the finished ‘cellos, I took note of the particular citrus I am growing. Lisbon lemon is one of just a few lemon varieties (C. limon) that is generally considered a true lemon. (Meyer lemon, for instance, is classified as a cross between a citron and a Mandarin/pomelo hybrid). Fruit names such as lemon, lime, or tangerine refer to culinary use, flavor, and appearance of citrus fruits, but not necessarily to the species or hybrid. Lisbon lemons have a medium-thick skin that is rich in essential

oils, making it a good candidate for limoncello. The flesh is nearly seedless, produces lots of juice, and has very traditional “lemon” flavor without much sweetness.

Bearss lime, also called Persian lime, is a triploid (3-parent) cross between lemon (C. limon) and the key lime (Citrus x aurantifolia). Other varieties are sometimes sold as “limes,” but Persian lime is most common. My limes had mostly turned yellow by the day I picked them, although I went for the greenest ones I could find on the tree. Persian limes have thicker skins and less bitterness than key limes, making them suitable for limecello, but they also have less intense citrus aromatics.

The C. sinensis group of fruits is commonly referred to as the sweet oranges. The group includes Navel oranges, like the ones I used for my arancello, and blood oranges (which I also grow but didn’t have any mature ones on the tree at the time of this project). Navel orange fruit is seedless with a thick, bright orange skin. The fleshy pulp is sweet with moderate acidity and the zest is aromatic with traditional orange scent. The name is derived from the navel-like feature opposite the stem end — it lets you know you have a seedless orange in your hand. (The structure is actually an undeveloped twin fruit arising from a genetic mutation in Navel oranges.)

The Satsuma mandarin (C. un-

shiu) is said to have originated in either China or Japan. (Satsuma was a province in Japan before 1871.) These mandarins are sometimes called Satsuma oranges or tangerines. Its genetic origin indicates it to be a highly inbred mandarin-pomelo hybrid. One of the sweetest citrus fruits, it is usually seedless and the loose skin makes it easy to peel. For my project, that loose skin also made it a bit difficult to zest with a vegetable peeler as the skin tended to bunch up. The trees are considered among the most cold-tolerant of the citruses. The flesh is orange with mild acidity. The skin has characteristic tangerine-like aroma.

TASTING THE ‘CELLOS

When all four ‘cellos were finished, I organized a tasting. Marty and I invited two younger adults with whom we have spent time during the pandemic, McLean Ketchum and Clayton Carter. I printed paper placemats with spots for four wine glasses and room to write notes directly on the mat. I poured about an ounce (30 mL) of each liqueur into each glass. We swirled, sniffed, sipped and discussed limoncello, limecello, arancello, and mandarincello in that order. As each taster recorded their own comments, I took notes on the general conversation. All four liqueurs had the same alcohol and sugar content, although we noted some apparent differences in the tasting. Although they would ordinarily be

Cover the citrus zest with vodka for two weeks prior to adding the sugar syrup and additional vodka.

Boil sugar and water five minutes to make a sugar syrup solution.

Photos by Bob Peak

Bob’s Citrus ‘Cello Recipe

Makes about 3.5 L (3.7 qts. or 15 cups)

Ingredients

~4 lbs. (1.8 kg) fresh citrus fruits (this is about 15 lemons, for reference)

2-L (2.2-qts.) neutral-tasting vodka (80 proof/40% ABV)

4½ c (~2 lbs./910 g) granulated white sugar

3¾ c (900-mL) water

Step by Step

1. Wash the fruit and let dry. Over a medium-size bowl, remove the peel with a peeler or sharp paring knife. You want the colored zest of the fruit, but not the bitter white pith from underneath it. If you happen to get some pithy peel, scrape the pith off with a knife before adding the peel to your bowl.

2. Transfer the peel to a 1-gallon (3.8-L) glass Mason jar. Add 1-L (1.1-qts.) of vodka. Stir, cover the jar, and set aside in a dark cabinet at room temperature.

3. After 14 days, take your vodka infusion out of the cabinet for the next step. Bring the sugar and water to a boil over medium heat in a saucepan. Simmer for five minutes, cover, and let cool for about an hour.

4. Add the sugar syrup to the vodka and citrus peel mixture and pour in another liter (1.1 qts.) of vodka. Stir well, cover, and put back in the dark. Store for an additional 14 days.

5. After the two-week storage period, bottle your ‘cello. Line a colander or strainer with doubled cheesecloth and place over a bowl that will hold at least a gallon (3.8 L) of liqueur. Pour the contents of your jar into the strainer, including any peel that falls out of the jar. Let drain and then discard peels.

6. Place a funnel in your choice of bottles. Scoop or pour liqueur into the bottle up to the lower part of the neck. Cap or cork, label, chill, and enjoy!

chilled, we tasted at room temperature to improve access to aromatics.

LIMONCELLO

The aromas were reminiscent of lemon candies. We older tasters thought of lemon drops while our younger guests were reminded of Lemonheads. Clayton noted similarity to the aromas produced when baking a lemon cake. The aroma was much more lemony than the flavor, which was sweeter than expected. In comparison with some of the others, this one expressed lower bitterness.

LIMECELLO

The lime aroma was distinctive, but not as strong as the lemon. The flavor had a bitter note with spicy, clovelike overtones. Clayton was reminded of tom yum soup, a Thai soup that includes lime juice, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves. The spicy and bitter notes also made this one seem hotter (more alcoholic) than the others even at the same ABV.

ARANCELLO

The very distinctive orange aroma seemed a lot like store-bought orange extract. It also reminded some tasters of orange-flavored cold medicine. It was a little more bitter than the lemon, but not as bitter as lime. It seemed like the sweetest one to all of us and reminded me of the Nehi orange soda I drank in the years before I switched to adult beverages.

MANDARINCELLO

This was the mildest of the four. The tangerine-like aroma was distinct from the orange, but not very strong. It had a touch of bitterness behind the delicate mandarin flavor. It was Marty’s favorite of the four, despite being the most subtle.

All four were very pleasant to drink. The best demonstration of that was that our guest tasters happily took home the rest of each 375-mL bottle to chill and enjoy later. So if you grow citrus fruit, or life (or a neighbor) gives you a bag of lemons, give this easy project a try. I think you will be very happy with the results — and so will your family and friends.

Bottling is easiest with the assistance of a funnel.

