​NOVEMBER 6, 2013 By Winemakers Academy

​Making Wine from Grapes vs Wine kits are a great place to start when learning to make wine.
They’re inexpensive, pre-stabilized, and come with a great set of instructions to help you through the process. You also need only a minimal amount of equipment.
At some point though we all want to graduate kit wine making to making wine from fresh grapes.
There are a few things that differ between the two methods of making wine. The most obvious is the equipment required to process the fruit. You’ll likely need a crusher / destemmer as well as a grape press, all of which are used to extract the juice from the fruit.
The other differences are on a deeper level, and this is where I’d like to dive in and explore what the big differences are.
You’re In Complete Control
The single greatest difference in making wine from grapes verses making a kit wine is that each and every decision is now up to you. Kits are pre-stabilized, all additives pre-measured, yeast pre-determined, and the wine making method completely laid out for you.
When you buy grapes to make wine from you just get a pile of grapes. The rest is up to you. Let’s take a look at what this really means.
Fruit Processing
When you buy a kit you get a box with a big bag of grape juice concentrate. This means that the fruit has been harvested, crushed, de-stemmed, and pressed. That’s a lot of work you will have to do on your own when working with fresh grapes.
The equipment required to do all of this can be expensive to purchase, however, it is usually available to rent from a local wine making supply store. The downside to renting is that harvest time comes about only one time each year so you may competing with other wine makers to use the same equipment. Often equipment is rented by the hour so that it can be re-rented to another wine maker the same day.
Another great place to gain access to equipment is through a local wine making club. Many clubs have equipment you can use either at a “crush party” or some you can barrow and return.
Sugar Content (Brix)
When purchasing grapes, the ripeness of the fruit is vitally important. As grapes ripen their sugar content increases. Most often the sugar content of grapes is measured with a refractometer that relates sugar content in the units of Brix.
Based on the sugar content we can determine what percent alcohol content these grapes are likely to produce. This in turn factors into your yeast choice.
If the brix is too low, you may have to add sugar to bring up the final alcohol to your desired level. On the other hand, if the brix is too high you may have to consider adding water to dilute the sugar a bit or come up with a hearty yeast that can withstand the level of alcohol you could potentially be dealing with.
Yeast Selection
There are two major factors to think about when selecting a yeast. The first is what flavors and aromas a given yeast strain can help pull out of your grapes. Different yeasts produce different flavor and aroma profiles so take some time to think about this before you go to pick up your grapes.
The second major factor to consider is the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. If your sugar content is high enough to produce an 18% alcohol there are only a few yeast strains that will be able to handle that. This is why it is so important to understand the sugar content of your grapes. It gives you an idea of the potential final alcohol.
Acidity and pH
Not all harvested grapes will have ideal acidity and pH levels to produce the type of wine you’re looking for. So, you’ll need to have the necessary testing equipment and additives on hand in case you do need to intervene and make some adjustments.
Any adjustments you decide to make to your acidity or pH should be done prior to fermenting your grapes. The yeast will help integrate all of these things when fermentation is taking place. Making adjustments after fermentation can lead to off flavors or mouthfeel.
Do you Want a Sweet or Dry Wine
This is a decision that you need to make before you even bring your grapes home. If you do decide to make a sweet wine, you’ll need to determine how you want to accomplish that.
The easiest way for the amateur wine maker to produce a sweet wine is through back sweetening. This is done by fermenting the wine completely dry, stabilizing it, and then adding back unfermented grape juice.
For the best results, back sweetening should be done with grape juice from the same grapes that went into making the wine. Thus, you’ll need to set aside some portion of grape juice when you crush that gets stabilized but not fermented.
Back sweetening requires potassium sorbate to prevent further fermentation once the unfermented grape juice is added back to the wine. How much you need to add is something that you’ll have to determine based on the volume of wine you’re making. 
Time
Each of the decisions you will have to make up to this point should take place before your wine goes into the primary fermenter. Because you can only let harvested grapes sit for so long before fermentation begins on its own, you’ll need to make these decisions quickly. Having what you need on hand or available locally for immediate access is critical.
Another thing to consider when it comes to time is the timing of each step in the wine making process. When you rack, add fining agents, bulk age, and bottle is now all up to you. There are no specific instructions included with your grapes to tell you when it’s time to do any of this.
Having a recipe on hand or someone with more experience to help you through your first fresh grape fermentation can be very helpful. Wine making clubs are great places to find both.
Stabilization
Sulfites are used to keep wild yeasts and stray bacteria present on your grapes from taking hold. Some vineyards will spray their grapes with enough sulfites to harvest the grapes and get them to a crush facility. From there you’ll need to monitor and adjust your own sulfite levels.
You could opt to make sulfite free wine; however, I don’t recommend this for your first time working with fresh fruit. If it were me, I would use sulfites for at least the first time or two and then once I’ve successfully made great wine, I would consider changing how I do things.
Malolactic Fermentation
Whether or not to perform malolactic fermentation is a big decision. Yes, it does impact your finished wine in a significant way, but it also affects how you make the other decisions required when making wine from fresh grapes.
Malolactic bacteria are sensitive to both pH and sulfites. In order to have a successful fermentation you have to make sure that these things are balanced not for a finished wine but in such a way as to promote
a healthy malolactic fermentation.
Your sulfite levels will have to be quite low, and your acidity spot on in order for the bacteria to survive. You’ll need a chromatography kit to monitor their progress as well. 
In Conclusion
​While making wine from fresh grapes certainly does place a lot of responsibility on you, the wine maker, the payoff can be tremendous. The quality of wine from fresh grapes often is in a league of its own when compared to manufactured kits. It’s entirely within your power to create a masterpiece wine.
If you’re interested in making the leap from kits to fresh grapes I would suggest you find someone locally who can walk with you through the process and help you understand what you’re seeing in your wine as you make it.

