Ask the Winemaker
As many of you may have noticed, I have added an “Ask the Winemaker” link to my front page. I want to encourage anyone with questions about winemaking, the content of my posts, or anything about wine to submit a comment with their questions. I can’t guarantee that I’ll know the answer but I’ll offer what help I can. I’ve created an “Ask the Winemaker” category to serve as a repository for these questions and answers so that you can more easily find my responses and so you can see what everyone else is asking.
I will try to answer your questions in as timely a manner as possible but please bear with me as I can sometimes fall behind. If you have a simple question, I may just respond with a comment of my own, so be sure to check back from time to time. If the answer is more complex, I may devote a new post to it. You can subscribe to my blog to receive email notices when new posts are published to help you know when an answering post is available.
Please use the comment form at the bottom of this page to ask your questions. Thanks!
Hi Ruth…happy new year to you too!
I have never heard of a winemaker registry so I can’t help you there. I can’t imagine that winemakers, in general, would register themselves regarding something like that.
Best of luck with Wine Island Village in the coming year.
Lady
Hey Linda! Happy New Year!
I am working on updating the Wine Island Village website and would like to post links to blogs by wine makers.
I have your link, can you tell me - is there a winemaker registry somewhere. I would like a list of American wine makers to see if they are blogging!
Thanks,
Ruth
I was recently diagnosed with a gluten (found in wheat, barley and rye) intolerance. It has come to my attention that some winemakers use a flour paste to hold there whine barrels together. Is there someplace to find out which wineries do not use this process so I can easily find wines that are safe for me to drink?
Thank you for your help.
Jan, I don’t know of any one place you could look to find out if a winemaker is using flour paste to seal their barrels. My guess is that not a lot of them do. I don’t personally know anybody who does but I have also heard that this is done by some in the industry.
The best thing you can do is call or e-mail the winery whose wine you have an interest in and ask them. While we have never been asked that particular question (and I don’t use flour paste) we do get other questions that are very specific to some peoples allergies or beliefs.
I know this will be a bit of a pain and I wish I could come up with some information to make it easier for you.
If any of my readers has a helpful thought here, I am sure we would like to hear it.
Lady
My doctor is limiting my protein and potassium intake for health reasons. How much of each would I expect to find in a glass (6 oz) of most wines? Approximate is OK, too. Thanks.
Nancy, I would say that there is not much protein in wine, especially white wine, because winemakers remove protein so that it does not cause a haze or precipitate out in the bottle.However potassium is another matter. The amount of potassium could vary greatly because some of the products used in winemaking add potassium. One example would be a winemaker using potassium metabisulfite(simply known as sulfite) as apposed to sodium metabisulfite.Without a lab test (something that is not done at the winery), there is no way to know how much is ultimately in that individual bottle, or glass, and every wine would be different.L.
Thanks.
I’ll keep looking.
Maggie
Maggie, this is an excellent and often asked question. The answer is too long to reply here. I promise to opost a blog on this subject soon. Please keep checking.
Thanks,
I’m not really into the technical stuff you write about. But I have a question. Can you tell me, how do I know how long I can keep a wine. How do you know that a wine will be good 5, 10 or 15 years from now? I have friends that will visit wineries and buy a 1/2 case or more of a wine they like. Then they opened a bottle that is only 3 or 4 years old and they complain that it’s not as good as when they first bought it.
Maggie
I started my first ever batch of wine 2 days ago, a gallon of dandelion wine using the recipe I found at http://www.thecompostbin.com/2006/05/how-to-make-dandelion-wine.html
I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s been sitting on the shelf for two days and I haven’t really noticed anything.
Well today, I started my second ever batch of wine from a kit. I mixed all the ingredients and after an hour or two I started noticing the sound of the air-lock releasing gas.
It hit me that I never noticed a similar sound coming from my dandelion wine. I started thinking about it and realized, much to my horror that I never added the three pounds of sugar to the recipe! Figuring that my batch was ruined forever, I decided to “experiment” by prying off the lid and adding a half a cup of sugar. Sure enough, a few minutes later I started noticing gas escaping the airlock!
What should I do? I hate to pitch the lot because I spent hours preparing the dandelions. Is there a chance I could save it if I went ahead and added three pounds of sugar now? If I did that, would I let it sit for four more days?
Thanks in advance.
Linda,What a great story!! Just wanted to let you know I have enjoyed reading your blog. I am taking the class at SCC you spoke to a few weeks ago. The entire class really enjoyed you speaking to us and we are still talking about all the aspects of growing grapes and making wine of which you spoke. Your presentation to the class was so interesting. Thank you again. Also, thank you for being a huge part of this growing industry. It is exciting to see all the benefits and opportunities this industry can bring to our area.