Photo by Bob Peak

THE SCARIEST TECHNIQUE IN WINEMAKING

H Y P EROX IDAT I O N

Photos by Rick Haibach

xidation in a white wine is generally the stuff of winemakers’ nightmares. At best, the wine can be browned and nutty, with diminished fruit aromas. At worst, it can smell like nail polish remover or vinegar. Most winemakers go to great lengths to prevent oxidation, especially on more delicate white wines. Some brave winemakers, however, take an entirely different approach and use a process known as “hyperoxidation.” If you are somewhere between curious and alarmed at the thought of extreme oxidation to these poor, helpless white wines, you are not alone. Who in their right mind would intentionally oxidize a wine to the point of browning? And can this be a good thing? Those are the questions we’re going to answer in this article.

Left: A carboy of pressed white wine juice treated traditionally prior to pitching yeast. Right: A carboy of pressed white juice that has undergone hyperoxidation prior to pitching yeast.

WHY WE DON’T NORMALLY LIKE OXIDATION

Before we get into hyperoxidation, you need to have an understanding of what oxidation is and why it is generally considered to be so detrimental to wine. Oxidation of a wine is usually a microbial process involving airhungry spoilage bacteria or spoilage yeast. This is the damaging oxidation that we try to prevent. The microbes don’t necessarily come from contaminated equipment, but instead can ride in on the grapes as they leave the vineyard, which complicates things for the winemaker.

The meal of choice for these oxidative organisms is typically ethanol, which is converted to acetaldehyde and further oxidized into acetic acid (vinegar). The now present acetic acid can be esterified with any free ethanol molecules to form ethyl acetate, which is the common nail polish remover smell you get in a poorly made wine. While this type of oxidation is scary, it is also easily preventable with proper SO2, acid, and oxygen management.

A milder but still damaging form of oxidation can occur slowly in the bottle. Over time, phenols will chemi-

cally break down, causing a white wine to shift to more of a copper color. Phenols come from the skins and seeds of most fruits, including grapes. They include things like tannin, anthocyanin (red pigment), flavonoid phenols (flavonols), and phenolic acids. The breakdown of flavonoid phenols in particular can cause an increase in astringency and this copper shift. If subtle enough, this may be perceived as “complexity,” but as this chemical breakdown progresses the wine quality and aroma will deteriorate.

With the rise of mechanical grape harvesting, white juices can have a high enough flavonol content to exaggerate this problem. Ideally most white grapes will be pressed as whole berries, or crushed and pressed with a very brief and controlled skin contact time, limiting extraction from the seeds and skins. If grapes pop in the field during mechanical harvesting, the extraction can start before they even make it to the winery. So how can we deal with a juice that may have already been over-extracted?

HYPEROXIDATION TO THE RESCUE

White winemakers will almost always

take steps to assure that the juice does not oxidize before fermentation. This includes adding sulfites at the crusher and minimizing oxygen contact as the juice is clarified or cold settled.

More recently, some wineries have been experimenting with a process called hyperoxidation with the aim to reduce phenol content. Simply put, this is the process of pressing the white grapes, introducing oxygen to the juice until it browns, clarifying, and then beginning the fermentation. The browning of this fresh juice is enzymatic and kicked off by a class of enzymes called polyphenol oxidases (PPOs). While this browning can be terrifying to even the most experienced winemakers, the color is only temporary.

Enzymes are in the protein family and act as a catalyst to speed up a chemical reaction. They are most effective before fermentation, when alcohol is not present. In the case of PPOs, the enzymes will encourage a rapid oxidation of phenols. These phenols are degraded into insoluble brown pigment. The wine literally will turn brown — like chocolate milk (as shown at right in the image on page 43 next to a carboy of the

Riesling grapes growing in my home vineyard in Pennsylvania that would soon be harvested and split into two trial batches of wine — one undergoing hyperoxidation, and one being treated traditionally.

same juice that has not been hyperoxidized). I have found that a smallbatch white wine will begin to brown within about 30 minutes to an hour of pressing if sulfite is not added. You can expect this to take longer on large batches.

A word of caution: Not all enzymes are good. If more than a few clusters have visible Botrytis (noble rot), then hyperoxidation should not be attempted, as they will contain the enzyme laccase. Laccase can cause an irreversible browning and is more difficult to manage.

Some of this newly formed brown pigment (oxidized phenols) is separated during the cold settling or pre-fermentation clarification process. Even with clarification, though, the juice will remain very brown in color. It is not important to remove all of this pigment before fermentation but a reasonable attempt should be made to remove much of the solids. I always cold settle my white juice before fermentation and rack off of what has settled out. In the case of hyperoxidation, the settling can occur in conjunction with the oxidative

browning process.

When the wine has browned to the desired level, alcoholic fermentation should be quickly started with a reliable yeast strain. My favorite yeast for white wines is Renaissance Fresco, as it creates a fantastic bouquet of fruity esters when fermented cold and will not create hydrogen sulfide (H2S). A close second is Sensy from Lalvin, which is also in the low-to-no H2S family. To ensure that things get moving quickly, hydrate about 1.5–2 grams of your preferred yeast per gallon (4 L) of juice. Once things are visibly bubbling in your starter, add an equal amount of juice and let it go for another 20 minutes. Make sure your yeast starter is within 10 °F (5 °C) of your juice, which should now be warmed briefly to about 70 °F (21 °C) to facilitate a rapid start to fermentation.

Note: Fresh-pressed white grapes can be very acidic, which can cause a fermentation to struggle. If your pH is below 2.95, adjust with potassium bicarbonate.

As the fermentation gets going, yeast will consume as much oxygen as they can get, bringing the wine to that

happy middle ground between oxidative and reductive. You should see a gradual shift in color as yeast cells metabolize the remaining brown pigment. I generally like to stir my white wine fermentations once a day to bring any settled yeast back into suspension and keep settled yeast from becoming air starved. I suspect that this stirring also helps speed up the metabolism of brown pigment. By the time about ½ to ¾ of the sugars have been consumed, most of the browning should be gone, allowing you to sleep better at night.

After fermentation, the wine is visually similar if not identical to a traditionally fermented white, but much lower in phenols. In theory, this should allow subtle varietal flavors to shine through and will resist browning in the bottle, since phenols are the primary component that will brown. In some cases, a hyperoxidized wine can be bottled with less SO2, but keep in mind that most white wines will need sufficient SO2 to prevent malolactic fermentation if you are going for a crisp, fruit-forward style.

Two juices from the same Riesling grapes at cold settling about two hours after pressing. On the left, the traditionally treated juice that was sulfited at the crusher, on the right, the hyperoxidized batch that received no sulfite addition.