OCTOBER 14, 2019VINEYARDS + WINEMAKING BY MARISA MCCANN
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The moment the entire year’s efforts have led up to is finally here again – it’s harvest season. The season starts when the grapes start to change color in late summer and culminates when our grapes arrive to the crush pad between August and November. Discover what happens at each stage of harvest and see why this is our favorite, yet most demanding, time of year at the winery.
​                                                                                                                                                                                            REACHING RIPENESS – VERAISON

Typically, in July and August, our grapes begin to undergo ripening, a process known as Veraison. During this stage, the fruit transforms from small, green, hard berries into what we recognize as grapes. They begin to lose their bright green color and transform into more mature hues of translucent gold for white varieties and purple-ruby tones for red varieties. In addition to changing colors, the grapes also become softer and increase in size as the vine starts focusing on energy consumption, resulting in grapes with higher sugar levels and less acidity.
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          ON MOTHER NATURE’S SCHEDULE – DETERMINING WHEN TO PICK

As harvest draws near, winemaker Todd Graff closely monitors the development of the grapes from our four vineyard properties. In the weeks leading up to harvest, Todd will make daily vineyard visits to sample the grapes, check Brix (a measurement of sugar), and gauge overall grape balance between the sugars, acidity, and tannins. At this time, weather also plays a critical role in determining when to pick. Heat waves or potential rain showers can cause the vineyard crew to move up or postpone picking.
“Mother Nature always keeps us on our toes and that’s especially the case during the harvest season. As winemakers we have just one shot a year to get it right. We’re on Mother Nature’s schedule and need to be prepared for anything that might come our way.” – Todd Graff
 

​           ALL HANDS-ON DECK – HARVEST TIME

From the moment Todd says the time is right, our winery and vineyard will likely be operating 24 hours a day. Harvest is generally spread out over two to three months. We typically start with picking the grapes for our sparkling wines in mid-August. Harvest is earlier for these grapes as high acidity is desirable in sparkling wine production. By contrast, our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes require more time to mature and can be picked as late as mid-November in some years.
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Traditionally, our grapes are harvested by hand at night or at dawn, when it is coolest outside. While hand-harvesting is more taxing, it is our preferred method to ensure optimal quality. Our trained vineyard crew can properly identify ripened grape clusters and discard underripe or damaged clusters. Hand-harvesting is especially preferred when picking the steep hillsides of Winston Hill Vineyard where mechanical harvesters are unable to operate.


