Is My Wine Ready to Drink? Aging For Character and Depth

By Kevin Kourofsky

Louis and Madeline are a very talented winemaking duo I had the privilege of interviewing. In 2018 they won a Double Gold and Best of Show in the AWS judging for a 2016 blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 4% Petit Syrah and 4% Petit Verdot. I wanted to know how they did it. They told me that they entered that same wine in the 2017 AWS judging and though pleased with the award, it only received a Silver Medal. It was clear to them that something happened to that wine. In just one further year the wine had developed greater character and depth. It went from Silver to Double Gold Best in Show!

Winemaking texts devote a great deal of advice to the application of techniques, testing and taste, but rarely discuss how to tell when a wine is at its peak flavor and how to get it there. Like people, wines may age gracefully, some wonderfully well and others not at all well.  A winemaker should have some insight into how a wine is likely to come out, even if it’s an educated guess. How is this wine going to turn out? This column will discuss the factors that affect the arc of wine aging.

It’s Time to Polish Your Wine: Clear, Correct and Combine!

By Kevin Kourofsky

What makes a great wine? One you like drinking, of course. But, it’s not just the flavors in the wine, a great wine draws you wholly into the wine, tasting all its elements in balance. These elements are called texture, the sum of the wine’s parts. Texture includes acid and tannin. A wine with good texture doesn’t create a circus in your mouth. It doesn’t shout out one element such as oak or acidity. If you find yourself noticing an individual element on the palate, then the wine is probably not in complete balance. It’s like someone talking to you while you’re watching a movie, it brings you out of the experience and distracts from the pleasure.

If I Can Make Sparkling Wine So Can You: Kevin’s Very Practical Guide To Bubbles

By Kevin Kourofsky

Many myths surround sparkling wine, especially Champagne. For instance, Dom Perignon did not invent the process of intentionally bottling ‘stars’ as the French claim. Dom Perignon was trying to get the bubbles out of Champagne wine, which was then very much like the Chablis of today. Indeed, the French didn’t even invent this process! It was actually the English, yes the Brits, who first started making sparkling wine probably much like our pét-nats of today.

Another myth is that sparkling wine is difficult or dangerous to make or that you need expensive equipment to do so. Not so. This article will discuss how you can make a good sparkling wine in your home using the equipment you probably already own and using tablespoon and gallon-to-liter measures rather than grams or hectoliters. You don’t need a riddling board or a spectrometer: a hydrometer and a strong cardboard box will work just fine. It’s time to make our own stars!

Your Fermentation Has Stopped: Now What?

By Kevin Kourofsky

Even though wine yeast don’t really know this, fermentation has three stages: initiating, maintaining and finishing. Keeping the yeast happy by maintaining a sound, clean and ongoing fermentation is the most important aspect of winemaking. Failure to maintain an ongoing fermentation is called a ‘stuck’ fermentation, defined as “… a condition, undesirable in the production of dry wines, occurring when yeast activity has ceased.” In humbler terms, it is when the wine appears to be finished but either tastes, or tests, sweet. More undesirably, it’s when a wine thought to be finished fermenting is bottled and when opened foams very obviously in the glass and possibly on your spouse’s new rug. This can happen to any of us, as it did to me very recently, though no rugs were injured in my case.

What Exactly Is a Pét-Nat?: Phil Plummer Explains Pétillant Naturel.

By Kevin Kourofsky

“Sometimes you have to be like Luke Skywalker, throw the instruments away and go by feel.” Quotes by Phil Plummer

Phil Plummer held the bottle warily at an arm’s distance as one might hold a stink bomb that might explode at any time. He carefully lifted up the crown cap on one side, then the other and then the other side again. He explained that he brought to the lecture some purchased pét-nats along with his own wines and he did not know these makers. He explained that pét-nats can be unpredictable and can gush or fly out of your hand on opening. If not made carefully, they can launch themselves like a Saturn V rocket. But these were well behaved pét-nats and all that occurred was a pleasing sssssh.

Phil was giving a talk on natural wines and pét-nats at the New York State Home Winemakers Seminar in June 2023. Phil was the perfect choice as he is always on the cutting edge of the industry. Phil has been making wine in New York’s Finger Lakes region for over a decade, spending the bulk of those years at Montezuma Winery, where he has served as head winemaker since 2013. Phil has also taken the lead in the development and production of a wide-ranging portfolio of wines made from grapes, fruit and honey, and was instrumental in the launch of Montezuma’s sister wineries Idol Ridge and Fossenvue. He is also a contributor to WineMaker Magazine.

