Tim Patterson

    Writer for Wines Vines and WineMaker

    and award-winning home winemaker

    Learn to:

    Master every step of the winemaking

    process

    Select the perfect grapes for your wines

    Craft a delicious range of red and

    white varietals

    Create sparkling, rosé, and

    dessert wines

    Home

    Winemaking

    Making Everything Easier!

    Open the book and find:

    Winemaking hints and secrets

    from professional vintners

    Affordable grape varieties that

    make tasty wine

    How to test and tweak your juice

    before fermentation

    The yeast strain that’s right for

    your wine

    Mistakes to avoid and trouble-

    shooting tips

    Minor wines with major appeal

    Whether to use American or

    French oak — or any oak at all

    Tim Patterson writes about wine and makes some of his own in Berkeley,California. He contributes the monthly “Inquiring Winemaker” column for the

    industry trade magazine Wines Vines, digging into winemaking theories

    and techniques, and he covered home winemaking for several years in the

    pages of WineMaker. He has won dozens of Gold medals, Double Golds,and Best of Shows from amateur winemaking competitions in California.

    19.99 US 23.99 CN ￡14.99 UK

    ISBN 978-0-470-67895-4

    Wine Spirits

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    Enjoy making (and drinking)

    your own first-class wines

    Making high-quality wines is fun and easy. This must-have

    guide gives you easy-to-follow instructions in everything

    from selecting the right grapes and the proper equipment,to the crush and fermentation, to aging and bottling your

    wine. Award-winning home winemaker Tim Patterson

    provides tips on how to make every style of wine — red,white, dry, sweet, and bubbly. Soon, your family and friends

    will be toasting your delectable creations!

    Equip yourself — get the tools you need and design a functional

    winery, no matter how small your space

    Choose great grapes — explore your options, from fresh to frozen,and figure out the quantity you need

    Make reds that impress — learn proven techniques for red wines,including bold Bordeaux and ravishing Rh?ne wines

    Create delicious whites — make Chardonnays and Sauvignon

    Blancs like the professionals, thanks to expert advice

    Explore other styles of wine — think pink with refreshing rosé

    wines and indulge your sweet tooth with delicious dessert wines

    Age your wine to perfection — weigh the merits of storing your

    wine in glass or barrels, and calculate the ideal aging time

    “Tim Patterson is one of the best contemporary

    writers on wine in the United States. Reading

    Home Winemaking For Dummies is the absolute

    best way to tackle the very satisfying process of

    making your own wine.”

    — Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible

    Home Winemaking Patterson

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    There’s a Dummies App for This and That

    With more than 200 million books in print and over 1,600 unique

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    www.Dummies.comgomobile from your computer.

    www.Dummies.comgoiphoneapps from your phone.Praise for Home Winemaking

    For Dummies

    “A thorough, practical, and entertaining guide, this text takes tips from

    the pros and brings common sense and approachability to the art of

    winemaking.?Mr. Patterson’s vast experience and contagious passion

    for the subject make Home Winemaking For Dummies an enjoyable read

    while the format makes it an excellent reference and allows the reader

    to delve as deep into the subject matter as he or she wishes. Whether

    problem-solving or pursuing stylistic ideals, Mr. Patterson holds the

    reader’s hand when needed but still encourages creativity within safe

    boundaries. ?From sourcing fruit to healthy fermentation habits straight

    through aging, bottling, and even enjoying home-made wine, this guide

    has you covered at every step — I even learned a few things myself!? This

    book would be a welcome addition to any wine enthusiast’s library and is

    equally accessible to novice and connoisseur.?

    — Ondine Chattan, Winemaker, Geyser Peak Winery

    “As a 20-year amateur winemaker with an addiction to winemaking books,I now have a new ‘go-to’ book for my i rst reference! After the excellently

    accurate coverage of basic winemaking, Tim’s tome takes the wonderful

    turn of emphasizing the subtle, and not-so subtle, differences that make

    the distinctions between the popular varietals — all in one place! Home

    Winemaking For Dummies is now prominently on my shelf in front of all

    the textbooks!”

    — Dave Lustig, President, Cellarmasters Home Wine Club Los Angeles

    “Tim Patterson is able to express his knowledge and passion of

    winemaking in a very understandable, humorous, and practical way.?If

    you follow the advice in this book, you will be able to produce wine that

    will likely be better than inexpensive commercial wine, and could be as

    good as any wine ever made. I applaud Tim’s effort and wish this book

    was around when I started making wine.”