REAL WORLD FEEDBACK ON HYPEROXIDATION

I have experimented with hyperoxidation on several white grape varietals from my small backyard vineyard and have been extremely happy with the resulting wines. But were the wines really better than a wine that was fermented without hyperoxidation? More recently, I set out to find an answer to this question. On a cold morning in September I rounded up my grape picking crew (some wine-loving colleagues) and we harvested a row of Riesling that was ready to be picked.

The grapes came off the vines nice and cold and were divided into two batches and crushed to yield approximately 4 gallons (15 L) of must each. The only difference in how the two batches were treated is one was sulfited at the crusher and one was not. They were pressed with a basket press, which is a relatively aerobic

process so the juice was exposed to plenty of oxygen. Right off the basket press differences were starting to become evident as the unsulfited batch began to brown almost immediately. As expected, the sulfited Riesling maintained its greenish yellow color with no browning whatsoever. I would normally cold settle white wine for about 24 hours in an ice bath, but with the rate of browning being so aggressive, I halted the cold settle on both at 10 hours. There was some air space left in the carboys, which is necessary for fermentation but also helpful in this case of hyperoxidizing. By the end of cold settling, the difference in the two carboys was dramatic. I found this process to work well on the small home volume of juice that I was working with. In a much larger volume, like at a winery, it is more common to bubble air or oxygen through the wine to hyperoxidize it.

Both juices began at 20.5 °Brix, a

pH of 3.00 and a TA of 9.3 g/L, which is not unusual for a crisp, refreshing Riesling. The yeast I used was Renaissance Fresco for reasons mentioned earlier. The oxidized juice started fermenting almost immediately, while the sulfited juice lagged for about 36 hours before it really woke up.

At 19 °Brix, the carboys were moved to a water bin where I would swap out “ice bombs” (bottles of frozen water) daily to maintain a fermentation temperature of about 60 °F (16 °F). Once a day, I swirled the wines briefly while removing the airlock. Because I was using a yeast that won’t produce hydrogen sulfide, I could get away with very little air supplementation during the fermentation.

By day six of the fermentation, most of the brown color was gone and both wines looked similar. Fermentation was complete after about 16 days for both batches. I stirred the lees for another four days, let the gross lees

On the right is the hyperoxidized Riesling next to a batch from the same grapes that was treated traditionally on day 6 of fermentation.

settle and racked into appropriately sized carboys. I was looking for a lively, crisp, and fruit-forward wine, so I sulfited at this time to prevent malolactic fermentation and moved the wines to the cold cellar to undergo cold stabilization.

Note: Rather than periodically adjusting SO2 levels, I prefer to add a larger dose after fermentation is complete. Normally the larger dose will be adequate and no further adjustments will be needed at the time of bottling. This method is more effective at preventing MLF, as it assures that you will not accidentally let the levels dip to an unsafe level as the wine ages Alternatively, MLF can be prevented by removal of the bacteria through sterile filtration (very difficult without winery-grade equipment) or the addition of lysozyme.

THE RESULTS

At three months, we tasted both of the young wines side-by-side while some friends were over. Three of four tasters preferred the hyperoxidized wine, noting that it was slightly smoother mid-palate. Both wines shared similar aromas of lemon zest, green apple, and citrus with some floral notes. The aromas in the hyperoxidized wine were about 80% as intense as the traditionally fermented wine at this stage (according to our non-scientific noses).

After four months in the carboy, the wines were crystal clear and could be bottled. By this time, the two wines looked visually identical. Both wines were on track to be stunners by summertime but could use just a little residual sugar to provide balance, so 7.5 g/L was added to each. This was just enough to moderate the acids, but not enough to add any perceptible sweetness.

After another month of bottle age, I was in search of some more skilled tasters to try these wines side-byside so I reached out to Greendance Winery in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. At Greendance, we gathered a group of wine enthusiasts including the owners, Rick and Susan Lynn. The wines were presented side-by-side in a double-blind format. Both wine labels were covered and even I didn’t

know which was which. In total, we had six tasters.

Both wines received high ratings and were notably different, but the actual preference came down to the individual taster. Three participants preferred the hyperoxidized Riesling noting that it was more interesting on the palate and “more lively,” while three preferred the traditionally fermented Riesling that received sulfite

at the crusher, noting that it had more taste in the mid-palate and a longer finish. The traditionally fermented wine ranked slightly higher on aroma with several participants noting an increased intensity. Common descriptors for both wines included citrus, grapefruit, green apple, and apricot. The hyperoxidized Riesling also had notes of mango, pineapple, and a hint of white pepper as described by

one taster, which were not descriptors seen in the traditionally fermented variant. The traditionally fermented Riesling, on the other hand, had unique descriptors like “floral” and “pear.”

Based on this small study, there was no obvious winner, but every taster commented that there were definitely differences between the two wines, which may be reason enough for hobbyists to try the technique at home.

There are some reasons why this test may have had a split preference. The grapes were hand-picked and gently processed with a basket press, so there may not have been an appreciable amount of phenols in either wine after pressing. Both wines contained just enough sugar (0.75%) to “take the edge off,” but some of that rough edge may have been specifically caused by phenols. A bone dry tasting, like the informal at-home tasting we had done, may show more obvious preference towards the hyperoxidized wine. These wines are still very young, and the differences will likely become more evident as they get some bottle age and phenols begin to break down. Each wine taster has different ideals and some may be looking for a little edge on their white wine, which can also factor into a winemaker’s choice of approach.

CONCLUSION

It all sounds simple enough, but hyperoxidation is still a fringe technique, and for good reason. To most winemakers, including myself, it can be very unsettling to watch the grapes that you have nurtured all year oxidize so dramatically. If your grapes are over extracted from rough harvesting equipment or a warm harvest, the case is stronger for implementing the technique as a means to reduce bitter phenols.

In a year where I would have a large quantity of the same white grape, I may consider splitting off a batch and hyperoxidizing just to have more variety in the wine cellar. If nothing else, it makes for a very interesting story when you are serving the wine to other wine geeks.

The resulting wines at bottling are identical in appearance.

The two wines side-by-side after racking off the gross lees into smaller carboys.

TECHNIQUES

BY BOB PEAK

USING OAK ALTERNATIVES

Cutting into the granular details

Oak has been part of winemaking for over a thousand years. As ancient clay amphorae gave way to wooden barrels in Roman Europe, wine producers discovered that oak barrels were not only sturdy, reliable containers for shipping and storage, but that oak barrels often improved the wine as well. With oak barrels, the winemaker gets two kinds of improvement. The wood itself adds aromas, flavors, and mouthfeel that people find appealing. Meanwhile the physical structure of the barrel allows the slow ingress of air to gently oxidize the aging wine. Although the microoxidation is not included, oak alternatives bring many of the other oak benefits at lower cost and greater convenience than a barrel.

