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Admittedly in my 15 years of making wine from my vineyard grapes I have had virtually no incidence of the stuck fermentation phenomena. I will chalk it up more to luck than any superior command of viniculture. Some winemaking textbook authors have offered many reasons for the incidence of stuck...

I was curious as to what precautions you take each winter with your vines and what proactive approach you have to maintaining soil quality while minimizing disease and insect/fungi predator overwintering. Do you mulch or use organic/inorganic fertilizer? Based on soil analysis? cheers....

Born in France in 1750 Dr. Jean-Antoine Chaptal is one of 72 scientists who has his name inscribed on the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower. This gifted individual was a chemist, physician, agronomist, philosopher, statesman, and philanthropist. But for our interests he is the individual who in...

I am looking for information regarding btus/heat energy generated during a wine fermentation. I have accessed one source and it indicated between 150 and 250 btus per gallon or 25 btus per pound of grapes. I need to size an air conditioner for a glycol bath that will need to handle as many as...

Attached are some pics of my recent attempt to oak my reds. I was running behind schedule but finally got the opportunity to add some heavily toasted white oak sticks to my Landot Noir and Cynthianna. I used about 3 ounces of sticks per 5 gallons. The netting that houses the sticks allows for...

My thread on the "Ancient Wine" book by Patrick McGovern was closed. This is a second thread of mine that has been recently closed. If we are unable to carry on adult discourse about various subject matter in the General Chit-Chat forum then why even have it? There was nothing disrespectful or...

Ancient Wine -the search for the origins of viniculture author -Patrick E. McGovern McGovern is a senior research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania (MASCA) and professor of archaeology. He pioneered the field of biomolecular archaeology and has made important new discoveries from...

I guess we need to have a list of exclusions as far as allowed subject matter for the General Chit-Chat forum. My thread concerning the use of wine in a marijuana water pipe was deleted. I received no notice, warning, or explanation about the removal of said thread. The modesty of our moderators...

As I rapidly approach "three score" in age I have no choice but to adjust my lifestyle to accommodate my ailing back. I have rigged up a vacuum pump for fluid transfer to eliminate picking up those murderous full carboys, especially the 6 gallon jobs. After purchasing a Thomas vacuum pump off...

I have a couple mulberry trees on my property and I absolutely love the taste of their fruit. It would have to make a fantastic fruit wine the way I see it. The problem is collecting the fruit. There is no straightforward way to retrieve it. The branches/limbs won't support a ladder and placing...

Woodworking is my primary profession. I am hoping to inherit some older 15 gallon wood kegs from a friend who is cycling them out and moving to a bigger size. I am thinking about trying to disassemble the kegs and replace a percentage of the staves to reinvigorate their usefulness. I have a...

Hopefully next year I may have enough roucaneuf to make a small batch of wine. I froze the grapes from this year and will add them to next year's crop. I have never fermented a rose. Is it recommended to ferment as a white or red (w/ the skins)?

I am probably one of the few vintners in Arkansas trying to grow Roucaneuf. The mother vine was awesome this year (4th year). I got 10 pounds off of it and froze the fruit for another year when there is more to work with. I'll have about 15 vines when they are all mature. The starters have been...

Last year I had a fairly pronounced outbreak of leaf phylloxera on the vidal and chardonel varietals. It wasn't severe enough to cause a lot of concern. This year I had hardly any evidence of it and what little I found was on the Vidal. I trimmed it out and destroyed the affected vegetation. Has...

Howdy Folks, My bio is short and not that impressive: I'm a semi-retired 60 year old living in the backwoods of the north central Arkansas Ozarks on about 55 acres of rural bliss. My small vineyard has around 100 vines: Cynthianna Chambourcin Landot Noir Chardonel Vidal Roucaneuf...