It’s impossible to talk about the pending harvest without talking about YAN. Every year, I run into winemakers asking me what nutrient additions to make when they do not know their starting YAN, or yeast assimilable nitrogen (aka yeast available nitrogen). Not knowing the must’s YAN concentration when treating fermentation with nutrient supplements is equivalent […]
Cellar Tools
The Wine World Can’t Get Enough of Pet-Nats
If I had to count on all of my fingers how many pét-nats I’ve actually enjoyed in my life, I could readily hold up just one finger. No, not that finger. I literally mean, I’ve only ever appreciated and enjoyed one pét-nat over the course of my professional tasting career. I’m sure some of my […]
Preparation to Ease Harvest Chaos
The start of summer is the beginning of the end for winemakers: we know harvest season is just around the corner. That means the grape harvest chaos is ready to unleash itself upon us: the frequent and unplanned grape deliveries, tank space situations causing stress, wondering if correct additions were made, late hours, sore muscles, […]