Since its use as a bulk container is how we got to oak, we will start there. Oak was not the first wood used for wine containers. Ancient records indicate that palm-wood barrels were in use for transporting wine in Mesopotamia. Palm wood never replaced clay amphorae, though, and the latter were still in use in Europe as oak barrels began to supplant them. In a remarkably fast technological development for the time, it appears that oak barrels completely replaced amphorae within about 200 years.

Today, all oak barrels are made from just a few species of white oak. Quercus robur and Q. patraea are grown in Europe and Q. alba is grown in North America. Red oak is too porous to make sound containers. Cherrywood and chestnut are sometimes used to make vinegar barrels but are very rarely used in wine production. American oak has thicker annual growth rings than European oak and can be sawn into staves to make barrels. French oak must be split to make a leak-tight barrel, yielding

fewer staves per tree. An American oak tree can be used to make about four barrels, a French oak tree only two.

OAK CHEMISTRY

With only part of the oak wood going into barrels, there is plenty left for other products. The larger of these oak pieces include staves, spirals, and sticks. Smaller oak can go into making cubes, beans, chips, sawdust, and oak extracts. About 40 to 45% of oak’s dry weight is cellulose, a long-chain polysaccharide that is a major structural material in green plants. The next largest portion, hemicellulose, is made up of mixed polymers of various sugars and makes up about 25 to 30% of oak’s weight. Its molecules provide cross-linking support to the cellulose structure. There are also oak tannins — polyphenolic compounds — that are extractable into wine. These are mostly odorless and have little flavor beyond bitterness and they contribute noticeable astringency to wine. Lignin, another oak component, is a polymer of complex alcohols. It contributes aromas and flavors that result from its degradation products. Such products develop when oak wood is toasted at high heat. Lignin also degrades on exposure to alcohol. Of the aldehyde derivatives produced, the most familiar is vanillin, the dominant aroma of natural vanilla. Another is syringaldehyde that imparts woody aromas of smoke and embers. Coniferyl aldehyde expresses aromas like sweet graham crackers and toasted grains. Eugenol is an allyl benzene compound that shows spicy, clove-like aromas that sometimes extend to bacon and smoke. (Eugenol may also enter wine through Brettanomyces spoilage.) Lactones extract into wine as aromas of wood, coconut, and the notes wine tasters term “oaky.”

With only part of the oak wood going into barrels, there is plenty left for other products.

Offering a diverse range of products that can be used from crush through bottling, oak alternatives are now a vital component of winemaking.

Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus

TECHNIQUES

Tannins are very important to the mouthfeel of oak-aged wines. These compounds are from the same class of products that first found use in the tanning of hides. The process of making animal skins less soluble shows up in the astringent “drying” effect you feel on your palate from a highly tannic wine. Tannins in wine come from grapes, barrels, and other oak products.

OAK ALTERNATIVE TYPES

The largest non-barrel oak pieces are staves and spirals. Staves often resemble those used in the construction of barrels. For use in tanks of wine, staves are about 39-in. long by 4-in. wide and 5⁄16-in. thick (100 x 10 x 0.8 cm). Like barrel staves, these are sawn from oak wood parallel to the original tree trunk. As a result, they present mostly side grain to the wine, with only the small ends exposing end grain. A barrel presents almost entirely side grain to the wine. Side grain is slower to release oak components to the wine than end grain. Some users of oak alternatives consider the side-grain extract — like that inside a barrel — to be milder and more mellow than end grain extract. If you have a tank that can accommodate these larger staves, they should produce the most barrel-like extraction. Tank staves are usually used for bulk-aging finished wine.

Staves are available in different woods and with different toast levels. French oak and American oak are most common although some other European oak products are available. American oak is usually considered fruitier than French and often expresses notes of coconut. Light toast levels deliver aromas and flavors typical of wood itself, while darker toasts reflect the burnt notes of smoke and char. With relatively slow extraction, tank staves have recommended wine contact periods ranging from three months to two years. One stave of this size for every eight gallons (30 L) of wine will present the same wood exposure as using 100% new full-size oak barrels.

Standard tank staves will not fit through the bunghole of a barrel that needs an oak boost or refreshment. This is where spirals may come in. These round sticks of oak are grooved with a spiral cut extending along the full length. The spiral cut exposes much more end grain surface than with a stave and results in a much faster infusion rate. The largest spirals, as much as 4 ft. (1.2 m) in length, are used in tanks like tank staves. Each of these is described as able to contribute oak extractives at the same rate as 100% barrel aging to about the same volume, 60 gal. or 225 L. Six weeks is considered long enough for full extraction with spirals, as compared with months for barrels or tank staves.

Smaller spirals are produced for use in barrels, where 9-in. (23-cm) segments are secured in plastic mesh sleeves so they may be easily retrieved from the barrel after use. Smaller still are carboy spirals, usually about 8-in. (20-cm) long. All sharing the same geometry, the same factors of rapid extraction and high extract levels apply. If you use spirals, taste your wine periodically to avoid over-oaking.

There is no standardized definition, but I consider smaller sticks of oak to be just that: Sticks rather than staves. They come in several shapes, sometimes with a square cross

section, sometimes grooved lengthwise, and sometimes with diagonal ridges on the stick. Those with more exposed end grain will likely extract faster than simple flat sticks with mostly side grain. While they may be used in barrels or tanks, most sticks are intended for carboys. Commonly, one or two sticks will be recommended for a 5- to 6-gal. (19- to 23-L) carboy of wine. Three to six weeks is usually enough extraction time. Different woods and toasts are available.

When we consider still smaller oak pieces, they may be used in ways beyond aging wine. Cubes, beans, chips, or sawdust may be added to primary fermentation to provide “sacrificial tannins” to help stabilize color. If a wine has already been aged in barrel or with staves but still needs more oak, the rapid extraction of the smaller pieces may be employed for a final boost.

Oak cubes, by their geometry of two end cut faces and four side cut, provide 1⁄3 end grain and 2⁄3 side grain. They extract much faster than staves and somewhat faster than most sticks. A common use rate is about 2 oz. (57 g) in a carboy and up to a pound (454 g) in a barrel. You can drop them in directly or put them in a mesh bag. Three weeks or so is probably enough for full extraction. I have left them in longer (until my next racking) without any negative effects. If you put them in loose, just invert the carboy or barrel and wash them out. Oak beans are similar sized pieces of oak, but less regularly cut than cubes. They may be applied in the same manner at the same dose rates, and they extract similarly fast.

