oenology

Winemaking Technique | What Is Cold Maceration?

2026/4/19

Maceration is a winemaking technique with a surprisingly thin body of precise, publicly available information despite its widespread use. This article takes cold maceration (cold soak) as its central case and examines both the commonly cited benefits and …

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qualitycontrol

The Diversity of Brett Reception | Beyond the Defect-vs-Character

2026/4/3

How do you react when Brett comes up in a conversation about wine? Some may wonder why bread appears in the discussion — the resemblance goes no further than the sound of the word. What drifts from the glass is a distinctive smell rarely encountered in ev …

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oenology

Are Dessert Wines Never Red?

2026/3/19

Preferences in wine vary widely, but few people seem to dislike the profound sweetness that characterises dessert wines. Even setting aside Château d’Yquem, the mere thought of a Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from an exceptional vintage is enough to bring …

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fermentation

A Technique for Controlling Spontaneous Fermentation in Winemaking: Pied de Cuve

2026/2/12

When making one’s own wine, few producers have never hesitated over the choice of whether to ferment with active dry yeast or to rely on indigenous microorganisms—so-called “wild” yeasts—present on grapes and in the winery. If the priority is fermentation …

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viticultur

Pruning Wine Grapevines: Sap Flow and Longevity Through the Lens of Fundamentals and History

2026/1/14

Pruning is one of the most critical operations carried out in vineyards. In viticulture, pruning refers to removing unnecessary shoots and canes that have grown over the season, leaving only those required for the coming production cycle. This work is per …

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oenology wine

Wine and Barrel-Derived Extracts: Phenolic Compounds and Oak-Related Aromas

2025/12/22

This article focuses on the compounds extracted from wooden barrels during wine aging and their effects on wine. Discussions of barrel aging are often reduced to the notion of “oak aroma,” with an emphasis on aromatic attributes alone. In practice, howeve …

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thorough-explanation

Myths and Realities of Whole-Cluster Fermentation: How Grape Stems Affect Wine

2025/12/11

In the context of winemaking, you may have encountered terms such as “destemming” and “whole-cluster fermentation.” Both refer to how grape bunches are handled at the point of vatting. A grape cluster consists of many berries attached to a green, stem-lik …

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oenology thorough-explanation vinnatural

Bio and “Natural”: A Winemaker’s View from the Cellar

2025/12/10

Whenever I occasionally post about “natural wine” on X (formerly Twitter), those posts tend to be shared relatively widely for my account size. This simply indicates how many people react to this particular keyword. In recent years, especially in Japan, t …

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qualitycontrol

The Relationship Between Fill Level and Wine Quality: What the Headspace Reveals

2025/12/8

In the context of mature wines—those that have spent a decade or several decades in bottle—the fill level is often used as a quality indicator. Some importers and professional merchants routinely assess fill height and decline to ship bottles that fall be …

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qualitycontrol

Wine Flavour and Glycerol

2025/12/5

Wine exhibits remarkable diversity in both flavour and aroma. Even wines produced in the same region during the same vintage never show completely identical sensory profiles. Moreover, when a single producer vinifies grapes from the same vineyard under id …

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qualitycontrol wine

2025/6/28

Wine Bottle Storage: Vertical vs. Horizontal Storage – Which is Correct?

When storing wine, there’s probably one question that everyone has wondered about at least once: how should the bottle be positioned? Should wine bottles be stored horizontally, or should they not be stored vertically? A quick search reveals many explanat …

vinnatural

2025/9/13

Why People Buy Natural Wine

I would like to introduce the content of a fascinating article published in the German wine magazine “der deutsche Weinbau.” Image or Sensation? The title of this article is “Image vs. Sensorik.” If we translate this somewhat freely, it becomes “Image or …

oenology off-flavor viticultur wine

2025/10/11

Wine Off-Flavor | UTA / ATA

You tasted a white wine at a winery or wine shop and liked it enough to purchase it. However, you felt it was still a little early for drinking, so you decided to let it rest a bit longer in your home cellar. Six months later, at the dinner table. You kne …

sparklingwine thorough-explanation

2025/8/26

Complete Guide | How Sparkling Wine is Made

Sparkling wine, epitomized by Champagne, is an indispensable element at parties and other festive occasions. Have you ever wondered how this effervescent wine containing carbon dioxide gas is actually produced? While explanations of production methods are …

wine

2025/9/22

The Relationship Between Alcohol and Wine’s Taste and Aroma Perception

When tasting wine, which element do you focus on most? Many of you might be conducting tastings that center more on aroma than on flavor. For winemakers, some of you may be paying more attention to the wine’s compositional elements themselves, such as res …

sparklingwine

2025/11/5

The Surprising Truth Behind Sparkling Wine Gushing

When you’re tired from the day’s work, when you want to add a touch of elegance to your everyday life, when you wish to spend quality time with close friends, or when you need to refresh yourself from the oppressive heat—sparkling wine is the perfect comp …

grape-disease grape-variation viticultur

2025/8/28

The Growing World of Grape Varieties | The PIWI Category

Cabernet Blanc, Cabernet Jura, Muscaris, Souvignier Gris. Do these varietal names sound familiar to you? From the sound of “Cabernet~”, “Musca~”, and “Souvi~”, many of you may have guessed that these are wine grape varieties. Indeed, these are all names o …

viticultur

2025/8/5

Is Germany the Northern Limit of Viticulture?