​         QUALITY CONTROL – SORTING

As half-ton bins full of freshly picked grapes are delivered to the winery, they must first be sorted for quality. Traditionally, our grapes would travel down a conveyor belt past a line of sorters making the important selections. The belt would vibrate to shake the grapes and make detecting unripe or damaged grapes and any leaves easier.
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Excitingly, 2019 is the first year Frank Family Vineyards has introduced optical sorting into the process. We recently made an investment into the latest winemaking technology, an optical laser sorter. Now as grapes travel down the conveyor belt, an optic sensor recognizes anything that does not have our desired size, shape, and color and will blow the rejected fruit or debris with compressed air. Only the best fruit will continue on in the winemaking processes.


​          CRUSHING IT – PRESS AND DESTEMMING

Once the best grapes have been sorted, it’s time to crush them so the yeast can quickly get to work fermenting. At Frank Family Vineyards, we use a large, automated crusher-destemmer, which separates the grapes from the stems and then splits open the grape skins to expose the juice and pulp, but without crushing the stems and seeds which contain astringent tannins. Destemmers can remove stems before or after the grapes are crushed, depending on the type of wine and style we are trying to attain.
White grapes are typically not fermented with their skins and seeds attached. Our Chardonnay goes directly into a pneumatic wine press which gently squeezes the grapes with an elastic membrane, separating the juice from the skins so they do not contribute color or tannins.
Finally it’s time to start fermentation with the addition of yeast, and this is when the steps of winemaking truly begin…stay tuned!

Erik Neilson on June 28, 2016 

Summer is a time of year that many people look forward to for months on end, and for good reason. It’s the perfect season for getting together with friends and enjoying some al fresco dining, and wine almost invariably becomes a part of the equation. For those who are used to drinking bold, heavy reds on the regular, however, choosing wines that pair well with the heat of summer can be easier said than done.
Fortunately, there are a number of reds, whites and sparklers that are light enough to drink all summer long without ever feeling even the least bit overbearing. Here are 10 wines that are perfect for summer drinking, no matter how hot it gets outside.
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1. Riesling
Riesling is one of the most interesting white wines available. Though often sweet and viscous, dry Rieslings can be found from producers in both Germany and America (Washington is known for its excellent Riesling), characterized by a crisp acidity and notes of peach, pear, and apricot.
Perfect for pairing with Thai food or otherwise spicy cuisine, Riesling is one of the most food-friendly wines a person can drink during the summer months. It’s also important to note that you get what you pay for with Rieslings, so consider spending a bit extra if you’re looking for a supremely dry, drinkable bottle for summer.

2. Pinot Noir
Looking for a red that won’t put you to sleep under the heat of the summer sun? Pinot Noir is the grape for you. Grown throughout the world and especially focused upon in Oregon, California and New Zealand, Pinot Noir features the juicy complexity of bigger wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, yet with a fraction of the body. Its light, pleasant mouthfeel makes it ideal as an easygoing start to any meal, and this wine, will appeal heavily to red lovers who are attempting to keep things on the airier side.
 
3. Frappato
Perhaps the lightest wine on the list that can still be considered a red as opposed to a rosé, Frappato is a Sicilian grape that exhibits the color of wildflowers and even takes on such flavors. Bursting with minerality from the volcanic soil the grape is grown in, Frappato is about as refreshing as a red wine can get. Ideal for serving with oysters, this wine can also stand on its own as a summer sipper while hanging out on the beach.

4. Rosé
Rosé is somewhat of a blanket style, as the type of wine that ends up getting labelled as a Rosé can vary significantly depending upon the circumstances. Though there are several different ways to produce Rosé, the end result tends to be similar no matter what — crisp acidity, a blush pink color and an exceptionally light body. As with Frappato, Rosé is a perfect wine to pair with shellfish, though it’s surprisingly versatile and can even be served alongside certain red meats. As far as summer wines go, it’s difficult to beat the refreshing qualities of a well-crafted Rosé.

5. Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio is a very popular white wine grape, and while it deserves a spot at the table year-round, it seems practically born for drinking during the summer months. Rife with notes of mango, pineapple and guava, the racy acidity of Pinot Grigio makes it an excellent wine for pairing with vinegary food, and there are few wines that beat this particular grape when it comes to pairing with seafood.