    — Kent Rosenblum, Consultant Winemaker, Rosenblum Cellars,and former home winemaker

    01_678954-ffirs.indd i01_678954-ffirs.indd i 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PM01_678954-ffirs.indd ii01_678954-ffirs.indd ii 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMby Tim Patterson

    Home

    Winemaking

    FOR

    DUMmIES‰

    01_678954-ffirs.indd iii01_678954-ffirs.indd iii 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMHome Winemaking For Dummies?

    Published by

    John Wiley Sons Canada, Ltd.

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    www.wiley.com

    Copyright ? 2011 by John Wiley Sons Canada, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including

    interior design, cover design, and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means

    (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

    A number of the quotations from winemakers in this book originally appeared in articles by the author for

    Wines Vines and WineMaker magazines, and are reprinted here by permission.

    For details on how to create a custom book for your company or organization, or for more information

    on John Wiley Sons Canada custom publishing programs, please call 416-646-7992 or e-mail

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    OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION ANDOR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FUR-

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    FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE

    CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Patterson, Tim, 1946–

    Home winemaking for dummies Tim Patterson.

    Includes index.

    Issued also in electronic formats.

    ISBN 978-0-470-67895-4

    1. Wine and wine making—Amateurs’ manuals. I. Title.

    TP548.2.P38 2010 641.8’72 C2010-906320-1

    ISBN: 9780470681121 (ebk); 9780470681138 (ebk); 9780470681145 (ebk)

    Printed in Canada

    1 2 3 4 5 RRD 15 14 13 12 11

    01_678954-ffirs.indd iv01_678954-ffirs.indd iv 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMPublisher’s Acknowledgments

    We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http:dummies.custhelp.com.

    Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

    Acquisitions and Editorial

    Acquiring Editor: Robert Hickey

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    Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

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    01_678954-ffirs.indd v01_678954-ffirs.indd v 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PM01_678954-ffirs.indd vi01_678954-ffirs.indd vi 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMAbout the Author

    Tim Patterson writes about adult beverages and makes some of his own in

    Berkeley, California. In previous lives, he wrote about national politics,television, techie stuff, and hillbilly music. He roots for glamour-free wine

    regions and low-proi le grapes; wants to know how wine is really made; and

    bottles his own in his garage, just to keep himself honest.

    He does the monthly “Inquiring Winemaker” column for the industry trade

    magazine Wines Vines, digging into winemaking theories and techniques,and writes frequently for consumers in the Wine Enthusiast. More to the

    immediate point, he has expounded regularly about home winemaking for

    several years in the pages of WineMaker. Past prose has also surfaced in

    Diablo, the Livermore Independent, Central Coast Adventures, Vineyard

    Winery Management, Sommelier Journal, and The Vine, and on various

    now-defunct Web sites.

    He coauthored (with Jim Concannon) Concannon: The First One Hundred

    and Twenty-Five Years, a history of that venerable Livermore Valley winery;

    contributed an introduction on the history of world dessert wine styles to

    Mary Cech and Jennie Schacht’s The Wine Lover’s Dessert Cookbook and a

    true-life tale to Thom Elkjer’s Adventures In Wine. He contributed to Opus

    Vino, a global wine encyclopedia. With veteran California winemaker and

    wine educator John Buechsenstein, he’s working on a book about the

    science — and often the lack of it — behind the wine world’s most fascinating

    concept, terroir. And of course, there’s a blog: Blind Muscat’s Cellarbook

    (http:blindmuscat.typepad.com).

    His made his i rst home wine in 1997 — a small batch of Carignane, hardly the

    noblest of grapes — and when it turned out to bear a striking resemblance to

    real wine, he was hooked. Since then he has collected a small wall full of

    ribbons from amateur wine competitions and recruited a circle of friends to

    do most of the hard work. He leans toward Rh?ne reds and aromatic whites,but he’s willing to try anything that grows on a vine.

    01_678954-ffirs.indd vii01_678954-ffirs.indd vii 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMDedication

    For my brother Byron, who taught me that normal humans could make good

    wine at home — and that he could, too — as well as so many other things.

    Author’s Acknowledgments

    When the opportunity to write this book materialized, I was one happy

    winemaker. For that I have a string of folks at John Wiley Sons to thank.

    First and foremost, Acquisitions Editor Robert Hickey made the early stages

    close to painless. From start to i nish, he was enthusiastic, supportive, helpful,and prompt, all at a distance of several thousand miles. Likewise, working

    with my Project Editor, Kathleen Dobie, was a delight: just enough guidance

    to keep me on track, just enough humor to make hearing from her a pleasure.

    Despite all the warnings that print is dead, the entire crew at Wiley makes me

    believe the medium is very much alive.