Pét-nat is a pet name for pétillant naturel one of the fastest growing categories in the wine world, especially amongst those who like craft beers, including sour beer, and  cloudy hard ciders. It’s a sparkling wine made in the méthode ancestrale, the original sparkling wine method. It is more unrefined than the clear and elegant Champagne we all know.

A Year In the Cellar: An Amateur Winemaker’s Calendar

By Kevin Kourofsky

Amateur winemakers are not a uniform bunch. We are diverse and unconstrained by market forces or labeling laws, or much of any legal prohibition except good common sense and a prohibition on making more than 200 gallons per family per year. Or selling any of that wine.

But the laws of nature still apply: guidelines on additives should be observed and the rules of good winemaking followed. Like professionals, we strive to make good, clean, clear and tasty wine. And to make good wine, we amateurs should be organized just like our cousins, the professionals. Professionals have much more to manage, from blending to staffing, but we non-professional winemakers are usually also the wine maker, manager and cellar rat all rolled into one person. We still have much to do. Inspired by the Vintners Institute’s Seven Stages of Winemaking, I’ll attempt to catalog some of the many challenges each month offers up to the non-professional winemaker.

Time to Bottle Your Wine? Part Two: Five Additional Things to consider Before You Do.

By Kevin Kourofsky

Everyone should visit and have a chat with their wine from time to time and especially before bottling. It’s then when you remind your latest vintage of your expectations and your wine’s obligations. You must be firm:  No fizzy bottles for a still wine. You must also be supportive as you don’t want your wine to sulk and go bad on you. And while you’re there, you can make sure your carboys are topped up and your airlocks full. Perhaps you’ve noticed that your airlocks aren’t roiling and there are no tiny bubbles coming up the side of the carboy. So, it must be time to bottle your wine. Hold on! Have you taken the first five steps before you bottle? If so, here are five more things to consider before you do.

A Year In The Vineyard: A Grape Grower’s Calendar

By Kevin Kourofsky

As I look out over my tiny vineyard I see a beautiful, if stark, vista with vines covered in snow and ice. One might think that, like the dormant vineyard, your grape growing tasks are dormant. But, if you are fortunate enough to grow your own grapes, you know that there is always something to do in, for, or about the vineyard. Whereas in January my winemaking year is coming to a close with final testing and bottling of the finished wine, my grape growing year is just starting. January starts the cycle of grape growth, from pruning to veraison to budding-out to harvest.

Inspired by the Vintner’s Guild Winemaker’s Calendar, I’ll attempt to catalog some of the many challenges each month of the year offers up to the non-professional vineyard owner, manager, grower and laborer, all usually found in one person.

The Long Cold Soak: Play For Time!

By Kevin Kourofsky

A ‘cold soak’ is a term often mentioned in wine magazines and winemaking articles, but may not be discussed in any detail. What is a cold soak? What does it hope to accomplish? Merriam-Webster defines soak as to “lie immersed in liquid.” ‘Maceration,’ another term often used interchangeably with cold soak, is defined as “to soften by steeping or soaking, so as to separate into constituent elements.” What is commonly referred to as a cold soak is really a pre-fermentation maceration of white or red grapes so as to enhance varietal character and extract valuable phenols, tannins and anthocyanins. Phew!

All Yeasts Were Wild Once: Phil Plummer Explains Indigenous Fermentation

By Kevin Kourofsky

In the modern era of winemaking we understand that fermentation of sugar into alcohol is done by yeast and not by magic, though some of us still marvel at this great gift of nature. When we commence a fermentation, we routinely add SO2 to kill unwanted and unauthorized microbes and yeasts in our musts that might interfere with our chosen fermentation. We open a package of our favorite yeast, selected after hours of cogitation as to the qualities of this particular yeast, knowing that it is reliable. It is almost always from the genus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. cerevisiae for short. With a little amount of careful attention our yeast will bring our wine to complete fermentation in the chosen style. This yeast may originally have come from vineyards in Italy or the Rhone Valley of France or many other regions and was isolated and purified for our benefit. But does this yeast reflect the Terroir of our region or the region where the grapes originated? In Europe, winemakers routinely used the yeast on their grapes to ferment their wine. As Phil Plummer told us when he spoke about spontaneous (wild) fermentations at the 2022 New York State Home Winemaking Seminar, “We talk about Terroir but this is the ultimate sense of place.” This article will share Phil’s approach to a successful indigenous fermentation.