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I've been making elderberry wine for 3 years now (2021, 2022, 2023) using fruit from my own bushes. The 2021 is already bottled; it was my first attempt and came out a bit more tart than I'd hoped, but I think not bad for a first attempt. I'm also aware that folks say elderberry takes many years...

We're 2 weeks into the New Year already - what do you have in store? Revisiting familiar wine(s) or trying something new? Any new gear on the horizon? I'm going back to pinot noir this year - I last made red pinot noir in 2021, then made sparkling and still pinot noir-based whites in 2022. This...

Title says it: Holiday Sale | MoreWine

I need to buy a new crown capper and wondered what recommendations folks here might have. Up until now I've been using the crown capper attachment for my Italian floor corker, however one of the lugs that attaches it to the corker broke off so it's now useless. I'm probably looking for a...

I had a negative experience with my first experience of using rice hulls to try and increase press yields, and @winemaker81 commented in another thread that he found no such issue. So rather than derail either of those earlier threads I thought I'd ask: do you use rice hulls? What dose do you...

My main winemaking project for this year is to make Syrah for the first time. I arranged to buy 1/4 ton of grapes from a grower ~40 miles away and laid in my supplies: yeast (Rockpile/RP-15), Go-Ferm, Fermaid-O and a couple of 32-gal Brutes to use as primary fermenters. I estimated ~53 gallons...

I'm planning to make some Syrah this year - 1/4 ton grapes so I'm expecting 30+ gallons of wine. I would like some oak influence at some stage but curious as to whether anyone has any references or experience regarding when to add oak. 'Adding oak' here might mean using some wood adjunct or...

Anyone located in or near the Netherlands and want to help the nuns out? The wine intervention: Dutch nuns appeal for help with booze glut

I'm currently making a white pinot noir, I have 12 gallons in 2 carboys (7 and 5 gal). All seemed to be going well, though there was a slight haze in both carboys so I decided to run a fining trial. A couple of the fining agents seemed to give brighter tasting wine and I decided to go with a...

I just did my first bottling run with my new Enolmatic bottle filler. I know that several others here have this machine too, so I thought it might be useful to have a thread where we can compare notes, hints and tips etc. Bottom line: I'm happy with my first experience, though there are a few...

I thought about posting this in the recent Back Sweetening thread, but figured it was sufficiently distinct to warrant a new topic... What is your timing for addition of sugar and sorbate when you're back-sweetening wine? I am about to bottle my first white wines, and although I'm happy with...

There was once a magician who worked on a cruise ship. He wasn't the greatest magician in the world (and it wasn't the fanciest cruise ship), but it was a steady job and the passengers/guests seemed to enjoy his act. All was well until one day the captain started bringing his parrot to the...

I think this a might be the year I invest in a filtration setup for my wine, and would be interested to hear opinions and feedback from those of you who have such systems. In general I can see myself filtering between 5-30 gal at a time. As I see it, my options are as follows: - Integrated...

Last week I set up my first ever fining trial. I'm planning to make a sparkling blanc de noir this year, and my base wine is ready to rack into a keg for cold stabilization. I wanted to make sure that it is protein/heat stable, so set up fining trails with bentonite. I'm using Albumex, which is...

I started a 5-gal batch of elderberry a little over a week ago. ~18lb fruit cold soaked for 4 days, then left to warm up overnight, crushed by hand, treated with pectinase and pitched yeast starter (BM4X4). I'm punching down/mixing in the fruit 2x/day. It seems to be moving nicely (brix from...

This year I wanted to make a white wine. I have over 26 cases of my 2021 Pinot Noir in hand, and while I’m happy with how it turned out there are times when only a glass of white will do. However, I delayed sourcing my grapes due to the uncertain arrival time of my new crusher/destemmer, which...

I made a 2021 pinot noir, and so far I've been delighted with its progress. (Original thread describing crush, fermentation and press is here). The wine (60gal) is in neutral French oak, with topping wine in a keg. After barreling down, pH and TA were 3.61 and 6.75 respectively. I added ML...

My Meyer lemon tree has been extremely productive this year so I thought I'd try my hand at making some lemon wine. As with most of my projects, I reviewed lots of recipes (including those here, of course) and ended up doing my own thing. But I'm afraid I may be on my way to making rocket...

I just moved my 2021 topping wine from carboys to a keg (consolidating 2 carboys into 1 keg after topping my barrel), and I noticed that the airlocks were a bit stinky (vinegary). The wine seems fine so I think no harm done, but I wondered what you use for the liquid in your airlocks (and how...

I'm curious as to how people are doing cold stabilization (or temperature controlled fermentation for that matter), particularly for batches of (white) wine in the 15-30gal range. I don't have any suitable equipment right now so it seems my options are (in increasing order of cost): (i) Leave...