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I have some preliminary results from one of the experiments I'm running on my 2018 Dornfelder. The wine was fermented with BDX, D80 and RP15 yeasts and kept separate until after MLF was complete. Some of each was set aside for a yeast comparison experiment. The rest was blended, then divided...

I've seen news reports about the great 2018 wine growing season from several parts of the world. How was yours? In NJ we started with a late budbreak. Plenty of rain during the summer, and resultant excessive vine vigor. Then almost non-stop rain, fog and clouds in September and October...

I assume that one could achieve the same "level" of impact by usung a large quantity of oak cubes for a short time, or by using a small quantity for a long time, but that the nature of that impact would be quite different. Will a shorter duration emphasize the toasty outer layer? Will a long...

Harvested the Dornfelder on September 22nd, four vines, one in each corner of my little vineyard: My "Italian" Destemmer in action: After Destemming: Crushing: Ready to Ferment: ...One week later... Pressing 1: Pressing 2: After Pressing, before Racking off Gross Lees:

Last year at harvest, some of my Syrah clusters, which tend to be rather compact, looked great on the outside, but hidden inside the cluster there were hollow dry shells of smallish berries that would crumble in your hand. What is up with that? Is there some known pest or disease or condition...

Is it just me? I search for product X, wanting to find out if anyone has any actual experience with it. I find thousands of vendors repeating the identical manufacturer's marketing blurb. Eventually I find a few people posting on forums about the product. But the forum posts invariably take...

The oft repeated advice is: 24 ºBrix or below, 1 gram of wine yeast/gallon of must. 25 ºBrix or above or otherwise stressful fermentation,1.25 grams of wine yeast/gallon of must. What are the potential consequences of exceeding these recommend rates? Overly fast / hot fermentation? Failure of...

Back when I was first exposed to winemaking, people would mail order their wine yeast from the back of hippie magazines, and it seemed it would invariably be a Red Star sample pack. Aside from updating a few names and dropping the Flor Sherry, I don't think the Red Star lineup has changed much...

To really understand pruning watch these videos, starting with #1. Someone should hand out diplomas to anyone who watches the full set. https://www.youtube.com/user/Viticultureinfo

What is the shelf life of oak (powder, shavings, chips, cubes, spheres, squares, sticks, spirals, staves)? Assuming it has been stored clean and dry.

Merchants offer a dazzling array of yeast options with descriptions that make us want to try them all, even suggesting that we blend several for greater complexity. We are inclined buy into the marketing hype, sniffing and tasting throughout the process and convincing ourselves that we can...