Crushing Red Wine Grapes
Crush and de-stem the grapes. For most grape varieties, about 90% of the larger stems should be removed. Test for total acidity following the instructions in your acid testing kit. If the acidity is less than .7%, add enough tartaric acid to bring it to that level. Test for sugar with your hydrometer. Correct any deficiencies by adding enough sugar to bring the reading up to 22% . When these tests and corrections have been completed, the must should be sulfited. Estimating that you will get roughly one gallon of juice yield for every 16 lbs. of grapes, calculate the anticipated amount of juice. Using this estimate, add enough sulfite to give you a sulfur dioxide level between 50 and 130 parts per million . The amount needed will depend on the condition of the grapes, with moldy grapes getting the most concentrated dose. Unless you have found it necessary to add more than 65 parts per million SO2, yeast should be added immediately. If using more than 65 parts per million SO2, you must wait four or five hours before doing so.
Weingut Max Ferdinand Richter Mlheimer Helenenkloster Riesling
Liquor.com / Laura Sant
Weingut Max Ferdinand Richter produces old-school rieslings about as German as lederhosen, says Billy Wagner, one of Germanys top sommeliers. As such, expect hearty, deep flavors with this ice wine, particularly notes of caramel and licorice, a smoky finish, and sherry on the nose, among the lingering sweetness of traditional ice wine.
How Much Does Instacart Delivery Or Pickup Cost
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- Tipping is optional but encouraged for delivery orders. It’s a great way to show your shopper appreciation and recognition for excellent service. 100% of your tip goes directly to the shopper who delivers your order.
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- Pick up orders have no service fees, regardless of non-Express or Express membership.
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Donkey And Goat Winery Stone Crusher Roussanne
When Jared and Tracey Brandt started playing around with skin fermentation for their Roussanne back in 2009, they weren’t even aware that “orange wine” existed as a thing or a category.
Now the world has caught up. Their chunky, expressive Roussanne is a highlight for me every year. Macerated for about two weeks on the skins, it shows vibrant apricot fruit with a fine salty seam and racy acidity on the finish. Interestingly, it feels far tauter and more lively than many varietal Rousannes from the grape’s home in the Rhône valley, where it can sometimes feel a bit flabby.
Stone Crusher is aptly namedit’s substantial, and could almost be a meal in itself. But packed with ripe fruit and mineral tension as it is, the balance is perfect. Best way to get it? Contact the winery directlyand then explore the rest of their fascinating portfolio.
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How To Make Homemade Wine

Winemaking at home requires several pieces of inexpensive equipment, serious cleanliness, and a mess of patience. Turns out, Tom Petty was right: “The waiting is the hardest part.”
Equipment Checklist:
- One 4-gallon food-grade-quality plastic bucket and lid to serve as the primary fermentation vat
- Three 1-gallon glass jugs to use as secondary fermentation containers
- A funnel that fits into the mouth of the glass bottles
- Three airlocks
- A rubber cork to fit into the secondary fermentation container
- Large straining bag of nylon mesh
- About 6 feet of clear half-inch plastic tubing
- About 20 wine bottles
- Number 9-size, pre-sanitized corks
- Hand corker
- A Hydrometer to measure sugar levels
Ingredient Checklist:
- Lots and lots of wine grapes
- Granulated sugar
- Filtered water
- Wine yeast
To the above basic list you can refine the process by adding such things as Campden tablets to help prevent oxidation, yeast nutrients, enzymes, tannins, acids, and other fancy ingredients to better control your wine production.
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Proportion Of Bottles On Offer At Each Supermarket In 2020
Discounters Aldi and Lidl typically dont offer deals on their wine range, preferring to keep prices low year round, so we didnt include them in our graph.
While the percentage of bottles on offer in Waitroses wine cellar was low on average, the supermarket often offers deals for buying in certain quantities for example 25% off if you buy six bottles.
- Find out more: the best food and wine pairings
Graham’s Six Grapes Port
Offer valid on any online order over $150 . Valid for shipping anywhere within Washington only. Not valid when shipping to any other state. Order arrives within 3-5 business days. Excludes Gift Cards.
Offer valid on any online order over $150 . Valid for shipping anywhere within Arizona only. Not valid when shipping to any other state. Order arrives within 3-5 business days. Excludes Gift Cards.
Offer valid on any online order over $150 . Valid for shipping anywhere within California only. Not valid when shipping to any other state. Order arrives within 3-5 business days. Excludes Gift Cards.
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Quinta Da Costa Do Pinho Branco
The story of this Douro estate is typical: Until it was inherited by Miguel Morais from his grandfather, everything it produced was sold to major port wine houses, vanishing into their blends. But Morais felt the vineyards had more to offer for the production of still wines.
Since the winery was built for making port, it never had a press. So when Miguel came to make his first white wine , the obvious solution was to use the skins. There’s a nod to tradition here, too, as white ports are also typically made with long skin contact.
The Branco 2016 tingles with chamomile and gunflint notes, pin-sharp orchard fruits and butterscotch. Texturally, it’s elegant and rich, with a long, smooth finish. It shows wonderful evolution and is firing on all cylinders right now.
