www.totalwinesystem.com. (Michael James) The 7th of the “Grape Tips” video series. An overview of the effect of yeast in winemaking. Fermentation is critical to winemaking and alcohol development. winemaking yeastSep 16, 2006 … Everything you ever wanted to know about yeasts and their…

Stephany and I (Nico) introduce the concept of our new video blog “TintoTV” (tv.tintorecords.com)!

Refractometers are a basic part of winemaking equipment, which test the sugar in wine. Learn more about refractometers withexpert tips from a wine maker in this free video about how to make wine. Expert: John Brack Contact: www.AustinHomebrew.com Bio: John Brack has been brewing his own beer and wine for more than 15 years, and has been on-staff with Homebrew Supply for more than 11 years. Filmmaker: MAKE | MEDIA

Degassing is a crucial step in making homemade wine. Discover more about degassing wine withexpert tips from a wine maker in this free video about how to make wine. Expert: John Brack Contact: www.AustinHomebrew.com Bio: John Brack has been brewing his own beer and wine for more than 15 years, and has been on-staff with Homebrew Supply for more than 11 years. Filmmaker: MAKE | MEDIA

Peter Kitchak, of Kitchak Cellars in the Napa Valley, describes how UC Davis Extension online courses helped him achieve his goal of starting a vineyard and winery, and making great wine.

Most wine lovers dream about experiencing harvest, making their own or seeing their name on a wine label. With First Crush winemaking experience in Paso Robles — the heart of the Central Coast wine country — now they can. The one-of-a-kind adventure is for those who want to experience the complete winemaking process from berry to bottle. www.firstcrushwinemaking.com video by http

The winemaking industry has a very long history in the United States and though California is the state which produces the most wine in the United States, the art of winemaking didn’t start there. Europeans which first came to North America found a lot of grapes vines growing throughout the country but they found the quality from these grapes and their resulting wines unsatisfactory. In order to sort this problem out they came along with cuttings and planted other grape varieties which would give them the wine that they desired. Records have shown that in 1629 a small town in New Mexico started the planting of different varieties of grapes.

It was by the year 1802 which other grapes which were planted all over the United States and in which winemaking became a very fruitful business. In the state of Ohio, the Catawba grape was the leading version of grape being grown. A certain winemaker planted a great crop of grapes of more than one thousand acres which birthed some very great wine. The bad thing was that a fungus affected the crop of grapes and cleared out the entire crop and this resulted in the end of the winemakers business.

Another land was sought where grapes would be safe from mildew as well as funguses. It was in the 1860s that an area in New York which was called Finger Lakes was then found. Grape varieties which had been carefully sought out where then transplanted to this region and they succeeded in growing successfully. A new brand of wine resulted and it was so popular that the wines from Finger Lakes even won prizes in places as far off as Europe.

The vineyards in California on the other hand, were planted in the year 1769 by missionaries. They started to make wine that was considered as very excellent wine as at the period in question. In California, the first layman to make wine started his efforts with cuttings which had been imported from France. By the middle of the 1850s this huge vineyard had more than forty thousand grapevines growing fruit and a winery which churned out at least a thousand barrels of wine on an annual basis.

From this period onwards, California turned into the winemaking capital of the United States. Because of the wonderful climate, a number of other wineries started in the state and all over the country. One of these wineries made use of a technique which was known as dry farming.

Though most vineyards used to irrigate their grapes in order to ensure that their grapes got enough water, another person who had at least five hundred acres of grapes allowed them to grow on hills and slopes and allowed nature to do the rest. A lot of people followed this mans methods and today it is one of the predominant methods of growing grapes.

The industry in California got a better boost in the year 1861 when the federal government sent a particular winemaker to Europe in order to return with as many good cuttings as possible. The winemaking industry was growing into a very large one and the government was trying to ensure that it was supported and encouraged. This individual came back with almost a hundred thousand vines representing about three hundred varieties of grape.

These vines were then shared among growers and became what is now the healthy wine industry which makes a large part of the wine industry in America.

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Creation of champagne is a different process from the making of non-bubbly wines. The law has it that only one type of drink can be called champagne and all these drinks are made exclusively in France. The French tend to take a whole lot of pride in the name and they will take legal action against anyone who uses the term without the right to do so.

In history, you have a lot of tales about who was the first person to make champagne. A popular story credits Dom Perignon as the inventor of the bubbly wine otherwise known as champagne but certain historians disagree. Some certain other people believe that a monk saw the grape grown in the area of Champagne and this grape has a shorter life span due to the fact that the cold weather tended to last a bit longer in the region. Due to this fact the grapes tend to be picked at the last possible moment before the advent of frost. Cold weather, the short growing season and the other associated factors go a long way in understanding where the bubbles result from. Wine in Champagne is made differently, the whole factor of late picking means that the fermentation process is stopped in the middle since the cold weather means the process can’t be continued. When the weather becomes warm again, the remaining part of the process them gets restarted again. It is this process of starting over which results in the additional carbon dioxide which gives rise to bubbles.

A lot of the monks at the time thought that these bubbles were a terrible thing and tried to correct the situation. These monks felt that the wine was a wrong color and that they should try to make red wines instead of dealing with this curious phenomenon. In the 1700′s not much of this strange bubbly wine was made. It was only popular with the French and English royalty for unknown reasons and it was loved by aristocrats and flowed freely only at the best of parties. By the 1800′s had become so popular that its makers struggled to keep up with the demand for it.

In 1729 the first real winery devoted to the making of champagne was made. In 1735 laws as to the formulation of real champagne and the manner in which it was to be bottled and sold were established. In 1743 the largest winery making champagne which was aptly name a champagne house was started and the establishment continues till date. By the mid 1800′s they were selling as much as twenty million bottles annually.

You can make champagne on your own but the process is somewhat more complicated. The process used is usually called Methode Champenoise. You need thicker bottles because the process involved can cause bottles to explode. The wine must be a white wine but you must use Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier or Chardonnay. The first two may not be white grapes but they produce white juice and as long as the skins are separated quickly, the white color will still remain. Many years are needed in order to create great champagne so the best thing to do would be to make your wine and buy the champagne instead.

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Winemaker Fred Scherrer discusses reductive winemaking and defines lees in response to questions from Jessica Bell of the MidWest Wine School. Jessica teaches WSET certification courses in the Midwest. AskaWinemaker is a project of Candid Wines. www.candidwines.com. Relevant sites: www.scherrerwinery.com, www.midwestwineschool.com Filmed at C House restuarant in the Affinia Hotel in Chicago. Thanks to Chef Marcus Samuelsson and team.

Olivier Humbrecht of Domaine Zind Humbrecht and Master of Wine discusses the meaning of “Reductive wine making”. Thanks to Jessica Bell’s WSET students at the MidWest Wine School for supplying this question. Filmed at the Renaissance des Appelations tasting in New York.