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.”

Don’t Be Hidebound: Embrace The Possible

By Kevin Kourofsky

Oz Clark is a name most Americans would not recognize, despite its intriguing sound. He’s an English singer, actor and most of all a well-respected wine writer and early advocate for “New World” wines. He didn’t come from a wine drinking family, indeed his family didn’t drink at all. He wrote in a recent Decanter Magazine article that he decided to become a wine expert because he thought he would become irresistible to women. That didn’t work out so well, but his opinions on wine and especially New World wine became irresistible to wine drinkers.

He Drank, She Drank: A Bottle of the Sexes

A column by Kevin and Carolyn Kourofsky

I Speak Wine: How to Join the Conversation

Carolyn:        Let’s say I’m going to a wine tasting—

Kevin:           That’s a safe bet. Wait a minute, was I invited too?

Carolyn:        —And I’m not sure what to say about the wines.

Kevin:           When have you ever had trouble finding something to say about wine?

Save The Wine! Fining For Hydrogen Sulfide Odors

By Kevin Kourofsky

Suddenly I smelt raw garlic in my wine. No, not just garlic, but rotten eggs marinating in raw garlic! This as I was punching down my lovely Malbec grapes obtained at some expense from Lodi, California. Only the day before it smelled “brushy.” Today I had a bad case of stinky wine.

How to Compose a Wine to Age: Vineyard to Cellar

By Kevin Kourofsky

When I’m in funds sufficient to buy classified Bordeaux, unfortunately an increasingly rare event, I like to put down a case for long term aging. Even in a so-so year, top shelf Claret will age beautifully for 20 years or more. One of my great joys is sharing a bottle or two with friends. There is little in the wine world to beat a well-aged Bordeaux, especially from the Left Bank. The tannins are smooth, the fruit packed with currant and cedar flavors and an aroma that will carry you like a magic carpet. But taste that same wine with only a year or two of aging and you would probably find it brutal on the palate. And as a collector friend of mine once remarked, it also can be brutal on the lower digestive system.

Vintage port is another great joy, especially during the holidays. The flavors and aromas that develop can be amazing, from chocolate to cotton candy. If you are looking for a wine to age for your child’s 21^st birthday, a Premier Cru Bordeaux should do the trick. If you want to celebrate your grandchild’s 21^st birthday, try a Portuguese vintage Port.

But how far can we amateur winemakers age our wine before they develop that unfortunate tomato on the nose quality that says we should have drunk this wine years ago? When I asked professional winemaker Jan Klapetzky how to make a wine for the ages, he jokingly wrote back: “I’m afraid first on my list would be to buy a vineyard in Beaune.” In a more serious vein he added that up to 10 years is “pretty safe.” With more aging, he felt that the wine can develop “neat flavors.” Twenty years out, though, he admitted that many wines had lost their fruit.

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.

Reflections On Climate Change: Harvest 2021

By Kevin Kourofsky

Tom Mitchell, an iconic grape grower in the Finger Lakes, alas no longer with us, once said that everyone always talks about the “average” growing season, but in all his time he had never experienced one. I can appreciate what Tom meant.

Ancient Wine: Back To The Future?

By Kevin Kourofsky

How old is wine? One can imagine a Neanderthal rooting around at the back of the cave discovering that some stored fruit was now a bit fizzy, rather like the last dregs of apple cider at the back of my refrigerator. But is this really wine making, or simply accidental wine?  What if someone simply allows grapes to naturally ferment, puts in no additives, and bottles it. We would call that “natural fermentation” and “natural” wine. The ancients would know no other method, sans the bottle.

Finding Balance: Fining for Color, Tannin and Oak.

By Kevin Kourofsky

Our job as winemakers is to handle our fruit gently and allow it to speak, but not to shout. A wine that shouts is one that is out of balance, perhaps with alcohol that is too strong for the fruit, has too much acid, or too much oak. In a recent article in Decanter Magazine, the noted wine writer and educator Andrew Jefford summed up the challenges that every winemaker faces in crafting a vintage: avoiding what he described as “hardness.” He remarked that this concept had been on his mind since he tasted and judged numerous wines for the Decanter World Wine Awards.

Clarity in a Hazy World: Make Your Wine Shine

By Kevin Kourofsky

There is an old saying that we savor first with our eyes. A hazy, cloudy or murky wine is not an attractive wine. Wine should have a limpid, clear quality. Clarity is defined as including the qualities of coherence, transparency and purity. Fining agents are the workhorses that make that possible in wine, tools that allow a winemaker to clear a cloudy wine, balance an astringent one and help correct issues of color, bitterness and aroma. Sometimes they can even correct several problems in one application. Fining agents can be a winemaker’s magic powder. It is magic, indeed, to have a cloudy wine “fall bright.” This article will discuss fining agents to help make that happen.