Maceration is one of the factors affecting wine quality

Factors Affecting Wine Quality: How Winemaking Techniques Influence a Vintage

Collecting, Education, Enjoying Wine, Technique, Winemaking

What factors affect wine quality the most? While grape quality and climate play a significant role, post-harvest winemaking techniques such as maceration, fermentation, extraction, and aging also influence wine flavors immensely. Last year I attended a special tasting dinner hosted by the owner of a winery in Red Mountain, Washington. Over dinner, we sampled a number of recent vintages from the estate, and the lead winemaker offered us in-depth insight into the winemaking techniques he uses to bring out the best flavors in the wine.

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minerality in wine

Earthiness and Minerality in Wine: How Does Terroir Affect Mineral Flavors?

Enjoying Wine, Investing, Technique, Winemaking

In my experience tasting Chablis wines, one tasting note consistently shines through: flint. The limestone-rich soil in this terroir is sprinkled with fossilized oyster shells that allegedly add minerality to its flavors. While scientists have found that mineral flavors certainly exist in wines, they are still unsure why this minerality is present. In multiple studies,…

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pigeage

Are Traditional Winemaking Techniques Regaining Popularity? White Wine’s Newfound Love for Skin-Contact Pigeage

Buying Wine, Technique, Winemaking

Over the past 10 years, more and more wine producers are using skin-contact pigeage on white wines, a practice that for centuries was viewed as a flaw in white varietals. Every year, dozens of guests gather barefoot at Peju Province, tucked away in the dry hills of Napa Valley. There, they sink their freshly-cleaned feet…

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biodynamic wine

Cellaring Biodynamic Wine: Biodynamic Viniculture and Why You Should Collect Natural Wines

Buying Wine, Collecting, Technique

When we talk about fine winemaking techniques, chances are that horses and cows don’t enter the equation. What many of the most discerning wine connoisseurs don’t realize is that livestock can create a wine more vivid in flavor than any previous vintage on the same estate. Not only do animals naturally fertilize the vineyard’s soil,…

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