    Thanks to my tag-team of Technical Editors, Tom Leaf and Thomas Pellechia,both crackerjack winemakers, for helping me get the details right.

    This book draws on interviews and conversations about winemaking for

    articles I’ve written, so thanks to my editors and publishers at Wines Vines

    (Chet Klingensmith, Tina Caputo, and now Jim Gordon) and at WineMaker

    (Kathleen Ring, Brad Ring, Chris Colby) for paying me to learn how to be a

    better winemaker. For the details on doing this in your garage, the crew at

    the Oak Barrel in Berkeley — Bernie Rooney, Homer Smith, Kel Owen-Alcala,and Bob Lower — have been invaluable and generous beyond belief. Thanks

    to Peter Brehm for educating me about grapes.

    Finally, thanks to the many people who read parts of this book, offering

    numerous helpful suggestions. The list, composed of professional winemak-

    ers, homies, and at least one published poet, includes John Buechsenstein,Roger Campbell, Pat Darr, Ken English, Tricia Goldberg, Nato Green, Marcia

    Henry, Gil Kulers, Don Link, Mark Magers, Bill Mayer, Michael Michaud, Ray

    Paetzold, Byron Patterson, Gene Patterson, Susan Patton-Fox, Ivan Pelcyger,Eileen Raphael, Bill Rohwer, Jennie Schacht, Joel Sommer, Pete Stauffer, Ron

    Story, Thy Tran, and Linda Yoshino. Thanks to Lisa Van de Water for a short

    course in remedial microbiology, and to Wanda Hennig and Eileen Raphael

    for the photos that got worked up into this book’s illustrations.

    The book is dedicated to my brother Byron, who showed me the ropes of

    home winemaking. But heartfelt thanks also go to my wife, Nancy Freeman,who graciously allowed this runaway hobby to take over our house and a

    good deal of our social life, resulting in this book.

    01_678954-ffirs.indd viii01_678954-ffirs.indd viii 10610 1:38 PM10610 1:38 PMContents at a Glance

    Introduction ................................................................ 1

    Part I: Motivations, Materials, and Methods .................. 7

    Chapter 1: Making Great Wine at Home ..........................................................................9

    Chapter 2: Finding Good Grapes ....................................................................................21

    Chapter 3: Provisioning Your Home Winery ................................................................37

    Chapter 4: Obsessing over Temperature, Oxygen, and Sanitation ...........................61

    Part II: Phases and Stages ......................................... 71

    Chapter 5: Sorting, Crushing, and Pressing ..................................................................73

    Chapter 6: Letting Yeast Do Its Thing: Fermentation ..................................................91

    Chapter 7: Doing the Post-Fermentation Tango.........................................................111

    Chapter 8: Aging and Blending .....................................................................................125

    Chapter 9: Finishing and Bottling ................................................................................145

    Chapter 10: Storing, Serving, and Starting Over ........................................................159

    Part III: Deeper Into Reds ........................................ 169

    Chapter 11: What’s Special about Red Wines? ...........................................................171

    Chapter 12: Bold Bordeaux Reds .................................................................................185

    Chapter 13: Ravishing Rh?ne Reds ..............................................................................199

    Chapter 14: Handling the Hard Cases .........................................................................213

    Chapter 15: Up-and-Comers and Off-the-Radars ........................................................229

    Part IV: Deeper Into Whites ...................................... 237

    Chapter 16: What’s Special about White Wines? .......................................................239

    Chapter 17: Fruity, Herbal Whites ...............................................................................253

    Chapter 18: Aromatic Whites .......................................................................................271

    Part V: Beyond Red and White ................................. 289

    Chapter 19: Thinking and Drinking Pink .....................................................................291

    Chapter 20: Dessert, Fortii ed, and Sparkling Wines.................................................299

    02_678954-ftoc.indd ix02_678954-ftoc.indd ix 10610 1:39 PM10610 1:39 PMPart VI: The Part of Tens .......................................... 315

    Chapter 21: Ten Mistakes Most Home Winemakers Make at Least Once ...............317

    Chapter 22: Ten Ways To Save Money (and Make Better Wine) .............................321

    Chapter 23: Ten Differences between Wine(makers) and Beer(brewers) .............325

    Part VII: Appendixes ................................................ 329

    Appendix A: Glossary ....................................................................................................331

    Appendix B: Conversions..............................................................................................333

    Appendix C: Resources .................................................................................................335

    Appendix D: Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and pH ...................................................................339

