Working with grape juice is often considered a first step in the winemaking ladder: kit to juice to grapes. A generally shared winemaking belief is that working with whole grapes is the goal and that one never goes “backward.” It’s just-not-the-done-thing! I used to believe that working with juice was okay if you were purchasing fresh juice for white wines that were not “aromatic,” such as for Chardonnay but probably not Gewurztraminer, where grape-skin contact was helpful in expressing...

There are no bad winemakers. There are just some who are less successful than others. But there are great winemakers. Some of these winemakers are professional, but many others are amateurs. Great winemaking knows no boarders or gender or training. Great winemaking is expressed in the glass. Who are these people and what guides them to repeatedly succeed where other diligent souls only occasionally get lucky? Is there some element or quirk in their character that propels them forward and...

There’s an old aphorism often quoted concerning wine quality: Good wine is made in the vineyard. It is certainly true that great, or even good wine can’t be made from poor quality grapes. Nor does excellence in the vineyard insure excellent wine. Like all aphorisms this one doesn’t tell the whole story. How you make the wine is just as important as the quality of the grapes. In an excellent year a good winemaker will “get out of the way” and allow the wine to express itself. In a challenging...