A pale pink wine can be dry, sweet, delicate, firm, inexpensive or ambitious. Its colour does not settle any of those questions. Rosé winemaking
Continue ReadingRed Winemaking Explained: Extraction, Fermentation, Cap Management, and Tannin
A dark red ferment can look impressive long before it tastes balanced. Colour enters the liquid relatively quickly, while the amount and character
Continue ReadingWhite Winemaking Explained: Fermentation Choices, Oxygen, Lees, and Style
Two white wines made from the same variety can seem barely related. One is brisk and aromatic, with a clean, direct fruit profile. Another feels b
Continue ReadingHow Winemaking Begins: Grape Reception, Crushing, Pressing, Extraction, and Must Adjustments
A load of grapes reaches the winery, but it does not arrive as a blank canvas. The fruit brings its maturity, temperature, health, microorganisms
Continue ReadingHarvest Decisions Explained: Ripeness, Timing, Mechanical Harvesting, and Sweet Wine Grapes
A grape can become sweeter without becoming more useful. Water loss can raise the concentration of sugar while heat, disease or an approaching sto
Continue ReadingSustainable, Organic, Biodynamic, and Regenerative Viticulture Explained
A vineyard can grow cover crops, encourage beneficial insects and use precision irrigation without being certified organic. Another can meet an or
Continue ReadingVineyard Irrigation and Nutrition Explained: Managing Water, Soil, and Vine Balance
Two vines can look thirsty for different reasons. One may have exhausted the water around its roots. Another may sit beside a blocked emitter whil
Continue ReadingCanopy Management Explained: Leaf Area, Sun Exposure, Yields, and Grape Quality
A vineyard can have plenty of leaves and still struggle to ripen its grapes. The problem may be where those leaves sit. A dense outer layer interc
Continue ReadingVine Training and Pruning Explained: Trellising, Cane Pruning, and Spur Pruning
A dormant vineyard looks like a collection of sticks until someone starts choosing which sticks stay. Those choices establish where next season's
Continue ReadingWine Maturation and Finishing Explained: Oak, Lees, Blending, Stabilization, and Ageing
A wine can finish alcoholic fermentation and still be a long way from the bottle. It may need time, a different vessel, a carefully chosen blend o
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