    Index ...................................................................... 347

    02_678954-ftoc.indd x02_678954-ftoc.indd x 10610 1:39 PM10610 1:39 PM

    Introduction ................................................................. 1

    About This Book ..............................................................................................2

    Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2

    What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................3

    Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3

    How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................4

    Part I: Motivation, Materials, and Methods ........................................4

    Part II: Phases and Stages .....................................................................4

    Part III: Deeper Into Reds ......................................................................4

    Part IV: Deeper Into Whites ..................................................................5

    Part V: Beyond Red and White .............................................................5

    Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5

    Part VII: Appendixes ..............................................................................5

    Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5

    Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6

    Part I: Motivations, Materials, and Methods ................... 7

    Chapter 1: Making Great Wine at Home . . . . . . .9

    Choosing to Make Cheap Wine or Really Good Wine ...............................10

    Making wine to save money ...............................................................10

    Making really good wine .....................................................................11

    Getting into the Home Winemaking Mindset .............................................12

    Surrendering to the grapes .................................................................12

    Developing patience, precision, and a little chemistry...................13

    Tasting and talking about wine ..........................................................14

    Aiming high ...........................................................................................15

    Going from Vine to Glass ..............................................................................15

    Practicing “safe” winemaking .............................................................15

    Getting grapes ......................................................................................16

    Getting outi tted ...................................................................................17

    Measuring grape chemistry ................................................................17

    Destemming, crushing, and pressing ................................................17

    Witnessing the miracle of fermentation ............................................18

    Performing a post-fermentation tune-up ..........................................19

    Aging and blending ..............................................................................19

    Finishing and bottling ..........................................................................20

    Thinking beyond bottling ...................................................................20

    02_678954-ftoc.indd xi02_678954-ftoc.indd xi 10610 1:39 PM10610 1:39 PMHome Winemaking For Dummies

    xii

    Chapter 2: Finding Good Grapes . . . . . . . .21

    Grape Expectations .......................................................................................21

    Getting grapes you like to drink .........................................................22

    Checking out your sources .................................................................22

    Calculating quantity ............................................................................24

    Choosing fresh, frozen, crushed, or juice .........................................25

    Maximizing quality or minimizing price? ..........................................26

    Picking First-Time Winners ..........................................................................27

    Sure-i re reds ........................................................................................27

    Winning whites .....................................................................................29

    Looking Beyond the Usual Suspects ...........................................................30

    Reds .......................................................................................................30

    Whites....................................................................................................31

    Versatile blenders ................................................................................32

    No Grapes? No Problem ................................................................................33

    Making wine from kits .........................................................................33

    Employing a winemaking service to do it for you............................34

    Winemaking beyond grapes ...............................................................35

    Making mead ........................................................................................35

    Chapter 3: Provisioning Your Home Winery . . . . . .37

    Weighing the Heavy Equipment ...................................................................38

    Crushing and destemming ..................................................................38

    Fermenting vessels ..............................................................................39

    Pressing matters ..................................................................................41

    Storing and aging .................................................................................43

    Filtering wine ........................................................................................43

    Bottling ..................................................................................................44

    Going gaseous ......................................................................................46

    Scanning the Smaller Stuff ............................................................................46

    Collecting containers...........................................................................46

    Closing closures ...................................................................................47

    Stirring and punching ..........................................................................48

    Racking and transfer............................................................................48

    Straining and sieving ...........................................................................49

    Cleaning equipment .............................................................................50

    Glassware ..............................................................................................50

    Winemaking log book ..........................................................................50

    Equipping Your Home Wine Lab .................................................................51

    Pulling samples ....................................................................................51

    Making calculations and conversions ...............................................51

    Measuring with calibrated glassware ................................................52

    Weighing in with a winery scale .........................................................52

    Testing equipment ...............................................................................52

    Shopping for Perishable Supplies ................................................................55

    Finding good microbes ........................................................................55

    Feeding the good microbes ................................................................56

    02_678954-ftoc.indd xii02_678954-ftoc.indd xii 10610 1:39 PM10610 1:39 PMxiii

    Killing the bad microbes .....................................................................56

    Aiding fermentation .............................................................................57

    Fixing wine issues ................................................................................57

    Designing Your Winery .................................................................................58

    Chapter 4: Obsessing over Temperature, Oxygen, and Sanitation . . 61

    Controlling Temperature ..............................................................................61

    Understanding why temperature matters ........................................62

    Measuring temperature.......................................................................62

    Warming up reds ..................................................................................63

    Cooling down whites ...........................................................................64

    Adjusting the temperature for aging .................................................65

    Identifying Oxygen as Friend or Foe ...........................................................65

