July 16th, Nanaimo Winemakers will once again host their Summer Social Competition, BBQ and sausage making event open to club members and their guests. The event organizer and coordinator is Cindy Scott who has added a new twist this year. …
2017 Varietal Competition and Evening Social
The Nanaimo Winemakers is once again hosting a varietal competition, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of our Chief Steward, Doug Markin. This will be followed by an Evening Social and Awards Ceremony in the competent hands of organizer Cindy …
Nanaimo Winemakers 2016 Competition
Nanaimo Winemakers 2016 Varietal Competition After two years without a wine judging competition, we are finally bringing this event back, thanks to Doug Markin volunteering to serve as Chief Steward, and his desire to run a competition this spring. The …
Grapes
Grapes and Supplies for 2016 One of the main purposes of the Nanaimo Winemakers is to assist members in getting the grapes and supplies they need to make top-quality wine. In 2016 the club will again be sourcing grapes from the …
Making Rosé Wine
A rosé is a pink wine, somewhere in the color spectrum between a white wine and a red wine. Various other terms are used. A “blush” wine is a rosé at the whiter end of the pink spectrum. Terms like “white Zinfandel” or “white Merlot” also usually refer to a rosé wine. They are almost never truly “white.”
Making Red Wine
Making Red Wine Overview There are many ways to make red wine, including the most traditional of just stomping the grapes with your feet, letting everything ferment in open vats with whatever yeasts come with the grapes, and bottling the …
Cold Stabilization
Cold stabilization is a method of reducing the likelihood of bitartrate crystals (“wine diamonds”) forming in wine as it ages. This is particularly important for white wines.
Clarifying White Juice
If you are starting your white wine from fresh grapes (our Summerland Gewürztraminer, for example) rather than from a pail of juice from a winery, you need to know how to get “settled juice” and to time your “skin contact.”
Should I fine my wine before cold stabilization
Sometimes a new wine will have several defects, and it will be obvious to the winemaker that multiple fining treatments will be needed. In general, fining operations are done in the following sequence.
Malolactic Chromatography Testing
Some wine experts claim that the accurate monitoring of Malo-Lactic Fermentation (MLF) is one of the most critical parameters in red wine making but one that is most commonly overlooked. Paper Chromatography is a simple qualitative analytical procedure that has been used for many years in the wine industry to assess progress in MLF.