The Best Supermarket For Wine Offers
We tracked the total number of wine offers at each supermarket in 2020, and found that Morrisons is your best bet if youre looking for a discount on a typically higher-priced bottle.
Throughout the year, an average of 17% of its wine was on offer at any one time. This peaked in November and December, when at least 22% of Morrisons wine was discounted.
At Sainsburys, the number of offers jumped around from week to week in mid-October, for example, just 6% of bottles were on offer but a week later this shot up to 22%. Its worth keeping an eye out for bumper deals weeks at the supermarket.
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The Time Is Ripe To Discover Ice Wine
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the bestproducts; youcan learn more about ourreview process here.We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
Liquor.com / Laura Sant
Ice wine is the perfect special occasion glass. Thanks to its syrupy full-bodied consistency and rich liquid-gold hue, the dessert wine is thought of as being deeply indulgent, despite being lower in alcohol than most wines, at around 10% ABV.;
Squeezing frozen grapes into small but sweet concentrations is a technique dating as far back as ancient Rome. Germany has called it a homegrown delicacy since the late 18th century, and in North America, the style seems to have caught on in the 1970s, sparked by a German in Canadas Okanagan Valley.
Once a chance for farmers to save their crops after an unforeseen frost, making ice wine is a dying art. Fewer winemakers are leaving grapes on the vine after harvest, because these days that cold snap can no longer be counted on to come.
In Germany, now the worlds second-largest producer of ice wine after Canada, 2019s warm winter left an unprecedented situation: All but one harvest failed. Due to global warming, the chance of harvesting ice wine grapes at minus 7 degrees Celsius has drastically decreased over the past 10 years, says Ernst Büscher, a spokesperson for the German Wine Institute.
Peller Estates Signatures Series Cabernet Franc
;Liquor.com / Laura Sant
This red ice wine from Peller Estates, in Canadas Niagara region, is made of 100% cabernet franc. As you might expect given the grape, bold red berries, rhubarb and pomegranate are a few of the flavors youll find here. While ice wines tend to pair well with spicy cuisine and desserts, this is a great candidate for pairing with salty olives and cheeses.
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Suppliers Warn That Brexit Could Impact Wine Prices
In January 2021, wine importers warned that UK drinkers may face an increase of £1-£1.50 on many European wines due to the cost of new customs declarations and certifications, plus higher haulage prices.
France and Italy are the most popular regions for wine imports to the UK, but if youd like to drink something from closer to home check out our guide on how to buy the best English wine.
Importers have also warned that shoppers may start to notice a reduction in range, due to flat-rate cost increases per shipment. However, this is more likely to impact wines produced in smaller volumes or from small winemakers.
Herdade Do Rocim Amphora Branco

It’s extraordinary to think that in Portugal, southerly Alentejo’s clay-pot winemaking tradition remained almost invisiblehiding in plain sightfor much of the last half-century. The simple technique of fermenting grapes with skins and stems in large clay pots has a history going back at least two millenia.
Herdade do Rocim is one of a handful of producers who’ve been inspired to take this ancient method and revitalize it with one key difference: they actually bottle the wine, so you get to taste it!
This amphora branco has remarkable fruit purity and a ripe pear character; nothing rustic or clumsy about it. Even though it stays on the skins for many months, the extraction is so gentle that the finished wine has the merest tannic prickle. Earthy, herbal and slightly smoky notes add to the finish.
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Unquenchable: A Tipsy Search
; Best Books of the Year
Natalie MacLean is a new force in the wine writing world ‐ a feisty North American answer to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson. She can write beautifully about wine.
The Financial Times of London
There are very few people in the wine world who “get it” and Natalie is one of those who brings more fun to a buttoned-up and stodgy game.
Gary Vaynerchuck, Wine Library TV
Are Muscadine And Scuppernong The Same
The scuppernong is a variety of muscadine grapes named after a river in North Carolina, but it is not the same as muscadine. They both grow wild and are now domesticated in the Southeastern United States.
A scuppernong,;usually greenish bronze in color, is a particular variety of the muscadine grape, which is typically dark bluish purple. So, technically, you can call any scuppernong grape a muscadine, but you can’t call a muscadine grape a scuppernong.
Many people use scuppernongs interchangeably with muscadines but, in addition to the;color,;the flavor is different. Muscadines are sweeter than many kinds of grapes, more similar to Concord grapes. Scuppernongs are tarter.
Both kinds of grapes have thick skins and don’t grow in bunches like traditional grapes but instead, in clusters similar to blueberries.
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Paraschos Amphoreus Ribolla Gialla
The Paraschos family have Greek roots, but settled in an idyllic part of Italy’s Collio, right on the border with Slovenia. Inspired by their renowned neighbors Gravner and Radikon, their white wines are made with long skin contact and sometimes, as here, are fermented in amphora.
