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.