6. Moscato
Not everyone enjoys a bone-dry white wine, and for those who are looking for something on the sweeter end of the spectrum, Moscato fits the bill. Though the cheaper, lower quality Moscato wine characteristically found in supermarkets tends to be sickeningly sweet, there are plenty of well-crafted Moscato’s that are ripe and juicy, with notes of pear and honeysuckle. Perfect as a dessert wine or simply alongside an acidic salad, Moscato can be surprisingly delicious and satisfying at times.

7. Sauvignon Blanc
Known as being perhaps the best possible wine for pairing with chicken and most types of seafood, Sauvignon Blanc is often exactly what most people are looking for when attempting to choose the perfect summer white. Acidic, yet soft enough to carry with it creamy notes of lime, herbs and tropical mango, a good bottle of Sauvignon Blanc can become the star of the show on a warm summer evening. Given how popular this grape is, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a strong example of the style without having to spend very much money.

8. Chardonnay
There are few grapes out there that embody the creaminess of butter quite like Chardonnay. Though it doesn’t sound quite like what most people think they’d like to drink, the creaminess of Chardonnay matches any buttery food to a tee. The summer breeze paired with a plate of scallops and melted leeks with a glass of Chardonnay is warm weather elegance that’s difficult to beat, and it’s an affordable luxury that any wine lover can enjoy.

9. Barbera
Sometimes, one of the best summer wines for the evening is an extremely drinkable red from Italy, and Barbera is about as drinkable as it gets. Woody, tannic and reminiscent in many ways of fresh tomato juice, Barbera is the wine that many makers throughout Italy drink rather than exporting, which typically gets reserved for Barolo and Nebbiolo. There’s simply no better wine to drink alongside a slice or two of pizza, and fortunately, Barbera tends to be relatively affordable in comparison to other, similar wines.

10. Beaujolais
From the center of France, Beaujolais is a popular summer wine that gets its intense minerality from the granite hillside the grape is grown on. Fruity, juicy and very easy to drink, Beaujolais can be paired with practically any protein, including various types of seafood. Don’t bother spending the extra money on pricier Beaujolais crus, as they’ll be more tannic than what you’re looking for on a hot summer day.
Summer won’t last long, so pick one of these delicious summer wines, get outside and enjoy the sunshine!

BY PAUL GREGUTT
  
So, want to learn how to taste and evaluate a glass of wine like an expert? Easy. Follow our wine tasting tips below—but before you start sipping, make sure you’re in the right tasting environment. Here’s what that means:

Good Tasting Conditions
First things first: Make note of the circumstances surrounding your wine tasting experience that may affect your impressions of the wine. For instance, a noisy or crowded room makes concentration difficult. Cooking smells, perfume and even pet odor can destroy your ability to get a clear sense of a wine’s aromas. A glass that is too small, the wrong shape, or smells of detergent or dust, can also affect the wine’s flavor.
The temperature of the wine will also have an impact on your impressions, as will the age of the wine and any residual flavors from whatever else you’ve been eating or drinking. You want to neutralize the tasting conditions as much as possible, so the wine has a fair chance to stand on its own. If a wine is served too cold, warm it with your hands by cupping the bowl. If a glass seems musty, give it a quick rinse with wine, not water, swirling it around to cover all the sides of the bowl. This is called conditioning the glass. Finally, if there are strong aromas nearby—especially perfume—walk as far away from them as you can and try to find some neutral air.

Evaluating by Sight
Once your tasting conditions are as close to neutral as possible, your next step is to examine the wine in your glass. It should be about one-third full. Loosely follow these steps to evaluate the wine visually.

Straight Angle View
First, look straight down into the glass, then hold the glass to the light, and finally, give it a tilt, so the wine rolls toward its edges. This will allow you to see the wine’s complete color range, not just the dark center.
Looking down, you get a sense of the depth of color, which gives a clue to the density and saturation of the wine. You will also learn to identify certain grapes by color and scent. A deeply saturated, purple-black color might well be Syrah or Zinfandel, while a lighter, pale brick shade would suggest Pinot Noir or Sangiovese.

Side View
Viewing the wine through the side of the glass held in light shows you how clear it is.
A murky wine might be a wine with chemical or fermentation problems. On the other hand, it might just be a wine that was unfiltered or has some sediment due to be shaken up before being poured. A wine that looks clear and brilliant and shows some sparkle, is always a good sign.

