Wine Tonite!

Long considered the blue-collar workhorse of the winemaking process, operating sub rosa, yeasts have recently taken center stage in many conversations about wine and the desire to emphasize the expression of vineyard apart from human and technological influence. At the essence of the debate is the decision to inoculate with commercial yeast or to allow [...]

Depending on how deep your passion is into the world of wine, you may find yourself yearning for further understanding of how wine is transformed from clusters of fruit in a vineyard to a bottle of yummy goodness.  Or not.  As somewhat of a science nerd, you’ve probably read some of my posts about making [...]

When you think of wines from New Zealand what comes to mind first?  Probably something with a strong tart pink grapfruit and cat piss smell in most cases… but, not from Kumeu River Wines near Auckland.  They are touting some pretty fantastic Chardonnay these days because they have found this variety performs best in their vineyards [...]

(no relation of this topic to the title… I just had the Foghat song running through my skull for some reason)  It’s now Day 5 (Day 3+ of fermentation) and the yeast are really doing their thing.  You can see from the chart below that the temperature has risen quickly to around 75F (23.9 C) [...]

It’s day 2 of fermentation (day 4 of the whole operation), but who’s counting?  One of the main pointers I ever got about making wine at home is “BE PATIENT” which is very tough for me.  I am definitely an instant gratification kind of guy.  So, I waited patiently as my frozen cabernet sauvignon must [...]