Your Winemaking Educational Source
Wine kits are great for experimenting. Whether you want to swap out the yeast, try a split fermentation with multiple strains, or use different types of oak kits are the most economical wine making medium to experiment on.
Malolactic fermentation, however, is not something that should be experimented with on most wine kits. In fact unless your kit came with malolactic bacteria I suggest steering clear of MLF altogether. Why? Continue reading “Malolactic Fermentation on Wine Kits?”
Natural cork closures have been around for hundreds of years. At first they were merely a more convenient way to seal a bottle of wine. Over time, however, we have come to understand that corks offer an incredible benefit over synthetic closures: micro-oxygenation.
That’s right, natural corks allow your wine to get oxidized. While this may seem scary at first it is actually very good for wine in very small doses spread out over very long periods of time. Continue reading “Cork Closures and Oxygenation”
Acidity is a measurement of the quantity of acid present in a wine or must. This is not to be confused with the pH of a wine which is a measurement of the strength of those acids present.
Like pH, however, the acidity of a wine goes a long way in determining how a finished wine will taste, feel in your mouth, and how well it will age. Having a low acidity will result in a flat and boring wine while having too much acid can lead to tartness or even a sour wine.
However, if you peg the acidity just right you are much more likely to have flavors that pop, good mouthfeel, crispness in white wines, and decent age-ability. It takes careful measurements and a keen sense of taste for those acids produced by spoilage organisms. More on this soon.
What makes acidity tricky is that not all acids are measurable using the same laboratory methods. This is why acidity is described as three different entities, titratable, volatile, and total. Continue reading “Understanding Wine Acidity”
The pH of a wine is critical not only to its flavor but to nearly every aspect of the wine. According to wine maker Alison Crowe of Winemaker Magazine “pH is the backbone of a wine”.
It is second in importance only to the must sugar levels. Fluctuations in pH could mean the difference between a wine going down the sink and one you hang a double gold medal on. Continue reading “The Importance of pH in Wine Making”
Sur lie aging is the process of allowing a finished wine to continue to sit on the lees in order to extract flavors. Recently we explored the fact that there are two different types of lees. There are the grape lees (coming from the fruit) and the yeast lees (you guessed it, from the yeast). Each of these can be used in sur lie aging and each will produce different results.
Aging wine on the grape lees is something to be undertaken with extreme care as this lees can easily spoil a wine if not done properly. When done correctly though it can lead to a wonderfully complex wine. Continue reading “Sur Lie Aging Explained”