Category Archives: Back to Basics

Back to Basics: What’s Yeast

Posted on January 3, 2013 by stacey

Yeast is one of the most important parts of winemaking; in fact it’s the key ingredient that makes fermentation possible. There are thousands of varieties of yeast… but only one is important to winemaking: Saccharomyces cerevisiae — possibly the most … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Bottling a Wine and Bottle-Aging

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Bottling Most of the time, this is done with a bottling line, a mechanical system that pours the wine into clean bottles, then seals them with a cork or capsule and finishes the process by attaching a label. For smaller … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Fining and Filtering a Wine

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Fining and/or filtering Even if you racked your wine multiple times, there will still be tiny, invisible particles floating around in it. (If you didn’t rack, the particles may in fact be visible.) You can choose to leave them be, … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Racking a Wine

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Racking This process involves another transfer of the wine, from one container to another. Often, wines will simply be racked from one barrel into another of the same type. This seemingly small step does two things: First, it drains the … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Aging Wine Sur-Lie or Lees Stirring

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Aging Sur-Lie or Lees Stirring Lees are tiny, particulate bits of matter in the wine — bits of grape skin, pulp, tartrates, and mostly the leftover, spent yeast cells from the fermentation. Sometimes winemakers leave their white wines resting on the lees for … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Barrel-Aging a Wine

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Barrel-aging You have a lot of choices when it comes to the type of oak barrels in which you age your wine. First there’s the type of oak: There are hundreds of types of oak tree! Each has a slightly … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Transferring Wine to Tank or Barrel

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Transferring to tank or barrel At this stage, the fermented juice is drained from its fermentation tank, leaving behind most of the solids such as bits of grape skin and spent yeast cells. The wine is pumped or poured into … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: After Fermentation… What Happens Next?

Posted on October 26, 2012 by stevie

Congratulations, your fermentation is complete! The yeast did their job, and your grape juice has successfully turned into wine. So what happens next?   There are a number of basic processes a wine often goes through before you actually get … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: What are Tannins?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by laura

Have you ever sipped a really big, bold red wine and noticed after swallowing that your mouth feels incredibly dry? Maybe your tongue feels stuck to the roof of your mouth, or it’s like a bunch of teen tiny burs … Continue reading →

Back to Basics: Picking Out “Non-Fruit” Notes in Wine

Posted on August 30, 2012 by laura

Everyone experiences a wine differently, because everyone experiences taste and smell differently! So don’t get afraid or upset if someone says they smell something in a wine that you just cannot pick out. Maybe you’ve never even smelled or tasted … Continue reading →