    Encouraging happy fermentations ....................................................66

    Keeping oxygen spoilage at bay .........................................................66

    Keeping a little oxygen around because it (almost) never hurts ..... 67

    Airing out problems .............................................................................67

    Sanitation, Sanitation, Sanitation .................................................................68

    Cleaning, sanitizing, and sterilizing ...................................................68

    Explaining the myths and uses of sulfur dioxide .............................69

    Part II: Phases and Stages .......................................... 71

    Chapter 5: Sorting, Crushing, and Pressing. . . . . .73

    What to Do Before You Do Anything ...........................................................73

    Chill out .................................................................................................73

    Think i rst, crush later.........................................................................74

    Sort out the MOG .................................................................................75

    Get your numbers straight .................................................................75

    Crushing, Delicately and Otherwise ............................................................79

    Standard crushing................................................................................79

    Non-crush options ...............................................................................81

    Pressing Whites .............................................................................................82

    Adding, Subtracting, and Tweaking ............................................................86

    Pass the sugar, please .........................................................................87

    Adjusting acidity ..................................................................................88

    Managing microbes with SO2 ..............................................................89

    Including endless enzymes .................................................................90

    Chapter 6: Letting Yeast Do Its Thing: Fermentation . . . . .91

    Winemaking’s Secret: Yeast, the Fortunate Fungus ..................................91

    Selecting a strain ..................................................................................93

    Re-hydrating and adding yeast ..........................................................94

    Feeding your yeast, but not too much ..............................................96

    02_678954-ftoc.indd xiii02_678954-ftoc.indd xiii 10610 1:39 PM10610 1:39 PMHome Winemaking For Dummies

    xiv

    Monitoring and Massaging Fermentation ...................................................97

    Punching down reds ............................................................................97

    Checking temperature .........................................................................98

    Disappearing sugar, emerging ethanol ...........................................100

    Snifi ng, slurping, and sensing your fermentation .........................102

    Knowing when it’s done and what to do then ................................104

    Pressing Reds ...............................................................................................105

    Timing red pressing ...........................................................................105

    Squeezing your reds ..........................................................................106

    Troubleshooting a Stuck Fermentation: When the Fermentation

    Won’t Ferment ..........................................................................................107

    Recognizing the signs and scents of trouble ..................................107

    Checking i rst things i rst ..................................................................108

    Re-starting a stuck fermentation ......................................................109

    Chapter 7: Doing the Post-Fermentation Tango . . . . .111

    Cleaning Up Your Wine ...............................................................................111

    Practicing the art of racking .............................................................112

    Experiencing the joys of lees ............................................................114

    Doing the Post-Fermentation Checkup .....................................................114

    Checking dryness ...............................................................................115

    Adjusting pH .......................................................................................115

    Lowering acidity.................................................................................116

    Adding and timing SO2 ......................................................................116

    Exploring the Mysteries of the Malolactic ................................................117

    Understanding what the heck malolactic fermentation is............117

    Getting why malo matters.................................................................117

    Doing the deed ...................................................................................119

    Stopping malo in its tracks ...............................................................119

    Evaluating Wine at the Yucky Stage ..........................................................120

    Snifi ng out trouble ............................................................................120

    Tasting for trajectory ........................................................................121

    Exposing to Oxygen, No; Topping Up, Yes ...............................................122

    Topping up and headspace ..............................................................123

    Being careful what you top with ......................................................124

    Getting gassed ....................................................................................124

    Chapter 8: Aging and Blending . . . . . . . .125

    Glass, Germs, and Steel: Carboy Aging .....................................................125

    Barreling Down Your Wine .........................................................................126

    Debating wood versus glass .............................................................127

    Judging differences in new and old(er) oak ...................................127

    Keeping and cleaning your barrels ..................................................128

    Choosing French or American oak ..................................................130

    Toasting barrel staves .......................................................................130

    Exploring oak alternatives ................................................................131

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    Tasting, Topping, and Tweaking ................................................................132

    Tasting, tasting, tasting .....................................................................132

    Topping and tending .........................................................................133

    Getting the most out of dead yeast .................................................134

    Timing the rackings ...........................................................................135

    Calculating aging time .......................................................................135

    The Joys of Blending ...................................................................................136

    Winning combinations ......................................................................137

    Finding wine to blend ........................................................................138

    Timing, tasting, and trials .................................................................139

    What blending can i x and can’t i x..................................................140

    Snifi ng Out and Snufi ng Out Problems ...................................................140

    Smelling sulfur and brimstone and rotten eggs — oh my! ...........141

    Getting too much air ..........................................................................142

