Welcome to my wine and beer making site!
I made my first batch of wine (a forgettable Rhubarb wine) in May 1981 and my first beer in January 1984. On these pages I record my adventures in these areas:
- wine making records
- beer making records
- liqueur making records
- white papers on wine and beer making
- posts that describe my experiments
The above items are accessible through the menus above, and some related posts are organized (see links in left sidebar).
Note: I get questions regarding distilling. I can’t answer such questions as I have never distilled.
Whitepapers & Posts
Updated 12/18/2022
One of the things I find difficult on most blog sites is finding anything. A prolific author will produce dozens or even hundreds of posts, and the blog software lists them in reverse chronological order. Search works, if you know what keywords to search for, and if those keywords are not in dozens of posts.
To address this problem, I created pages that group posts by topic, to (hopefully) make it easier to find things.
| White Papers | A lot of questions on WineMakingTalk are repeats — newcomers ask pretty much the same questions, so I have been taking the time to record detailed answers to common questions. These whitepapers cover numerous aspects of winemaking. Updated 12/18/2022 |
| Wines … in Detail | These posts provide a deep dive into the winemaking process of selected wines. Each post is intended to address a different facet of winemaking. Updated 12/17/2022 |
| Ongoing Plans | These posts list what I have planned at different points in time, and illustrate how plans can change. Updated 10/05/2022 |
| Site Updates | I document significant changes in this site, mostly to help me keep track of things. Updated 06/2021 |
| How to Make Wine | This is a series of posts I wrote in 2019, a stream of consciousness of what was happening at the time. While it was intended to be a complete primer on winemaking, in retrospect, I meandered off and didn’t fully meet the objective. However, the posts provide a view into the process and challenges of winemaking. Updated 06/2020 |
<—— Note that links to these pages are in the left sidebar
Current Updates
This section lists wines currently in production.
Note — the “updated” dates are not current. I’m in the process of updating my online notes.
| 2022 Merlot / Tempranillo | updated 10/21/2022 |
| 2022 Merlot / Grenache | updated 10/21/2022 |
| 2022 Rhone Blend | updated 12/17/2022 |
| 2022 Tempranillo | updated 12/17/2022 |
| 2022 Grenache | updated 11/17/2022 |
Recent Wines
These are wines bottled in the last 12 months (or so):
| 2021 Super Tuscan | updated 11/27/2022 |
| 2021 Rhone Blend | updated 11/27/2022 |
| 2022 Chocolate Raspberry Port | updated 10/15/2022 |
| 2022 Elderberry | updated 10/06/2022 |
| 2022 Blackberry | updated 10/06/2022 |
| 2022 Strawberry | updated 10/05/2022 |
| 2022 Sauvignon Blanc | updated 10/04/2022 |
| 2022 Pinot Noir | updated 10/04/2022 |
| 2021 Chardonnay | updated 05/21/2022 |
| 2020 Meritage | updated 02/11/2022 |
| 2020 Meritage Plus | updated 02/12/2022 |
| 2021 Barbera | updated 01/17/2022 |
| 2020 Second Run Merlot / Vinifera Blend / Zinfandel | updated 10/13/2021 |
| 2020 Merlot | updated 09/29/2021 |
| 2020 Zinfandel | updated 09/29/2021 |
| 2020 Vinifera Blend | updated 09/29/2021 |
| 2020 Sauvignon Blanc | updated 07/05/2021 |
Oak Stix Experiment
Updated: 09/26/2021
We have completed an experiment using Next Level Oak’s oak kit product, comparing American, French, and Hungarian oak against Hungarian oak cubes. Our final tasting was on 09/26/2021 and a Conclusions section has been added to the post.
Navigation
Current posts are displayed on the right, with the most current ones first.
Wine Making: This menu contains lists of current and finished wines, along with various lists of everything I’ve made.
Beer Making: This menu contains lists of current and finished beers. I don’t have an overall list as I don’t make a lot of beer.
Blogs: Here’s you’ll find general blog posts (non-recipes) that talk about wine or beer making in general. There are also “white papers”, documents that describe technical points to the best of my ability.
Enjoy!