Tilted View
Tilting the glass so the wine thins out toward the rim will provide clues to the wine’s age and weight.
If the color looks quite pale and watery near its edge, it suggests a rather thin, possibly insipid wine. If the color looks tawny or brown (for a white wine) or orange or rusty brick (for a red wine) it is either an older wine or a wine that has been oxidized and may be past its prime.

Swirl
Finally, give the glass a good swirl. You can swirl it most easily by keeping it firmly on a flat surface; open air “freestyle” swirling is not recommended for beginners.
Notice if the wine forms “legs” or “tears” that run down the sides of the glass. Wines that have good legs are wines with more alcohol and glycerin content, which generally indicates that they are bigger, riper, more mouth-filling and dense than those that do not.

Evaluating by Sniff
Now that you’ve given the wine a good look, you’re ready to take a good sniff. Give the glass a swirl, but don’t bury your nose inside it. Instead, you want to hover over the top like a helicopter pilot surveying rush hour traffic. Take a series of quick, short sniffs, then step away and let the information filter through to your brain.
There are many guides to help you train your nose to identify key wine fragrances, both good and bad. There are potentially thousands of aroma components in a glass of good wine, so forget about finding them all. Naming all the fruits, flowers, herbs and other scents you can trowel out of the glass can be a fun game, but it’s not essential to enjoying and learning how to taste wine.  Once you’ve taken a few quick, short sniffs of the wine, try to look for the following aromas, which will help you better understand the wine’s characteristics.

Wine Flaws
First, you want to look for off-aromas that indicate a wine is spoiled. A wine that is corked will smell like a musty old attic and taste like a wet newspaper. This is a terminal, unfixable flaw.
A wine that has been bottled with a strong dose of SO2 will smell like burnt matches; this will blow off if you give it a bit of vigorous swirling.
A smell of vinegar indicates VA (volatile acidity); a nail polish smell is ethyl acetate.
Brettanomyces—an undesirable yeast that reeks of sweaty saddle scents. A little bit of “brett” gives red wines an earthy, leathery component; but too much obliterates all the flavors of fruit.
Learning to identify these common flaws is at least as important as reciting the names of all the fruits and flowers. And it will also help you to understand your own palate sensitivities and blind spots. Discovering what you recognize and enjoy is key to learning how to choose wine on your own.

Fruit Aromas
If there are no obvious off-aromas, look for fruit aromas. Wine is made from grapes, so it should smell like fresh fruit, unless it is very old, very sweet, or very cold.
You can learn to look for specific fruits and grapes, and many grapes will show a spectrum of possible fruit scents that help you to identify the growing conditions—cool climate, moderate or very warm—of the vineyard.
Flowers, Leaves, Herbs, Spices & Vegetables
Floral aromas are particularly common in cool climate white wines like
​ Riesling and Gewürztraminer, and some Rhône varieties, including Viognier.
Some other grapes can be expected to carry herbal or grassy scents. Sauvignon Blanc is often strongly grassy, while Cabernet Sauvignon can be scented with herbs and hints of vegetation. Rhône reds often show delightful scents of Provençal herbs. Most people prefer that any herbal aromas are delicate. The best wine aromas are complex but also balanced, specific but also harmonious.
Another group of common wine aromas might be characterized as earthy. Scents of mushroom, damp earth, leather and rock can exist in many red wines. A mushroom smell can add nuance; it can also help you determine a possible grape or place of origin of the wine. Too much mushroom may just mean that the grapes failed to ripen sufficiently or were from an inferior clone.
The scent of horse or tack room leather can be an accent, but too much can indicate brettanomyces.
Scents of earth, mineral and rock sometimes exist in the very finest white and red wines. These can be indications of “terroir”—the particular conditions of the vineyard that are expressed as specific scents and flavors in the finished wine.

Wine Barrel Aromas
If you smell toast, smoke, vanilla, chocolate, espresso, roasted nuts, or even caramel in a wine, you are most likely picking up scents from aging in new oak barrels.
Depending upon a multitude of factors, including the type of oak, the way the barrels were made, the age of the barrels, the level of char and the way the winemaker has mixed and matched them, barrels can impart a vast array of scents and flavors to finished wines. Think of the barrels as a winemaker’s color palette, to be used the way a painter uses tubes of paint.