Oak chips and sawdust are smaller still and inherently expose lots of end grain. Chips may be added loose or confined to a mesh bag. Sawdust is added loose, usually during primary fermentation for color stabilization, and exit as part of the pomace upon pressing. Chips may be used the same way or may be used in aging or for a final finish. The use rates are about the same as cubes and extraction is even faster. While inexpensive and efficient, chips are sometimes criticized as being simple and lacking aromatic complexity. Some experienced wine judges assert that they can taste when a commercial wine has been oaked with chips.

There are a few more products to consider that are so specific I refer you to the product labels for use advice. Because they are proprietary, their use resists generalized instructions. One of these is liquid oak extract, usually an ethanol extract of toasted oak chips. Since extraction rates vary, check the container volume against your needs before buying. The product looks and smells like a very oaky whiskey and works instantly upon addition to wine. While I rarely use this in producing my wines, using barrels or other oak products instead, I keep a bottle on hand all the time. That is because I can add just one or two drops to a glass of wine and determine if the wine will be better with an oak addition.

There are also powdered tannin products that are derived from oak. The supplier may specify these for mid-term aging or for final oak adjustment. Additions are usually in grams per carboy and results are between immediate and a few weeks prior to bottling. So if you are not using barrels, or your old barrel has gone neutral, don’t give up on oaking your wine. There’s a whole world of high-quality products out there to make just the wine you are aiming for.

SITE PLANNING AND PREP Designing a modern backyard vineyard

Researching, planning, planting, and caring for a vineyard is serious business and should not be considered landscaping to admire from your kitchen window. Horticulture takes us back to the very beginnings of human culture and was serious business for those that took part in its practice. Tending to grape vines has been an important part of humanity for at least 10,000 years, when a domestication event happened in and around the forests and mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. We cannot separate viticulture from post-neolithic culture. But for those looking to commit to starting their own vineyard, commitment is the buzzword here. Before visiting some vital planning information for your vineyard, let’s make a short list of what is necessary for successful vineyard establishment and management:

• “Hair on fire”: Successful vineyards are planted and tended by fanatics. When I consult on new vineyards my first task is to go to lunch with the property owner and do everything I can to dissuade them. If they can get through my pestering questions and are still committed, I believe they are a good candidate for the vineyard.

• Hours of planning: Do your homework! Oh, you need the assignments? Just keep reading, we’re going deep into this.

• Labor source: Vines need love and attention (a.k.a. canopy management and a fungicide program) every single week. A minute per vine per week is a decent starting point for determining labor and spraying, but add or subtract from that depending on how young/strong

your labor is as well as the quality of your equipment and spray rig.

• Quality vineyard equipment: From your bypass pruners to your spray rig, the closer you can get to professional quality, the more enjoyable and efficient your farming will be.

• Expendable income: The cost of planning, planting, and managing a vineyard that produces quality wine on a small basis will ALWAYS be more expensive than just buying great $30 wines for your cellar. If this is about saving money, the home vineyard is not for you. This is a way for you to SPEND money, but on the bright side you will learn more about wine and wine growing intuitively and osmotically than just about any other path of wine education.

• Time and a winery: For a small backyard vineyard, a few hours a weekend will likely be all the time you need. For more than a few hundred vines, or an acre or two, you will likely want to have some supplemental laborers that have been carefully trained to grow quality wine. Chances are you’re going to make the wine from your vineyard, so do consider looking back at your WineMaker magazines for checklists and ads for great equipment from our suppliers and advertisers. A basic starting point includes destemmer, a press, some hoses, a pump, barrels, yeast, lab tools for measuring Brix and pH, lots of cleaning supplies. But winemaking is an endless rabbit hole, and winemaking shops ALWAYS have a few extra tools/toys or upgrades that you will want. Which brings us back to the previous discussion on expendable income.

BY WES HAGEN

It’s vital you network with other grape growers in your area to benefit from their mistakes and successes.

Photo courtesy of Wes Hagen

Proper planning of a vineyard will save grape growers countless hours of maintenance work once it’s installed.

BACKYARD VINES

So what does it take to be a successful vineyard “parent?” You have to be dedicated. You have to learn some new things and ask advice from people who have done it before. You have to have some extra money. You have to know where to shop. You have to be willing to give up some of your leisure time. Without getting discouraged, realize that even a small vineyard will require weekly maintenance during the growing season and pruning in the winter. The fruit you grow will reflect your effort and your success or failure as a viticulturist will dictate the potential quality of your homegrown wine. The decision to start a vineyard is a serious one. It requires study, planning, financial resources, dedication, and a willingness to get muddy, sulfur-soaked, and parting ways with a decent amount of your money.

In planning your vineyard, there are lots of considerations. You will need to select your site and exposure, prepare the soil, decide if you plan to irrigate, plan a trellising system, and then choose a row and vine spacing scheme that works for you. I cannot get through all of those topics in one article so our focus today will be on the first topics: Site selection and preparation. We can talk modern trellising and spacing in a subsequent article. The purpose of this article is to introduce these development issues to you, teach you some basic vocabulary and concepts, and then turn you loose to do your own research.

Before we jump into it, I want to reiterate that it’s vital you network with other grape growers in your area to benefit from their mistakes and successes. Local wine growers can point you toward vineyard hardware suppliers, good nursery materials, can help you choose your vineyard plot, your grape varieties and root stock, and might even help with the labor if you bring them enough wine. Start a wine grape growing club or join an existing one. Help each other farm, harvest, and crush. Asking for help is absolutely vital to the success of your future vineyard. Most viticulturists I’ve interviewed have been very forthcoming about their first planting experiences — they admit that they would have planned and planted differently if they would have taken more time to read, network, and plan. Once the vines are in the ground, there’s little you can do to change the basic layout of the field. I like to say every hour of planning will save 1,000 hours of labor in the vineyard. That might be hyperbole . . . or maybe not. With that understood, let’s start planning your vineyard.

SITE SELECTION HILLSIDE VS. FLAT

Hillsides, especially southwest facing hillsides in the Northern Hemisphere, have always been the preferred location for growing quality winegrapes. It has been suggested by many wine writers that this was originally done out of necessity — that infertile hillsides were planted to grapes because other agricultural crops failed to grow there. Rocky, infertile soil produced small vines with less vigor than vines grown on deep, alluvial soil. Smaller vines meant smaller clusters and crop load, and the wines showed unusual concentration and intensity. Hillside sites are generally well drained and have

less frost issues in spring as long as the cold air has space to flow down, away from the hill. Consider the difficulties in farming on a hillside, though. Tractors and equipment take a beating and so can human beings. Check out pictures from the Mosel region of Germany for some extreme examples of this. With a hillside vineyard, one has limited choices concerning row direction and row spacing — the slope, exposure, and the topography will dictate where you can fit the vineyard. Terracing might be necessary, which can add thousands of dollars per acre to the establishment cost.

