On caravans, ships, temperatures and wine…

A winemaker once told me how he sold quite a lot of wine to a father whose daughter was to be married in a few months’ time. After the wedding the enraged father told the winemaker that the wines were not the same as when he bought it and tasted awful at the wedding. Turns […]

The wood must respect the fruit…

A favourite motto of barrel producers (coopers) is that the wood must respect the fruit in wine, something a certain ex-president of ours were not really inclined to do with our constitution… So let’s zoom(a) into the main differences between new and old oak barrels used for winemaking… About a decade ago the use of […]

Variability is the spice of life in wine…

If there is one thing I have learned the past 17 years while doing research in wine in is that wine can be quite complex. Due to the effects of variability in wine production, doing research and to a certain extend training in wine can be quite daunting. However, this makes investigations into what makes […]

Fine with fining your wine?

The other day I received a notice from the traffic department, a speeding fine. I required a large glass of wine before opening it, but fortunately not too bad…. However, did you know that fining often also takes place when wine is made? No, I am not referring here to a disciplinary action, but rather […]

Cool compounds: pepper and raspberry in Shiraz wines

This festive time of the year, being summer time, one tends to drink more white wine. However, spending Christmas in CAW (Cold and Wet George), I will probably open a bottle of Shiraz to go with the cold meats tomorrow. Shiraz is a very versatile cultivar, making wines that can be either spicy, more fruity/flowery […]

Big bad Brett in wine

Ever heard of the bad boy in wine making? No, I am not referring to a winemaker and his mood at the end of harvest… Winemakers will often add yeast to grape must to complete the alcoholic fermentation, but not all yeasts are equal and good for the wine’s quality for that matter! Brettanomyces is a […]

Romancing the Stone: minerality in wine

I love 80’s adventure movies. I was thinking this morning about the movie “Romancing the Stone” and suddenly thought about a term sometimes used to describe wines: minerality…. In this post I’ll talk a bit about this description in wine (Word does not even seems to have it in its spell check!). Minerality is sometimes […]

To add or not add yeast? That is the question…

Choices, choices, choices… Like all things in life winemakers also have a number of choices when producing wine. One of these is if yeast should be added or not when making wine. Yeast plays a very important role in our lives. Yeast are responsible for the transformation of sugar in grape juice (consisting of glucose […]

Wine and your wide nose…

I am not sure how many of you liked science at school, but I actually found it quite fascinating (except the exam part of course). Once one starts to appreciate the wonder of nature and how we as humans perceive it, we realize what a wonderful role chemistry plays in our everyday lives! The same […]

Fire that barrel!

I am sitting now with a glass of Chenin blanc, one eye on my two young boys trying to kill each other in the garden with their plastic bikes and the other on the barbeque fire. I am going to braai some traditional South African sosaties which will go well with the Chenin methinks! This […]