When people begin studying wine, many learners are taught that “wine grape cultivation takes place between 30° and 50° North latitude and 30° and 40° South latitude,” aren’t they? Then, when they move on to the chapter dealing with German wines, they like …

viticultur wine

2025/11/26

Wine, Soil, and Terroir | Slate Color and Wine Character

When explaining the distinctive character of wine, the discussion often relates to terroir. Soil is one of the elements that constitute terroir. There are numerous types of soil. Alongside clay and limestone, Schiefer occupies a significant position among …

thorough-explanation viticultur

2025/7/31

Comprehensive Guide to Phylloxera

On March 5, 2019, news emerged of fresh phylloxera damage in vineyards in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia. Phylloxera represents one of the most devastating pests in viticulture, capable of causing catastrophic damage to grapevines. In the past, thi …

grape-disease viticultur

2025/7/29

Rising Temperatures Cause Widespread Damage: Understanding Grape Sunburn

With the arrival of summer, grapevines in vineyards continue their growth cycle. Currently, vineyard operations are proceeding simultaneously with lateral shoot removal, leaf removal, and shoot tip cutting. During this period, Germany experienced two days …

oenology off-flavor viticultur wine

2025/10/11

Wine Off-Flavor | UTA / ATA

You tasted a white wine at a winery or wine shop and liked it enough to purchase it. However, you felt it was still a little early for drinking, so you decided to let it rest a bit longer in your home cellar. Six months later, at the dinner table. You kne …

oenology

2025/7/29

The Winemaking Technique of Carbonic Maceration

Wine terminology related to production processes is often difficult to understand and unfamiliar due to the extensive borrowing from French. However, among such terms, “carbonic maceration” is a name that many people may have heard of at some point. Carbo …

fermentation thorough-explanation

2025/11/11

A Comprehensive Guide to Wine Yeast: The Fundamentals

Two essential components are indispensable for winemaking. One is grapes, the raw material. The other is yeast. Yeast is utilized in the production of fermented beverages such as wine, beer, and sake. It is also employed in the fermentation of bread dough …

oenology

2025/9/8

The Dark Side of Winemaking? Is Chaptalisation Evil? | On Chaptalisation

The addition of brewing alcohol in sake production and sugar supplementation in winemaking—these practices seem to be quite antagonized in many cases. They give the impression of being the dark side of fermented beverages, untouchable territories, so to s …

oenology

2025/10/7

The Impact of Ascorbic Acid Addition on Wine

In a recently published article titled “Wine Off-Flavors | UTA / ATA,” I discussed how aged nuances detected in what should be young white wine may indicate the presence of UTA, one type of off-flavor. In that article, I introduced the addition of ascorbi …

oenology

2025/7/4

The Chemistry of Wine Ageing | Fundamentals of the Maillard Reaction

A chemical reaction known as the Maillard reaction exists. This reaction is also called the amino-carbonyl reaction. The browning of meat when grilled, the appetizing golden color of baked cookies or toast, and the appealing color of fish teriyaki glazed …

oenology wine

2025/12/22

Wine and Barrel-Derived Extracts: Phenolic Compounds and Oak-Related Aromas

This article focuses on the compounds extracted from wooden barrels during wine aging and their effects on wine. Discussions of barrel aging are often reduced to the notion of “oak aroma,” with an emphasis on aromatic attributes alone. In practice, howeve …

youtube

2025/7/31

The Truth About “Good Vineyards” in Wine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9hVTlhyZDc Among wine enthusiasts, the belief that “good vineyards” produce quality wines is widely accepted. Wines from vineyards with classifications such as Grand Cru or Premier Cru are often perceived as “distinctly di …

youtube

2025/8/21

The Truth About Natural Wine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-SccwUyehI The term “natural wine” remains a perpetual source of heated debate among wine enthusiasts. This phrase has become so ubiquitous that it jumps out at us from Tokyo’s streets in combinations like “natural wine an …

youtube

2025/7/31

Exploring Wine Diversity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3zcrR39d8Q In recent years, the concept of “diversity” has become a frequent topic of discussion within the wine industry. However, this diversity does not merely refer to variations within traditional frameworks such as d …

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