Our family vineyard is mostly hillside and I deal with erosion and equipment difficulties constantly. We have one small section of vineyard that is relatively flat and I have to admit I love working in it. The spraying is easy, picking is easy, pruning is easy. I suggest that putting a vineyard on a slope will nearly double the effort required to maintain the vineyard and will significantly increase the investment needed to establish it. But . . . there are few sights as inspiring to the wine lover as a hillside vineyard. Quality fruit can be grown on flat ground, it just tends to be a little more vigorous and might require some more vine hedging to keep the vines from getting too wild and wooly. If I didn’t have to farm it, though, I would take hillside fruit every time.

EXPOSURE

It is imperative to know what sections of your property get the most sunshine, wind, and shade throughout the growing season — roughly March to October. Sun exposure on the fruit is key to getting good flavor out of your grapes, so planting a vineyard among shade trees or in the shadow of a canyon is not advisable. An open, sunny, southwest-facing slope is perfect. Finding the spot on your property that gets early morning sunlight and keeps that exposure until late into the afternoon will ensure that the vines get all the sun they need to grow, stay healthy, and make sugar in the grapes. Some wind will protect the grapes against mold and mildew. Too much wind will shut the stomata on the leaves and cause the vine to shut down (stop respiring) temporarily. Again, the key is moderation. The fruit needs sun exposure, but not so much that it is burned. The canopy should have air flow, but not so much that the vines are constantly being beat up and shut down.

With rising global temperatures and many areas of the U.S. sunny enough to easily ripen grapes, exposure (especially in sunny places like California) is not as important as in cooler regions high in latitude. In fact, in sunny, arid regions of California exposure can be purposefully chosen for afternoon shade to protect the fruit and to keep it from ripening too quickly. On the other side of the coin, the reason those extremely steep hillsides were chosen in the Mosel was because of the exposure they provided. While climate change is effecting these decisions of where and what to plant, the basic concept does not change.

Checklist for tasks and research before breaking ground/ planting:

• See a mental health professional and admit you want to plant a vineyard.

• Cleared from a DSM V diagnosis, or if you just don’t care, let’s get to planning!

• Identify the area(s) where the vineyard will be installed. Consider sun, shade, existing vegetation, previous land use, ease of moving in equipment, where equipment will be stored, etc.

• Map the vineyard out on paper, determining row orientation (think of the equipment!) and spacing between rows and vines (use anticipated vine vigor, more on this in the next article). This will help you determine the number of vines you will need to order.

• Take soil samples from the center of this area and any other spots you see changes in vegetation. Details for soil sampling, evaluation, and soil amendments later.

• Determine if your locale will need supplemental water/ irrigation in the vineyard. Irrigation in dry climates will be the lion’s share of the vineyard’s development costs, so if you can “dry farm,” your install will be a lot less burdensome comparatively.

• Get climate records from as close to your site as possible or buy a weather station (refer back to the expendable income section). Determine your “Growing Degree Days,” a number usually between 2,000–4,000, which will dictate which grape varieties will work well.

• If you are lucky and have a successful vineyard(s) in close proximity to your site (by close proximity I mean the climate and soils are very similar), you may want to ride on their coattails and plant what makes the best wine for them.

• Prepare the soil.

• Install the irrigation system. This is always done before planting the vines so you know it’s functional and vines will have water.

• Install trellising (stakes, clips, wires, irrigation tubing) appropriate for anticipated vine vigor.

• Throw a vine planting party! Trust me, you’ll want as much free labor as you can get and keep them coming back to help for years to come.

• Now the real work begins: Training, spraying, watering, observation, notes . . . reading back issues of my column in WineMaker for more information on these subjects.

SITE PREPARATION PREPPING THE SOIL

There are basically four steps to preparing the soil for a vineyard: Evaluation, amending, ripping/discing, and finally planting a cover crop. Let’s take a spin through each.

Start with an evaluation of the soil through test pits, soil samples, and laboratory soil analysis. Get a USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) soil map and learn what “soil series” you will be planting on, and learn how that soil series impacts agriculture. While I will do a very brief primer on this here, I’m going to refer you to my June-July 2020 issue column “Dirt Don’t Lie” to get a more in-depth understanding of its importance (https://winemakermag.com/technique/dirtdont-lie-the-impact-of-soil-on-vineyards-and-wine) because this is not a topic to take lightly and you need to dig a DEEP

hole (backhoe is useful for this) in the center of your vineyard site. Not only will you find great information from the results of these tests, you may also want to find out if there are nematodes or phylloxera in your soil. These are vine pests that can cause havoc if you don’t plant a vine rootstock that can resist them. Most soil labs can test a soil for these pests. Ask them about the best way to take a sample.

After 22 years managing the same vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills, I was always surprised how often I would pull out the original pre-plant soil reports for varying parts of the vineyard; checking nutrient status baselines, soil series, micro nutrient availability or to show prospective fruit clients who asked. Getting soil samples is absolutely vital to understanding your site’s potential, and thereby the quality of future wines. Keep those soil samples in a safe place — they will be used again and again.

Next up you need to amend the soil with lime, nitrogen, compost, etc. to make it pH balanced and to add necessary nutrients as needed. Teach yourself a thing or two about what nutrients a vine needs, and then check your soil samples to see what needs to be added/amended. Take your soil samples to a respected company that sells amendments and they will help you determine how many pounds or tons per acre of any given amendment your vineyard may need.

Many soils, if not most, do not need to be amended for winegrapes to grow and thrive. Focus on the suggested range for any given nutrient or measurement and only amend the red flags. If there are too many red flags (high sodium, boron, chlorine, etc.), a vineyard might not be feasible on your land.

If you can afford it and can get the equipment into your property, rip the soil to a three-foot (1-m) depth to help the vines establish strong, deep root systems (local farmers and/ or agriculture experts can help you determine if your soil needs ripping). Do this after you have spread your amendments so they will be spread through the soil evenly. After ripping, disk the soil so it is uniform and relatively smooth. In most areas there are folks with tractor equipment that can rip/disk for a daily or per-acre rate.