Secondary Aromas
Young white wines and young sparkling wines may have a scent very reminiscent of beer. This is from the yeast.
Some dessert wines smell strongly of honey; this is evidence of botrytis, often called noble rot, and is typical of the very greatest Sauternes.
Chardonnays that smell of buttered popcorn or caramel have most likely been put through a secondary, malolactic fermentation, which converts malic to lactic acids, softening the wines and opening up the aromas.
Older wines have more complex, less fruity aromas. A fully mature wine can offer an explosion of highly nuanced scents, beautifully co-mingled and virtually impossible to name. It is pure pleasure.
Nonetheless, the effort to put words to wine aromas helps you focus on, understand and retain your impressions of different wines. You want to build a memory bank of wine smells and their meanings. That is where the language of wine can add value to a wine tasting event. Learning to talk the talk, if not carried to extremes, helps to dispel some wine myths, such as the confusion surrounding descriptions on wine labels. Have you ever known anyone to ask why a winery added grapefruit to its Gewürztraminer and raspberries to its Zinfandel? The fact that these are simply descriptive terms is not always understood.

Evaluating by Taste
It’s finally time to taste! Take a sip, not a large swallow, of wine into your mouth and try sucking on it as if pulling it through a straw. Ignore the stares of those around you; this simply aerates the wine and circulates it throughout your mouth.
Again, you’ll encounter a wide range of fruit, flower, herb, mineral, barrel and other flavors, and if you’ve done your sniffing homework, most will follow right along where the aromas left off. Aside from simply identifying flavors, you are also using your taste buds to determine if the wine is balanced, harmonious, complex, evolved, and complete.

Balanced
A balanced wine should have its basic flavor components in good proportion. Our taste buds detect sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.
Sweet (residual sugar) and sour (acidity) are obviously important components of wine. Saltiness is rarely encountered, and bitterness should be more a feeling of astringency (from tannins) than actual bitter flavors.
Most dry wines will display a mix of flavors derived from the aromas, along with the tastes of the acids, tannins and alcohol, which cannot generally be detected simply by smell.
There is no single formula for all wines, but there should always be balance between the flavors. If a wine is too sour, too sugary, too astringent, too hot (alcoholic), too bitter, or too flabby (lack of acid) then it is not a well-balanced wine. If it is young, it is not likely to age well; if it is old, it may be falling apart or perhaps completely gone.

Harmonious
A harmonious wine has all of its flavors seamlessly integrated. It’s quite possible, especially in young wines, for all the components to be present in the wine in good proportion, but they stick out. They can be easily identified, but you can feel all the edges; they have not blended together. It’s a sign of very good winemaking when a young wine has already come together and presents its flavors harmoniously.

Complex
Complexity can mean many things. Your ability to detect and appreciate complexity in wine will become a good gauge of your overall progress in learning how to taste wine.
The simplest flavors to recognize—very ripe, jammy fruit and strong vanilla flavors from various oak treatments—are reminiscent of soft drinks. It is perfectly natural for new wine drinkers to relate to them first, because they are familiar and likeable. Some extremely successful wine brands have been formulated to offer these flavors in abundance. But they do not offer complexity.
Complex wines seem to dance in your mouth. They change, even as you’re tasting them. They are like good paintings; the more you look at them the more there is to see. In older wines, these complexities sometimes evolve into the realm of the sublime. The length of a wine, whether old or young, is one good indication of complexity. Simply note how long the flavors linger after you swallow. You might even try looking at your watch if you have a particularly interesting wine in your glass. Most beginning wine drinkers move on too quickly to the next sip when a really good wine is in the glass. Hold on! Let the wine finish its dance before you change partners.

Complete
A complete wine is balanced, harmonious, complex and evolved, with a lingering, satisfying finish. Such wines deserve extra attention, because they have more to offer, in terms of both pleasure and training, than any others you will taste.
Now that you understand the basic steps with our wine tasting tips, it’s time to experiment on your own. It can be quite helpful to build a wine journal of your adventures. Write complete tasting notes for wines you like and dislike. Noting the characteristics that each wine shares will be immensely helpful as you start learning how to choose wine on your own. Cheers!

