Tag: wine school

Learn more about wine with our fact-filled articles under the heading ”wine school”. On how to make wine, on wine regions, on grape varieties, on tasting wine and much, much more. Facts about the wonderful world of wine. Everything from in-depth technical articles on viticulture and winemaking to tasting tips to learn more about flavours and characters.

A traditional plate (cellulose) filter

Filtration of wine, a short introduction

Almost all wines (counted in volume) are filtered in one way or another. There are a few wine producers who do not filter their wines. There are also wine enthusiasts who are convinced that unfiltered

Vineyards around Neusiedlersee in Austria

Vineyard area in Austria

Austria has around 46,000 hectares of vineyards. That is roughly one third of Bordeaux (and some). There are four main regions: Burgenland, Niederösterriech, Steiermark and Wien. Niederösterriech is by far the biggest region with 60%

Riesling, almost ripe in Central Otago, New Zealand

Germany’s most grown grapes

In our last Brief we wrote about the most popular grape varieties grown in Germany. The figures came from a print magazine but after looking at them a little more closely we thought they looked

Yeast fermenting the must

Not all yeasts are created equal

It is common practice to add cultured (sometimes called artificial) yeast to the must to control the fermentation of wine. Just like for “natural” fermentation it is Saccharomyses Cerevisiae that converts the sugar to alcohol

Stainless steel fermentation vats with a cooling system and frost

Wine technology: wine with gum Arabic

Gum Arabic is, technically, a polysaccharide and a resin like substance from an Arabic acacia tree. Its use is permitted in winemaker. Nothing particularly strange about that. It is a regular food additive with the

Mout Concentre Rectifie, MCR, concetrated grape juice

Must concentration – what should you do?

Diluted wine or fruity wine? Must concentration – what should or should you not do? Boil the must in a vacuum? If it rains just before the harvest you risk getting a diluted must. The

View over the summits of the Andes in Mendoza, Argentina, and the vineyards

Mendoza Report

What’s new in Mendoza? With the snow capped Andes in the background and an extremely blue sky, Mendoza, the largest wine region in Argentina, is a magnificent sight. The climate is nice and warm. It

Vineyards and mountains in Chile, South America

Chile’s wine regions, what’s happening?

Tales from a recent trip Chile is a wine country in transformation. For twenty years it has been delivering reliable but quite basic wines but now many wine producers think it is time to show

Ripe merlot grapes on the vine in Saint Emilion, Bordeaux

Bordeaux Facts

– There are 60 different appellations(AOC / AOP) in total in the Bordeaux region – 118,000 hectares of vines in total (2009) – 5.7 million hl wine produced, which is +20 compared to 2008 but

Cases of Chateau Angelus 2000 and Chateau Cheval Blanc 2001

Wine as an investment – good or bad?

Every once in a while we read about how good and how safe wine is as an investment. Not seldom it is written by someone who is offering services to potential “investors”. Felix Salmon, financial

Mechanical harvester straddling a row of vines

Mechanical harvest

Grape harvest with a harvest machine (tractor) A winegrower can either harvest manually with people in the vineyard, or do mechanical harvest with a machine. Mechanical harvest is done with a dedicated harvester or with

Pumping over at Bodegas Roda, Rioja

Pumping over or remontage

Extracting more by spraying the cap — “Pumping over” (called remontage in French) is a technology used in the winery to increase extraction. The winemaker performs it by emptying fermenting must from the bottom of

Bunches of ripe grapes, noble rot, Sauternes

Noble rot

Noble rot is what makes some sweet wines what they are. Noble rot, or botrytis cinerea (or pourriture noble in French), is a kind of fungus, a mushroom, which can develop on the grapes in

Sorting the grapes at Bodegas Baigorri

Sorting of grapes or grape bunches

Grape sorting is a technique to improve the quality of the wine. It can take place in the vineyard, on the vine, or after harvest. Here we look at the grape sorting and selection after

Harvesting oak bark for cork, Alentejo, Portugal

On cork: interview with Amorim [E] – BKWine TV

Cork in the bottle? Interview with Carlos de Jesus, marketing and communications director from Amorim, the worlds largest producer of natural cork. There has been a lot of criticism of cork in recent years, and

Vineyards around Neusiedlersee in Austria

Vineyard area in Austria

Austria has around 46,000 hectares of vineyards. That is roughly one third of Bordeaux (and some). There are four main regions: Burgenland, Niederösterriech, Steiermark and

Riesling, almost ripe in Central Otago, New Zealand

Germany’s most grown grapes

In our last Brief we wrote about the most popular grape varieties grown in Germany. The figures came from a print magazine but after looking

Yeast fermenting the must

Not all yeasts are created equal

It is common practice to add cultured (sometimes called artificial) yeast to the must to control the fermentation of wine. Just like for “natural” fermentation

Stainless steel fermentation vats with a cooling system and frost

Wine technology: wine with gum Arabic

Gum Arabic is, technically, a polysaccharide and a resin like substance from an Arabic acacia tree. Its use is permitted in winemaker. Nothing particularly strange

View over the summits of the Andes in Mendoza, Argentina, and the vineyards

Mendoza Report

What’s new in Mendoza? With the snow capped Andes in the background and an extremely blue sky, Mendoza, the largest wine region in Argentina, is

Ripe merlot grapes on the vine in Saint Emilion, Bordeaux

Bordeaux Facts

– There are 60 different appellations(AOC / AOP) in total in the Bordeaux region – 118,000 hectares of vines in total (2009) – 5.7 million

Mechanical harvester straddling a row of vines

Mechanical harvest

Grape harvest with a harvest machine (tractor) A winegrower can either harvest manually with people in the vineyard, or do mechanical harvest with a machine.

Pumping over at Bodegas Roda, Rioja

Pumping over or remontage

Extracting more by spraying the cap — “Pumping over” (called remontage in French) is a technology used in the winery to increase extraction. The winemaker

Bunches of ripe grapes, noble rot, Sauternes

Noble rot

Noble rot is what makes some sweet wines what they are. Noble rot, or botrytis cinerea (or pourriture noble in French), is a kind of

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