But the reality is that getting a Caterpillar D8 in your backyard can be a bit problematic — this would only apply to a property in the country with no fences or very big gates. Having an ATV with a soil disk attachment would be a great way to keep the rows tidy and break up the soil pre-plant, but it’s certainly not necessary unless in extreme examples (once again, we circle back to expendable income). If the soil is rock hard, it will take extra effort to make the holes for planting, and it may be helpful to plant after a late spring rain that softens the soil and gives the young vines water right as they are planted.

IRRIGATION

Ask local winegrowers whether or not they use irrigation or if the rainfall in your area is adequate to bring in a healthy crop year-in and year-out. Irrigation can be the most costly aspect of vineyard development. If you don’t need it; save your money for other tools/toys. If it turns out you do need supplemental irrigation for your new vineyard, be sure to

BACKYARD VINES

install it after ripping/disking, and before planting cover crop. And make a system that will take elevation change, gravity, and water pressure into account. Most backyard vineyards are on flat ground. In this situation, and if the vineyard is less than 100 vines, you can hand water the vines with a hose, giving them enough water to grow every week or so. If you want a more elaborate drip system, this is yet another opportunity to bring a local winegrower a few bottles of wine. Ask how many gallons of water they apply per week in an average growing season, and how they apply it. You may need to set up a sub-soil PVC system to get the water to the site. You may need to invest in a pump to keep pressure adequate and if you are on a hillside you will need “pressure compensating drip emitters” (I love the Netafim brand), around 0.5 to 1 gallon per hour (2–4 L/hr). Without pressure compensating drippers the vines at the bottom of the hill will get lots of water while the vines at the top will get none due to increased gravity and pressure at the bottom of the system. Go check out some vineyards in your area, take notes on the measurements of the irrigation system (both in the ground, out of the ground, and on the trellising), ask who installed it, how it was installed, and where they got the materials.

The ancestral home of the winegrape Vitis vinifera is in an area between the Black and Caspian Seas known as Transcaucasia. This area averages about 30 in. (76 cm) of rain annually, so I use 25 in. (64 cm) annually as my cutoff for dry farming. Can you do it successfully with 10–15 in.

(25–38 cm) of annual rainfall? The best answer I can provide is maybe. After all this time, energy, and resources, do you really want to risk it?

PROTECT YOUR VINEYARD INVESTMENT WITH A COVER CROP

Now that the soil is ready and irrigation is in place (if needed) you should call a local farm supplier and let them know you need to grow some cover crop to keep your new ripped, disked vineyard site from eroding. A good cover crop (grasses, vetch, clover, or whatever is appropriate for your soil and locale) will help slow erosion, will add nutrients to the soil, will attract beneficial insects, and, if timed right, may even choke out potential weed growth. In areas with hard winters growing a winter cover crop might not make sense if it’s just going to be covered with snow.

If you like to keep populations of beneficial insects in the vineyard, mow every other row of the cover crop after it flowers. This allows the “beneficials” to hop over to the adjacent row and not be left unprotected to predators. Once the vines go through budbreak, though, mow all cover crop and native growth/weeds to a clean vineyard floor to reduce frost damage (frost damage is higher in vineyards with any growth on the vineyard floor).

In my subsequent column, we’ll look at the remaining topics found in my checklist from earlier: Mainly the importance of selecting trellising and row spacing. And until then, be sure to schedule that mental health appointment.

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

ALABAMA

THE WINE SMITH

6800 A Moffett Rd. (US 98) Mobile 36618 (251) 645-5554

e-mail: winesmith@bellsouth.net

www.thewinesmith.biz

Home Winemaking and Brewing Supplies.

CALIFORNIA

THE BEVERAGE PEOPLE

1800 Empire Industrial Ct., Ste. A Santa Rosa 95403 (707) 544-2520

www.thebeveragepeople.com

Fast Shipping, Great Service, Cheesemaking & Brewing too.

BREHM VINEYARDS®

www.brehmvineyards.com

grapes@brehmvineyards.com

Phone: (510) 527.3675

Fresh grape pick-up in Petaluma, CA

Frozen grapes in Richmond, CA

Ultra-premium grapes for home winemakers for over 40 years! Sold at harvest or shipped frozen across N. America year-round. Over 30 varieties from Carneros, Napa, Sonoma, Washington and Oregon.

CURDS AND WINE, LLC

7194 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. San Diego 92111 (858) 384-6566

www.curdsandwine.com

Winemaking & cheesemaking supplies, make wine on site!

DELTA PACKING CO. OF LODI, INC.

6021 E. Kettleman Lane

Lodi 95240 (209) 334-1023

fax: (209) 334-0811

bcostamagna@deltapacking.com

www.grapesofgold.com

We offer premium California wine grapes & juice. Please call for a supplier near you.

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

995 Detroit Ave., Unit G Concord 94518 (925) 771-7107

fax: (925) 671-4978

srconcord@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

991 N. San Antonio Rd. Los Altos 94022 (650) 949-BREW (2739) srlosaltos@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/

showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

1506 Columbia Ave. #12 Riverside 92507

(951) 779-9971

fax: (951) 779-9972

srriverside@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/

showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

MOREBEER! & MOREWINE!

2315 Verna Court

San Leandro 94577 (510) 351-3517

srsanleandro@moreflavor.com

www.morewinemaking.com/ showrooms

Absolutely Everything! for Wine-Making

NORCAL BREWING SOLUTIONS

1768 Churn Creek Rd. Redding 96002 (530) 243-BEER (2337) or (530)-221-WINE (9463)

www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com

Full line of wine, beer, & distilling supplies, hardware, and ingredients. Manufacturers of lees filters, punchdown tools, and custom solutions.

VALLEYVINTNER, LLC (925) 217-0058 or (866) 812 WINE (9463) Toll Free info@valleyvintner.com www.valleyvintner.com

75+ years wine making expertise!

Owned & Operated by winemakers serving the winemaking community. “The Vine, The Time, The Wine”

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 1-800-352-4238

www.brew-wine.com

Specializing in 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

MWG services home winemakers, wineries, breweries, cideries, distilleries, and homebrew shops. We provide access to the best grapes, juices, equipment, supplies, and knowledge available. Let us help you 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.flyingbarrel.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

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 on Twitter @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.

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 800 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

Text: (984) 251-3030

www.americanbrewmaster.com

Wine Kits, Wine Ingredients and additives, corks and bottles since 1983! Wow. 1983!

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!

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!

WINEMAKER DIRECTORY

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!

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.

