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Sure thing! One club you can look into is the Colorado Wine club. It's a club of winemakers. Covid has made it difficult for the club to meet, but hoping that changes soon. https://sites.google.com/site/coloradowineclub/

Do they sell Chilean grapes? There are a few other options (I've used Brehm Vinyards) for getting north American grapes, but Musto is the only option I have found for Chilean grapes. I've really been wanting to make some Chilean Malbec, but I'm not paying $200+ for shipping. 😬

Unfortunately, no. I haven't found any local suppliers. The only option I have found so far is Musto Wine Grape Company in Connecticut. The problem is, unless you buy a LOT of grapes, they won't ship them fresh since that would require a refrigerated truck. Instead, they will only ship 5 gallon...

Thanks, @BernardSmith and @mainshipfred Thats pretty much what I assumed. I guess I'll just have to do my best to decipher any feedback and try to figure out how best to improve or correct the process.

So I'm interested in entering some wine into the winemakers magazine competition this year. I have a wine (my second ever from fresh grapes) that is good, but not amazing. But I don't need to pay judges to tell me that. Instead, I would really like to receive constructive feedback that will help...

Of course, each state has different laws, but this guy in NY has (or had) a winery operation out of his apartment that was totally legal (I think he may have upgraded to an actual licensed winery, but not 100% sure). Everything he did fell under the rules for home winemaking, but people would...

I use a combination of a wine making journal and Tilt Hydrometers. All my notes go in the journal and the hydrometers track and automatically log the fermentation process to a spreadsheet via wifi. I can look back at the fermentation data to see how yeasts perform and track fermentation...

You say you pressed and left it in a carboy for three weeks. Did you rack shortly after pressing or was the racking at the three week mark the first racking after pressing? After pressing, it's best to let the wine sit in a carboy only for a couple of days to let the gross lees settle at the...

Well, as I mentioned, it was my understanding that the micro-oxygenation you get through the cork over time has a part in the aging process. After reading several articles, some say oxygen through micro-oxygenation is necessary for the aging process while other articles say it is not. The...

Thanks for the heads up! I had not considered the ease of removal when reusing bottles. That is definitely something I had not thought about. I found a wax on MoreWine called VintageSeal that is a "hybrid compound" that is supposed to be easy to remove from bottles. I think I might test it out...

Thanks for the response! That makes sense. As with many other choices a winemaker must make, it seems to be a stylistic choice. Thanks for the article. I did further research on the topic and read several other articles as well. From what I gathered, it appears the experts can't totally agree...

Hello all, So I have some red wine that will be bottled soon. I found a few threads discussing the topic of using wax seals on wine bottles. However, there was usually one question asked that never seemed to get a straight answer or was ignored altogether. My hope is to get that questioned...

Depending on where you are located, 5280 Produce in Denver gets California grapes every Fall. They get several varieties and range in price from about $40-50 per 36lb of fresh grapes, or about $50-60 per 6gal pail of grape juice. From my experience, the quality has been great.

"Donkey Punch" Best. Wine name. Ever. 😂 P.S. Congrats on the medal!

Glad you got in touch with Mike. The group seems to have a lot of experience and is eager to share their knowledge. If you're able to make a meeting from time to time, you should. It's also just fun getting together with other winemakers. And I would definitely like to get a copy of 5280's...

Fellow Denverite here! Welcome to WMT! I am going to apologize in advance for such a long message, but I have a lot to share about what I've experienced with making wine in Denver. I recently joined Colorado Wine Club (CWC), a club for winemakers, this past Spring right before COVID hit. You...

I have a couple of the Tilt hydrometers and love them. They work prefect for wine kits, but as some have mentioned, the grape skins can cause false readings when making wine from grapes. That's where a pasta strainer comes in handy. Keeps the solids out and allows you to suspend the hydrometer...

As all of the above have recommended, it's best to use a bucket or large fermenter with extra space when doing primary fermentation. When making wine from grapes, I use a large, 20-gallon fermenter (basically a food grade trash can) that is only filled about half way for my smaller batches. This...

Thanks for the tip! If I'm able to find a source for South African grapes, I'll keep that recommendation in mind! You mentioned that you have a source for Chilean and South African grapes. Do you also use M&M or do you use a different distributor? If they are closer to Colorado than M&M, it may...

I checked their website and it turns out they do have a local distributor not far from here. However, from their website, it looks like they only source California grapes in the Fall or am I mistaken? Also, the local distributor is a winery that also only produces wine from California grapes...