What is Natural Wine?

The "natural" label can be applied to any wine that a winemaker desires. There is no industry definition or criteria that must be met. Ideally, it is used to define a wine made with little to no chemical or technical interventions.

• No additives for color or flavor
• No added sugar
• No technological manipulation, like Micro-oxygenation

Is Wine Vegan?

You might think this is a straight-forward question. You might be thinking, "What animal products could be used in fermented grape juice?" Unfortunately, it's just not that simple. If you need your wine to be vegan, it might require a little work.

The most common reason wine might not count as vegan is that sometimes egg whites and other animal proteins are poured through a wine during the "fining" process, a process that collects minute particles of grape must, yeast, and other particulates suspended in the liquid. It's not as common with modern production runs, but this still happens.

The safest way to ensure that your wine is vegan is to contact the winemaker to confirm. You can also look for wine that is unfiltered, or look to some websites that list vegan wine options, to help you in your research.

How-To: Make Your Own Wine

Making wine is a complicated, precise process. It's possible to do it at home, but sometimes it's good to have help from an expert. Some wineries, especially urban wineries, will offer up their facilities and expertise to assist you in crafting your own wine. For a flat price, the winery will help you select and process the grapes, and then monitor the process to ensure your wine is a success. Often, the winery will provide educational classes or lectures to teach you about the art of making wine. There are some things to keep in mind though.

• It's expensive. At thousands of dollars for a barrel of wine, its not a cheap alternative to buying from the wine store. Many customers come in as larger groups in order to pool their resources to share a barrel.

• It's a lot of wine. With a skilled winemaker helping out, you can expect a good product. But a barrel translates to more than 200 bottles of wine.

• It's a long process. With barrel aging, a red wine may take as long as 12 months.

Wine Barrels

Amateur Producer, Professional Taste

One of the benefits of getting involved in the world of wine is that it always seems to give us something to talk about with new people we meet. Tina recently discovered a coworker makes his own wine when he shared a bottle with us at the holidays. We were not expecting the high quality we found in the Cabernet Sauvignon, and were intrigued by the idea of making wine, what it entails, and the rewards and benefits. So, we reached out to William Pokluda, from Split Rock Winery, with a few questions about his process.

Did you know?... About Urban Wineries

In the universe of wine, there are winemakers who step out of the vineyard to focus on the production of the wine. These winemakers buy their grapes from winegrowers, and it follows that they can establish production facilities almost anywhere: no farm required. So, it makes sense that in recent years a smattering of wine production facilities have popped up in cities across the U.S. Considering that breweries have been in city centers for centuries, it shouldn't surprise us when we come across an urban winery, and yet, it's difficult for us to divorce the vineyard from the wine-making, even though it's happening more and more. These "urban wineries" have several business models available to them.

Wine Press At Brooklyn Winery