READER SERVICE

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

MOREWINE! 1 1-800-823-0010

www.morewine.com info@morewinemaking.com

BREHM

510-527-3675 www.brehmvineyards.com grapes@brehmvineyards.com

BUON VINO MANUFACTURING, INC 9 1-855-522-1166 www.buonvino.com orders@buonvino.com

FERMENTIS BY LESAFFRE 21 www.fermentis.com

FINER WINE KITS 3 www.labelpeelers.com

FINGER LAKES COMMUNITY COLLEGE VITICULTURE AND WINE CENTER 16 www.flcc.edu/wine

LALLEMAND INC 1 www.lallemandbrewing.com/wine homebrewing@lallemand.com

LD CARLSON COMPANY 5 1-800-321-0315

www.ldcarlson.com

www.brewersbestkits.com

info@brewersbestkits.com

MOSTI MONDIALE Cover 3 450-638-6380

www.mostimondiale.com info@mostimondiale.com

MUST. 21 1-888-707-MUST / 707-967-0553 www.mustfabricate.com orders@mustfabricate.com

NAPA FERMENTATION SUPPLIES 9 www.napafermentation.com

NOONTIME LABELS 20 561-699-0413

www.noontimelabels.com

customerservice@ noontimelabels.com

PARDO WINE GRAPES 12 813-340-3052

www.pardowinegrapes.com vince@pardowinegrapes.com

PLANTRA, INC. 11 651-686-6688

www.plantra.com info@plantra.com

QUALITY WINE AND ALE SUPPLY/ HOMEBREWIT.COM 27 574-295-9975 www.homebrewit.com customerservice@homebrewit.com

STILL SPIRITS Cover 2 www.stillspirits.com

UC DAVIS CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION 17 cpe.ucdavis.edu/winemakingcert

VINMETRICA 7 760-494-0597 www.vinmetrica.com info@vinmetrica.com

THE VINTAGE SHOP 11 604-590-1911 www.thevintageshop.ca info@thevintageshop.ca

WALKER’S WINE JUICE 52 716-679-1292 www.walkerswinejuice.com

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY VITICULTURE & ENOLOGY PROGRAM 17 wine.wsu.edu/certificate

WATERLOO CONTAINER COMPANY 3 1-888-539-3922 www.waterloocontainer.com

WINEMAKER DIGITAL DOWNLOADS 7 www.winemakermag.com/shop store@winemakermag.com

WINEMAKER ONLINE BOOT CAMP 5 www.winemakermag.com/ bootcamp

WINESMITH WINES & CONSULTING 17 www.modernwinechemistry.com

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

WYEAST LABORATORIES, INC. 45 Fermentation Cultures: Beer, Wine, Cider www.wyeastlab.com customerservice@wyeastlab.com

XPRESSFILL 12 805-541-0100 www.xpressfill.com

DRY FINISH

BY KEVIN DONNELLY

BOYSENBERRY WINE

I’m lucky to live in Southern California where I can get access to some incredible wine grapes. But wine grape activities take place in the autumn. Then the wines go into their respective barrel or aging vessels and there’s not a whole lot to do until bottling time. There is a void in my hobby winemaking world. So to fill that space, in the winter and spring, I like to make some wonderful fruit wines! But before you go and say “harumph” to fruit wine, remember — grape wine is just a type of a fruit wine!

Unlike grapes, which can usually be harvested in one picking, boysenberries are hand-picked one at a time over a two-month period. My brother, Dave, and his wife, Michele, who live in Boise, Idaho, picked the berries between July and August, then froze them after they were picked. When he had enough for a batch of wine (and a few more pounds for ice cream — yum!), he shipped them down to me. I started the 2021 batch on October 5th with 23 lbs. (10.4 kg) of berries for a 6-gallon (23-L) batch.

After sanitizing everything, I added the berries, sugar, and water into a 7-gallon (26.5-L), food-grade bucket. I added about 11 lbs. (5 kg) of table sugar, targeting 25 °Brix for the must. One habit I use with fruit wines is that I buy and use bottled drinking water to bring it up to 6 gallons (23 L); I don’t use tap water. (Hint here: Use an electric drill with a stir attachment to dissolve the sugar.) Finally I added about a gram of potassium metabisulfite (KMBS) and pitched Red Star Premier Classique yeast.

After the fermentation was done I used a strainer to separate the solids, transferred the wine to a carboy, added more KMBS, and topped it off to 6 gallons (23 L). At this point there were still a lot of solids in suspension but as it sat and aged in the carboy most of those solids precipitated to the bottom. After some settling, I racked the clearer wine

off the top and tossed the solids.

After about two months and a couple more rackings, I filtered my boysenberry wine and it was BEAUTIFUL, with a transparency and maroon color you have to see to believe! But upon tasting I found it was pretty tart. As many country winemakers know, all of the sugar had been turned into alcohol and the fresh boysenberry flavor was muted. So next up for this wine: Backsweetening.

To decide how much sugar to add to backsweeten the wine, I set up a bench test. With the help of friends, who NEVER say no when offered free wine for their opinions, as well as Dave and Michele, who came down from Boise to help take part in this process, we got down to business.

The first glass was with no additional sugar. The second glass had ½ tsp. of sugar. The third glass had 1 tsp., the fourth had 1.5 tsp., and the fifth had 2 tsp. We came up with either #3 and #4 as our collective favorites. Another round was poured honing in the exact amount of sugar to add. Once the favorite was picked, I measured the Brix with a hydrometer of the chosen wine. For this given batch the measured Brix in the glass was +2 °Brix (specific gravity 1.008), which equated to adding 2.5% residual sugar with backsweetening.

Next I needed to stabilize the wine so it wouldn’t start refermenting. I used sorbate and sulfites to stabilize the wine before adding the sugar. I ended up adding about three cups of sugar to reach my desired flavor . . . not overly sweet, still a little tart. Now that the wine is sweetened to my taste, it’s time to bottle and wrap up this project. I decided on clear, flint bottles to show off the beautiful color of the wine.

I know some winemakers don’t feel the time is worth it. Well I’m not one of them. I have a wonderful beverage to share with family and friends that make great gifts any time of the year.

Unlike grapes, which can usually be harvested in one picking, boysenberries are hand-picked one at a time over a twomonth period.

My “out-of-season” winemaking adventures

Photo by Kevin Donnelly

Thawed and mixed with sugar, this bucket of boysenberry fruit is ready for fermenting.

Taste the Real difference!

WINE MAKER'S ADDITION

Simply 100% pasteurized, crushed and destemmed pure varietal California wine grapes as “Mother Nature” intended!

NO sweeteners, concentrate or added color.

A guaranteed finished wine like never before, enhancing your wine’s color, bouquet and mouthfeel!

Allgrape Pack

Packed in a sterile, shelf stable bag-in-box.

INGREDIENTS