    Confronting bad news Brett .............................................................143

    Calming volatile vinegar ....................................................................144

    Chapter 9: Finishing and Bottling . . . . . . . .145

    Fining: Cleaning Up Wine’s Act ..................................................................145

    Accounting for heat, cold, and protein ...........................................145

    Stabilizing tartrates ...........................................................................146

    Fining reds to tame tannin ................................................................147

    Last resorts .........................................................................................148

    Filtration: Making Your Wine Shine ...........................................................148

    Why bother i ltering? .........................................................................148

    Procedures and precautions ............................................................149

    Setting Up the Home Bottling Line ............................................................150

    Bottles and i llers ...............................................................................151

    Bottling line checklist ........................................................................157

    Closing the Deal ...........................................................................................157

    Final oxygen and sanitation warning ...............................................158

    The bottling-day lunch ......................................................................158

    Chapter 10: Storing, Serving, and Starting Over. . . . .159

    Storing and Tasting .....................................................................................159

    Beware bottle shock ..........................................................................159

    Storing happy wine ............................................................................161

    Tasting for quality and development ..............................................162

    Fixing Bottled Wine .....................................................................................162

    Diagnosing problems .........................................................................163

    Re-bottling all over again ..................................................................164

    Serving and Pouring with Pride .................................................................165

    Showing off your wine .......................................................................165

    Gauging temperature and glassware ...............................................165

    Cycling from Harvest to Harvest ...............................................................166

    Applying lessons learned ..................................................................167

    Giving your equipment a rest ...........................................................167

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    Part III: Deeper Into Reds ......................................... 169

    Chapter 11: What’s Special about Red Wines? . . . . .171

    Exploring the Deceptive Ease of Reds ......................................................171

    Balancing power and i nesse ............................................................172

    Getting a high from sugar, alcohol, and pH ....................................173

    Managing tannins ...............................................................................174

    Thinking oak is oaky-dokey ..............................................................175

    Playing with the Rules — Options, Alternatives, and Experiments ......175

    Taking a cold soak .............................................................................176

    Pulling off pink....................................................................................177

    Multiplying yeast strains...................................................................177

    Fermenting a multitude of grapes ....................................................177

    Fermenting with whole grapes and clusters ..................................178

    Fermenting inside the grapes — carbonic maceration .................179

    Talking temperature ..........................................................................179

    Deconstructing wine: Rack and return............................................180

    Pressing early .....................................................................................181

    Pressing way later ..............................................................................181

    Going to barrel clean or dirty ...........................................................182

    Addressing Aging .........................................................................................182

    Making Decisions, Decisions ......................................................................183

    Chapter 12: Bold Bordeaux Reds. . . . . . . .185

    From Bordeaux to London to the World ..................................................185

    King Cabernet ...............................................................................................187

    Small berries, big wines ....................................................................187

    Cabernet for fruit, age, or both ........................................................187

    Styling your Cab .................................................................................188

    Malleable Merlot ..........................................................................................190

    Getting beyond generic .....................................................................190

    Nurturing Merlot style .......................................................................192

    Marvelous Minor Players ............................................................................193

    Cabernet Franc: Cab on a smaller frame .........................................193

    Malbec: From Cahors to Mendoza ...................................................194

    Petit Verdot: Bordeaux’s mystery ingredient.................................195

    Blending Strategies ......................................................................................197

    Making Yeast and Style Choices ................................................................198

    Chapter 13: Ravishing Rh?ne Reds . . . . . . .199

    Sipping Syrah around the World ...............................................................199

    Unpacking the Northern Rh?ne style ..............................................200

    Getting down (under) with Aussie style .........................................201

    Using the “improving variety” ..........................................................203

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    Living Large with Petite Sirah ....................................................................203

    Rising from i eld blender to solo act ...............................................204

    Taming the beast ...............................................................................204

    Introducing Marvelous Minor Players ......................................................206

    You say Garnacha and I say Grenache ............................................206

    Moody, mysterious Mourvèdre........................................................207

    Cinsault is just a bowl of cherries....................................................208

    Carignane, or is that Kerrigan? ........................................................209

    Blending? Of Course ....................................................................................210

    Choosing Yeasts and Other Options .........................................................211

    Chapter 14: Handling the Hard Cases . . . . . . .213

    Treating Pinot Noir with Kid Gloves .........................................................213

    How not to make Pinot ......................................................................214

    Less is more ........................................................................................214

    Zinfandel: Wine on the Wild Side ...............................................................218

    Standing up to scary-ripe grapes .....................................................218

