The 2018 Napa harvest was bountiful.

The 2018 Napa Harvest: A Winemaker’s Dream Vintage

California, Investing, Napa, News, Wine Regions, Winemaking

The 2018 Napa harvest ended on a high note this fall. Most winemakers across the region are reporting superb grape quality, high yields, and low sugar concentration in the fruit. Hudson Vineyards director Kelly MacLeod says, “This year, it really was a winemaker’s dream. They got to consciously choose exactly what they wanted.” While it’s still too early to tell how these wines will develop over time, all of these factors could result in a collectible, age-worthy vintage. If you’re looking for flavorful New-World wines that are well-balanced with comparatively restrained alcohol, the 2018 vintage may be your dream year, too.

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The 2018 Bordeaux harvest was very successful.

The 2018 Bordeaux Harvest Promises an Exciting, Perhaps Classic, Vintage

Bordeaux, Buying Wine, Collecting, France, Investing, Wine Regions, Winemaking

Usually, winemakers in Bordeaux are hesitant to call a vintage superb until all of the grapes have been picked and the wine has finished fermenting. This year, however, winemakers across the region are thrilled with the quality and ripeness of the grapes–they’re already calling the 2018 Bordeaux harvest one of the most successful of the past decade. While it’s still too early to make any definitive predictions about the investment potential of the 2018 vintage, based on the health of the grapes picked so far, you can expect to see plenty of age-worthy, intense wines. This is a vintage that you’ll want to keep a close watch on as it develops over the next few months.

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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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What affects wine quality

What Affects Wine Quality? Your Guide to the Growing Techniques That Matter

Producers and Wineries, Wine Regions, Winemaking

What affects wine quality? The answer to this question isn’t so simple. A number of different factors, from the age of the vine’s rootstock to the vineyard’s climate, can dramatically impact how a wine tastes and how long it will last in your cellar. If the winemaker starts off with underripe, poorly grown grapes, then the resulting wine won’t taste elegant or refined, even if the producer ages the wine in the finest French oak. To invest in the highest-quality wines on the market, it’s a good idea to understand some of the growing techniques that affect wine quality, including climate, vine age, soil composition, pruning, weather, and harvest dates. By considering each of these factors as you shop for collectible wine, you’ll learn how to identify the best wines from the top producers–and be able to pick out unlikely gems from lesser producers as well.

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AOC Wine Guidelines

Tension in Loire: What the Controversy over IGP and AOC Wine Guidelines Means for Collectors

France, Wine Regions, Winemaking

This summer, Sancerre winemaker Jean-Jacques Auchere awoke one morning to find that almost 6,000 of his youngest IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) Sauvignon Blanc vines had been ripped out of the earth at his estate, The Cabarette. Auchere told reporters that the ransacking, believed to be the work of vandals, has cost him at least $13,000…

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