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.

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.

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!

LET’S GET WILD: PHIL PLUMMER TALKS ALTERNATIVE YEASTS.

By Kevin Kourofsky

There is a quiet revolution going on in winemaking that may very well change how we make wine. It’s really a re-evolution of wine’s most essential element of creation, harkening back to  pre-modern winemaking without ignoring the past 70 years of increased technology. It’s how we ferment wine. The difference between grape juice and wine is yeast and how we manage that process. Though it is often said that wine is made in the vineyard, it comes to life in the vat. What our ancestors believed to be magic we now know is the action of yeast changing sugar into alcohol. In the modern age, protocols and beliefs about how we approach fermentation were created and only in small ways did the approaches vary, essentially with a “new” yeast strand mostly derived from the same family of yeasts. Abandoned were methods that allowed for a greater diversity of yeasts. Beyond here “there be dragons.”

He Drank, She Drank: A Bottle of the Sexes:

What Wine Do I Bring?

Carolyn:          OMG! We’ve been invited…

Kevin:              To a Zoom?

Carolyn:           No, we’ve been invited…out! With other people.

Kevin:              People! Gosh does this mean I need to shave and shower?

Carolyn:           Actually, other people aren’t the only ones who’ll appreciate that. Now, the big question. What wine do we bring? It’s been so long I don’t remember how to choose something.

He Drank, She Drank: A Bottle of the Sexes. Valentine’s Day: Does Any Wine Go With Chocolate?

Kevin: Valentine’s Day is coming! You know what that means.

Carolyn: Something sparkling?

Kevin:  No, all those ads and articles pushing red wine with chocolate.

Wine Judge Judy Kelly Wants You to Make Better Wine: And Here’s How!

By Kevin Kourofsky

Judy Kelly didn’t like wine; it was too dry for her taste. Nor did she have a family history with wine as she came from a family of teetotalers. She tried beer and some hard drinks, but she just wasn’t into wine. That is, until she started going into the Finger Lakes of New York with friends. After a few tastings, including a special tasting at Keuka Springs Winery, she discovered that she did like wine. Like most of us she was originally drawn to sweeter wines, but progressed into the wider world of wine from there. Now, she is really into wine!