    Taming the wild thing........................................................................219

    Taming Temperamental Tempranillo .......................................................222

    Grapes with gratuitous grip ..............................................................223

    Tricks to managing tannins ..............................................................223

    Touching up Tempranillo .................................................................224

    Savoring Sharp-Edged Sangiovese .............................................................225

    Centuries of solutions .......................................................................226

    Pretending it’s Pinot ..........................................................................226

    Pairing Yeasts and Making Choices ..........................................................227

    Chapter 15: Up-and-Comers and Off-the-Radars . . . . .229

    A Mouth-Filling Miscellany of Reds ...........................................................229

    Savoring Northern Italian specials ..................................................230

    Doing double duty with Douro treasures .......................................231

    Laying in some Lemberger ...............................................................231

    Taking care with tannic Tannat .......................................................231

    Searching Out Homegrown Hybrids ..........................................................232

    How come hybrids? ...........................................................................233

    Constraints and conventions ...........................................................233

    Proven winners ..................................................................................235

    Turning to Teinturier Grapes: Red All Over .............................................236

    Part IV: Deeper Into Whites ...................................... 237

    Chapter 16: What’s Special about White Wines? . . . . .239

    Whites: Harder Than Reds? ........................................................................239

    Shrinking the margin of error ...........................................................240

    Making whites with character ..........................................................241

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    Options, Alternatives, and Experiments ...................................................241

    Pressing whole clusters ....................................................................241

    Savoring the skins ..............................................................................242

    Fermenting in barrels ........................................................................242

    Multiplying your yeast ......................................................................244

    Cooling down, warming up ...............................................................245

    To malo or not to malo .....................................................................246

    Oxidation on purpose........................................................................247

    Finishing touches ...............................................................................247

    The White Wine Balancing Act ..................................................................248

    Keeping acidity up .............................................................................249

    Easy on the oak ..................................................................................249

    Aging Your White Wines .............................................................................250

    Making those Decisions, Decisions ...........................................................250

    Chapter 17: Fruity, Herbal Whites . . . . . . . .253

    Chardonnay: The Perils of Popularity .......................................................253

    Checking its changeable characteristics ........................................253

    Matching fruit to technique ..............................................................255

    Channeling “faux Chablis” ................................................................256

    Mastering “faux Montrachet,” or the Big Chardonnay treatment .....259

    Sauvignon Blanc — Edgy and Otherwise ..................................................261

    Climate-driven styles .........................................................................262

    Options, options, options .................................................................263

    White Wine Wonderland .............................................................................264

    Pinot GrisGrigio ................................................................................265

    Pinot Blanc ..........................................................................................265

    Marsanne and Roussanne .................................................................266

    Spanish whites ...................................................................................266

    Italian whites ......................................................................................267

    German whites ...................................................................................268

    Grüner Veltliner .................................................................................268

    Hybrids that Hold Their Own .....................................................................269

    Choosing Yeasts and Styles .......................................................................270

    Chapter 18: Aromatic Whites . . . . . . . .271

    Stylistic Preliminaries .................................................................................271

    Keeping cool .......................................................................................272

    Crushing, pressing, and skin contact ..............................................272

    Strategizing about yeast ....................................................................273

    Preventing malo .................................................................................273

    Embracing acidity ..............................................................................274

    Establishing an oak-free zone ...........................................................274

    Stirring lees or not .............................................................................274

    Sugaring to taste ................................................................................275

    Finishing ..............................................................................................275

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    Noseworthy Nobility ...................................................................................275

    Riesling: White wine royalty .............................................................276

    Muscat: The power of perfume ........................................................277

    Gewürztraminer: Spice in a bottle ...................................................279

    Viognier: Volatile and voluptuous ...................................................281

    Chenin Blanc: Honey and l owers ....................................................283

    Blending ..............................................................................................284

    Aging potential ...................................................................................285

    Semi-Aromatic Whites .................................................................................285

    Pinot GrisPinot Grigio ......................................................................285

    Amazing Albari?o ...............................................................................287

    And a cast of thousands . . ..............................................................287

    Choosing Yeast and Style Options ............................................................287

    Part V: Beyond Red and White .................................. 289

    Chapter 19: Thinking and Drinking Pink . . . . . . .291

    Why Make Pink Wine? .................................................................................291

    Surveying Pink Wine Methods ...................................................................292

    Pressing pink directly ........................................................................292

    Bleeding off juice — saignée .............................................................293

    Blending whites and reds .................................................................294

    Balancing blush ..................................................................................294

    Stepping through a Saignée ........................................................................295