The Paraschos’ amphoras of choice are small Cretan vessels. Evangelos and his sons Alexis and Jannis always achieve amazing tension in their wines, and this is no exception. Ribolla Gialla isn’t a variety with a particularly strong fruit character, although here there are ripe yellow plums on the palate. But what it excels at is a slightly honeyed, herby complexity and very serious structure. All of this makes for a wine that you can happily drink now , but also cellar for years longer.
W & J Graham’s Nv Six Grapes Special River Edition Reserve
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This is the latest in a series of special releases under the Six Grapes label. It comes from Graham’s south-facing vineyards on the Douro north bank. The wine is of vintage Port qualityrich, but with some fine tannins. The jammy red fruits are lifted by acidity and by the fine perfumed character. Drink the wine now. Roger Voss
- rating
- Six Grapes Special River Edition Reserve
- Variety
- Alcohol
All tastings reported in the Buying Guide are performed blind. Typically, products are tasted in peer-group flights of from 5-8 samples. Reviewers may know general information about a flight to provide contextvintage, variety or appellationbut never the producer or retail price of any given selection. When possible, products considered flawed or uncustomary are retasted.
Ratings reflect what our editors felt about a particular product. Beyond the rating, we encourage you to read the accompanying tasting note to learn about a products special characteristics.
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Test Your Must For Brix Ta And Ph:
Youll want to test your must for the sugar content , titratable acidity, and pH level. Adjustments may be necessary if any of these values are out of range. Making adjustments as necessary will help you make great wine. Start with the °Brix. Use a hydrometer or a refractometer to get your Brix reading from a well mixed sample of the must it should be within 22-25°Brix. If using a hydrometer, make sure you are using a pure juice sample. Leftover grape material will skew the reading. If the reading is below 22°Brix, youll need to add sugar to bring the reading into an appropriate range. Adding 1.5 oz. of granulated sugar per gallon will raise the Brix value by 1°. Add an appropriate amount of sugar to the must to bring the sugar level to within 22- 25°Brix. You can first dissolve the sugar in a small amount of water before you add to the must, or you can add the sugar directly. In either case, youll want to make sure the sugar is dissolved and mixed well into the must.
If the Brix reading is more than 25°, we would recommend diluting with unchlorinated water to within the 22-25° range. We recommend treating the water first with 7grams per Liter tartaric acid. This is to ensure the wines acidity isnt skewed out of range.
What Happens If Six Grapes Wine Porto Is Out Of Stock And I Need To Give Specific Instructions
- Find Best Match: By default, your shopper will use their best judgement to pick a replacement for your item.
- Pick Specific Replacement: You can pick a specific alternative for the shopper to purchase if your first choice is out-of-stock.
- Don’t Replace: For items you’d rather not replace, choose “Don’t replace” to get a refund if the item is out of stock.
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Domaine Des Mathouans Mine De Rien
Some wines just have that intangible drinkability factor. And this one from France’s Roussillon region qualifies. For it, Muscat a Petit Grains gets the whole-bunch treatment, with a semi-carbonic maceration lasting about 20 days.
The result is an utterly joyful expression of grapiness and all things aromatic, with the merest hint of barnyard rusticity that says “don’t take me seriouslyjust drink and be happy.” It’s a total smoothie when it comes to texture, but in terms of body and depth is a different beast to a standard non-skin fermented Muscat.
And as for the namemine de rienit means “no BS.” Indeed.
Pepe Mendoza Casa Agricola Pureza Muscat

This exciting wine from Alicante, in the far south of Spain, wows with its freshness and finesse. Pepe Mendoza dry-farms his vines, and has altitude on his side to help maintain all important acidity in the grapes.
Fermented in tinajas , the skin contact here gives incredible concentration to the perfumed peachy fruit, adding tantalizing scents of rosemary and mint. There’s nothing spiky about the texture, but it’s a structured and substantial wine, built to last.
And don’t fear the Muscatif you’re not a fan of the variety’s typically in-your-face lychee or rose petal aromas, this wine has you covered. Those notes are nicely reigned in and don’t dominate the experience of drinking it.
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Or Check Out The Conversation Here
My name is Keith Beavers, and I just want to buy a nice pair of sunglasses and not lose them. Once!
Whats going on, wine lovers? Welcome to Episode 31 of VinePairs Wine 101 podcast. My name is Keith Beavers. I am the tastings director of VinePair. And how you doin? Im going to talk about Spain, the entire country all of it in 20 minutes. Thats crazy. Right? Well, were crazy. Lets just do this.
All right. So I think this is the first episode where were actually going to cover an entire country, not just one wine region. And its a lot, so were not going to be able to get to the entire thing, of course. But I feel like Spain is popular on the American market for a few things in wine. You have Cava well, first you have Rioja cause its Rioja. We all know about Rioja, and you have Cava, which is very popular. And then there are other wines that come out of Spain that are popular in certain areas of the country and not so much in others.
In one day, as we go through different regions in the future, we can really get more of a sense of all that human maneuvering throughout history in Spain. This country has 17 autonomous regions with provinces within those regions, has 12 general wine regions with wine regions within those regions, totaling 138 wine regions.
Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.