Published on August 25, 2015

July 1, 2010 by Quality Wine & Ale Supply​

Even a wine newbie is probably aware that the flavor of some wines can be enhanced with some aging. The key word is some. There are wines which should not be consumed before their time as well as ones that really don’t benefit much from extended aging. Now of course, if you’re a beginner and haven’t had much if any experience as a do-it-yourself vintner, then you’re probably not at all sure which wines are best drunk young (unaged) and which only begin to reveal their full character and flavor after months or even years of aging. It can be confusing for the beginning wine maker and even some hobbyists who have been at it for years. It’s only natural to assume that all wines, or at least all red wines, should be aged as long as possible. It is a common misconception that the longer a wine ages, the better it is. However, this isn’t necessarily so. In fact, very few wines will actually continue to improve beyond a certain point and many wines are at their best within the first one to three years after bottling. There are indeed some wines that really come into their full range of expression only after decades of bottle aging, but most of what you make at home with wine making kits neither needs nor will benefit from extended aging.

What Wines Should Not Be Aged?​

All wines do need just a little bit of bottle aging. It’s simply a question of degree. As a rule of thumb, most white wines need very little in the way of aging and will be at their best when they are still relatively young. Most whites reach their peak in the first one to two years and in many cases, it’s perfectly fine to start enjoying some of these wines after as little as three to six months. There are also some reds that don’t really change much after the first three years and will taste quite good with as little as six months in the bottle.

What Wines Should Be Aged?

Generally speaking, the higher the tannin content of the wine, the longer it can be aged and the more it will benefit from aging. It’s important to keep in mind that no wine should be aged indefinitely. There is a point at which the wine reaches its peak and starts to slowly decline in quality afterwards. But this isn’t necessarily intuitive and is something that should be researched on a wine-by-wine basis. Those are just the general rules of thumb for aging. There are certainly unique time scales for each wine depending on its type and area of origin. 

Light Strike: Why Wine and Sunlight Don't Mix
​by Holly Borntrager

​Unless you want its fruity and floral aromas to become those of cooked cabbage, wet cardboard, and wet dog, make sure your wine and sunlight stay far away from each other. Keep reading for more on this and what else you can do to protect your wine.

​Does Sunlight Effect Wine?
Did you know that direct sunlight exposure can change a wonderful bottle of wine to nasty swill? This unfortunate phenomenon is light strike.
Light strike occurs when the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays flood the bottle. This excites the wine’s naturally occurring riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5).
These energized molecules then react with naturally present amino acids. This yields sulfur-containing compounds that we can smell at very low levels, and they stink!
3 hours of sun exposure is all it takes for wine damage to occur in clear bottles. Wine in green bottles takes only 18 hours. Be mindful of where a store has placed its wine before purchasing.
Choose a wine that is not near a window or exposed to the sun.
But is there another solution for fighting off those UV rays?

The color of the bottle greatly affects UV exposure.
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Bulbs & Bottles: More Wine-Saving Methods
Who would have thought that the color of the bottle makes such a difference?
As proof, a study showed that amber glass, not the winemaker’s usual choice, offers near TOTAL protection from UV rays. Green glass offers moderate protection, and clear glass very little.
Historically, green glass was the easiest to produce in large quantities. It predates any understanding of light strike, thus making it the most common today. Clear glass is a newer choice that offers practically no protection.
This is a real shame, as most of us like to see the beautiful shades of white, yellow, green, and rose within.

Storing expensive bottles under fluorescent lights can cause light strike too. Be wary of bottles displayed under non-LED lighting.
Lastly, if you want to get technical and put a stop to UV damage altogether, install LED bulbs. This is a great solution, as they do not emit any UV rays.
It’s Not Impossible!
Keeping wine and sunlight separate might seem tough. But as we’ve seen, there are tons of methods for keeping your wine delicious and sun-free!
Protecting your wine from UV rays, considering the bottle’s color, and even installing LED bulbs will prolong the life and flavor of your wine.
Do you have any tried-and-true methods for keeping UV rays away from your wine? Let us know!