    Soaking the skins ...............................................................................295

    Making pink like white .......................................................................297

    Chapter 20: Dessert, Forti? ed, and Sparkling Wines . . . .299

    Making Exceptions for Exceptional Wines ...............................................299

    Dealing with Residual Sugar .......................................................................300

    Taking many roads to sweetness .....................................................300

    Ensuring stability at home ................................................................301

    Waiting for Late-Harvest Wines .................................................................302

    Winemaking protocols ......................................................................302

    Botrytis: The noble rot ......................................................................306

    Good grape choices ...........................................................................307

    Fortifying Your Wine ...................................................................................307

    Port — Portuguese and otherwise...................................................307

    Sherry ..................................................................................................311

    Vin doux naturel.................................................................................312

    Putting Bubbles in Your Bottles ................................................................313

    Adopting the sparkling mindset .......................................................313

    Making good grape choices ..............................................................314

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    Part VI: The Part of Tens ........................................... 315

    Chapter 21: Ten Mistakes Most Home Winemakers

    Make at Least Once . . . . . . . . . .317

    Chapter 22: Ten Ways To Save Money (and Make Better Wine). . 321

    Chapter 23: Ten Differences between Wine(makers)

    and Beer(brewers) . . . . . . . . . .325

    Part VII: Appendixes ................................................. 329

    Appendix A: Glossary . . . . . . . . .331

    Appendix B: Conversions . . . . . . . . .333

    Appendix C: Resources . . . . . . . . .335

    Appendix D: Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and pH. . . . . .339

    Index ....................................................................... 347

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    Until you’ve done it, making your own wine at home seems like an

    impossible challenge. Don’t you need endless rolling hills covered with

    vineyards; hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stainless steel tanks;

    row upon row of French oak barrels; a huge, temperature- and humidity-

    controlled facility; and a Ph.D. in enology from the University of Somewhere

    Famous?

    Nope.

    One day, when my stepson Diego was about eight years old, my wife, Nancy,announced she was going to make jam from the plums hanging off the tree in

    our backyard. “Mom,” he said, “you can’t make jam; you have to buy it at the

    store!” Nancy smiled, shook her head, and went to work with some pots and

    a strainer and a big kettle for sterilizing the lids and jars. And sure enough,in a couple of hours, we had jars of jam cooling on the counter and one awe-

    struck kid. (For the record, the kid has gone on to do things that seem hope-

    lessly impossible to me, like building entire hospitals from scratch.)

    Home winemaking works the same way as jam — except that it takes longer.

    Like baking bread or knitting a sweater, making wine takes simple materials

    and produces amazing results. If millions of people — that’s a conservative

    estimate — all over the world have made good, drinkable wine for nearly

    8,000 years, you can do it, too.

    My older brother Byron was the first in our family to try his hand at the

    ancient craft of winemaking. He liked to drink wine, and he thought he could

    save some money and maybe even get a tax break by planting a few rows of

    vines on a piece of scraggly land he owned up in the foothills of California’s

    Sierra Nevada mountains. I tried his wine and, by golly, it tasted like wine! I

    figured that if my brother could do this, so could I, and when I made my first

    tiny little batch of Carignane, I had my own plum jam experience: It tasted

    like wine!

    Since then, I’ve gotten in way over my head trying one grape after another,and I’ve made a few bucks writing about winemaking. I’m lucky to live in

    Northern California, near hundreds of thousands of acres of prime grapes

    and a vast storehouse of winemaking knowledge. But in the 21st century, with

    the advantage of the Internet and modern transportation — and, of course,this book — you can make great wine anywhere and everywhere.

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    About This Book

    Whether you’re just dipping your toe into the world of winemaking or you’ve

    made many batches already, this book has something for you. First of all, it’s

    a basic how-to and reference guide for first-time home winemakers. I cover all

    the necessary steps and procedures in detail. With this book, some grapes,and minimal equipment, you can make good wine — a few gallons or an

    entire barrel — in a spacious dedicated garage winery or in the corner of an

    apartment kitchen.

    Other home winemaking books on the market cover the same ground and are

    chock full of good advice. But what’s different about this book is that it goes

    on to offer information and opinions about different grape varieties — which

    need very different treatment — and advanced winemaking techniques. No

    one, professional or amateur, simply makes generic red wine; people make

    Cabernet or Pinot Noir or Tempranillo or Chambourcin, and they don’t all do

    things the same way.

    In a dozen years of garage winemaking, I’ve worked with a lot of grapes, made

    some nifty wines, won a bunch of medals, and made my share of mistakes.

    Along with ......