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Winemaker's Minute Episode #26 - Deciding When to Pick a Vineyard
After a long season the critical decision of when to pick the fruit involves a lot of variables
Deciding when to pick wine grapes is a very complex process. We evaluate both analytical ripeness and physiological ripeness when making pick decisions. Ideally the grapes would be physiologically ripe at the exact moment the sugars and acids are at the ideal levels. But most often you are balancing one thing with another. Sugars are high but tannins are too green... flavors are good but sugars are not quite where you'd want them... sugars are ...more

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Winemaker's Minute Episode #25 Getting Initial TA, pH, and Brix Numbers
Knowing the chemical makeup of your grapes on harvest day is critical to getting your wine started properly
A lot of thought and debate goes into when you pick a vineyard but once those grapes hit the winery, you have to react to what mother nature and the hard working vineyard crew delivered. This means that as a winemaker you need to know the chemical breakdown of a few key numbers for your lot of grapes. Most critical to your initial decision making are the sugar, acid and pH levels. Crushpad Lab Manager Cindy Cosco shows us how we keep up with th...more

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Winemaker's Minute Episode #24 - Controlling Fermentation Temperatures
How do you cool off a hot fermentation?
Ferment temperatures are key to hitting your stylistic goals, both for aromas, and flavors. Making small batches of wine presents a set of challenges not faced by massive wineries where they have huge temperature-controlled vats. Your ferment temperature needs to be hot enough to get the level of extraction you want but if you let it get away from you and get too hot, you'll lose some of your fruit component.  Keeping the ferment tempera...more

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Winemaker's Minute Episode #23 - What to Expect on Crush Day
What to expect when your grapes hit the winery
You've been waiting all season for your grapes to ripen, and you've just heard that they are being picked soon. Great! You've also laid out your plan for how you are going to handle those grapes when they come into the winery. Smart! Now it's time to set the machinery in motion. What does that look like, and what do you have to be ready for once you see the fruit? Kian Tavakoli walks us through the process, and we look into the machinery t...more

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Wine Maker's Minute #22 - Racking Wines
What is racking, and why do you rack wine?
Most wines get racked at some point in their aging cycle. Racking is simply drawing the clear wine off the top of the lees (yeast cells and other sediment) which settle to the bottom of barrels during aging. Those lees left behind are then dumped, the barrel refilled, and then topped with wine from the same vineyard. The process is done to clarify wines, move them to new barrels to add extra complexity from multiple types of oak, and to introdu...more

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Wine Maker's Minute #21- Creating a Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Plan
Everything you need to know to get your Cab wine plan completed
At Crushpad, the wine plan is at the center of your winemaking experience. This is the blueprint for how your consulting winemaker will help you create exactly the wine that you want. In conversation here with Stuart Ake, Kian covers everything from Style, to fermentation temperature, to barrel choice. If you're making Cabernet Sauvignon, this is the place to start. And to get more detailed information on each choice in the wine plan, you can als...more

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Winemaker's Minute Episode #20 - Power-washing Barrels
Saves time, money, AND it's fun to watch!
Getting excited about a barrel washer might seem to confirm that we're a bit geeky when it comes to our high-tech gear but barrel hygiene is critical to making great wine. And to guarantee that barrels get properly cleaned you need a high-pressure barrel washer. We just upgraded to a shiny dual-barrel automated barrel blasting beauty. For reasons known only at the highest levels of Crushpad management, our new barrel washer has been named Bruce...more

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Winemaker's Minute Episode #1 - Wine Style
What Kind of Wine Would You Make?
Whether you are making your own wine, or just trying to find the right bottle at a local shop, you need to be able to express to others the style of wine you are looking for. You can't get what you want if you don't know how to ask for it. Crushpad Chief winemaker Michael Zitzlaff talks with us about how to define a style of of wine.

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Winemaker's Minute #19 - Sulfur and Winemaking
What is the role of SO2 in making wine?
Sulfur, or sulphur if you're on another continent, plays a critical role in making wine that is stable, and can stand the test of time in bottle. Sulfur is actually a by-product of the fermentation process, but is also added in small amounts to almost every wine made to inhibit harmful bacteria that would spoil the wine in the winemaking process, or in the bottle. When is it used, and how do you determine how much to add? Ask a winemaker. We did,...more

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Winemaker's Minute #18 - Choosing Your Aging Vessel
Wood barrel, or steel? French, or American oak?
To guarantee you end up with a wine you will love, you have to know how much, if any, oak influence you want in that wine. This is managed by choosing the proper aging vessel. From crisp Sauvignon Blanc all the way to brooding, broad-shouldered, Cabernet Sauvignon, other than grape varietal, the aging vessel holds the most influence over the finished wine. Choosing a barrel type might seem as much an art as it is science but Kian walks us through...more
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