Viticulture
Vineyard and field: ripeness, disease risk, spraying and harvest.
Harvest is over: what to do in the vineyard before leaf fall
The grapes are in the cellar, but the vineyard is still working for next year. Healthy leaves to refill reserves, autumn irrigation and fertilization, sanitation, marking sick vines, cover crops and closing the field records — what to do between the last bin and pruning.
Copper in organic viticulture: the limits, the maths and how to stay under them
Copper is the backbone of organic disease control and a regulated input. The EU 28 kg/ha-over-7-years limit explained, how to track metallic copper per hectare from your Bordeaux mixture, and why the field notebook is your proof.
When to harvest: sugar, acidity and phenolic ripeness
Why the sugar number alone never decides the picking date, the difference between technological, phenolic and aromatic ripeness, how to sample a block properly, and how to read the ripening curve instead of a single day.
Downy mildew: reading the risk and timing the spray
How Plasmopara viticola infects, the "3-10 rule" for primary infection, why incubation makes the calendar useless and the weather essential, and how a risk model turns a forecast into a spray decision.
Biodynamics
Preparations, the lunar calendar and the record trail for Demeter.
The biodynamic calendar in the vineyard and the cellar
Root, leaf, flower and fruit days, lunar nodes and the descending moon — what the calendar proposes, how it plays out in vineyard and cellar work, and how GrapeFlow puts it next to your operations.
Biodynamic preparations: how and when to apply 500, 501 and the compost preps
A practical field guide to the biodynamic preparations — horn manure (500), horn silica (501), the compost preparations (502–507) and horsetail (508): what each does, how to dynamize and spray it, and when the calendar says the moment is right. Plus how to log every application in GrapeFlow as Demeter certification evidence.
Winemaking & corrections
Must weight, chaptalization, acidity and blending — the cellar maths.
Wine blending and the Pearson square: hit a target every time
How volume-weighted blending really works, how the Pearson square gives you the exact proportions to hit an alcohol, acidity or SO₂ target, and why every blend should be bench-trialled first. With a free calculator.
Acidity adjustments that hold: tartaric acid, deacidification and pH
When to acidify and when to deacidify, why tartaric is the acid of choice, how carbonates lower TA, and why pH — not just titratable acidity — decides the wine’s balance and stability. With a free calculator.
Chaptalization and enrichment: how much sugar, how much alcohol, and the limits
How to raise potential alcohol with sugar or concentrated must — the conversion factor, the expected gain, volume effects and the appellation limits you must respect. With a free calculator.
Brix to Baumé and Oechsle: must weight converter and chart
What each must-weight scale measures, how to convert between °Brix, Baumé, Oechsle and specific gravity, and how to read potential alcohol from sugar — with the conversions and a free converter.
Fermentation & nutrition
YAN, staged additions, malolactic fermentation and what goes wrong.
Volatile acidity in wine: legal limits, where it comes from and how to keep it down
What volatile acidity measures, the EU and US legal ceilings, the point where it becomes a fault, the four usual sources (acetic bacteria, lactic bacteria, stressed yeast, rotten fruit) and a cellar routine that keeps the number flat.
Managing nutrition throughout fermentation
YAN, staged additions and the warning signs of a slowing fermentation — and how to record (and soon anticipate) all of it in the cellar.
Malolactic fermentation: when to induce it, how to run it, and how to know it’s done
What MLF changes in a wine, the conditions Oenococcus oeni needs, why SO₂ and MLF do not mix, how to monitor malic acid to the finish line, and when to lock it in. A practical cellar guide.
Ageing, stability & fining
SO₂, cold tartrate stabilization and protein stability with bentonite.
Protein stability and bentonite: stopping haze before it starts
Why white and rosé wines throw a protein haze, how the heat test tells you the risk, how to bench-trial the right bentonite dose, and the trade-offs — volume loss and aroma — worth minimizing.
Cold stabilization: keeping tartrate crystals out of the bottle
Why potassium bitartrate drops out, how cold and the contact process force it out in the cellar instead of the bottle, the alternatives (CMC, metatartaric, electrodialysis), and how to test that a wine is actually stable.
SO₂ management from crush to bottle: free, molecular and the math behind every addition
Free vs total SO₂, why molecular SO₂ (not free) is what protects the wine, how pH changes everything, and the addition targets from crush through ageing to bottling. With the formula and a free calculator.
Bottling
Yield, packaging materials and planning the line.
Compliance & traceability
Field notebook, IVV, TTB and FSMA 204 — the records an audit asks for.
SAWIS registration and monthly returns: what South African wine cellars must record and submit
Every South African grape producer, wine producer, trader, bottler and exporter has to register with SAWIS and render returns every month. Who it applies to, what the records must cover, the deadlines and the 2026 levy rates, straight from the Gazette.
Wine of Origin certification: the cellar records you need, from press to seal
A Wine of Origin claim on the label is only as good as the paperwork behind it. The vineyard status return, the authority to press, the press register, the wine record, transfers, blends and the two approvals, in the order the scheme asks for them.
Sales & winery business
Distribution, CRM, trade shows and when the spreadsheet stops working.
South Africa’s wine industry in 2026: fewer vines, falling exports and tariff whiplash
Vineyard area keeps shrinking, bulk exports collapsed in 2025, the US tariff went to 30% and then lost its legal basis, and the 2026 crop came in bigger. The numbers behind the headlines, and what they mean for a Cape wine farm’s planning.
Free winery CRM template for Excel and Google Sheets — accounts, pipeline and follow-ups
A free, no-email-required CRM template built for winery sales: track distributor, retailer and restaurant accounts, log every conversation, run a simple pipeline with weighted values, and get an automatic dashboard of overdue follow-ups. Works in Excel and Google Sheets, with a walkthrough of how to actually use it.
How small wineries find (and keep) a wine distributor: three-tier, self-distribution and the questions to ask before signing
A practical playbook for boutique and family-owned wineries entering US distribution: how the three-tier system actually works, when self-distribution is the better first move, how distributors evaluate a small brand, where to find candidate wholesalers state by state, and the contract questions — franchise-state law above all — to ask before you sign.
Why spreadsheets stop working for a growing winery — and how to tell when you have crossed the line
Every winery starts on Excel, and for a while it is genuinely the right tool. Then harvest doubles, a second person needs to edit the workbook, TTB reporting means a weekend of reconstruction, and a mock recall takes four hours instead of four minutes. The failure points of spreadsheet-run wineries, the tipping points that signal it is time to move, and what to look for in replacement software.
Wine trade shows: measuring ROI and following up leads so the booth pays for itself
A booth at a major wine trade show costs a small winery $5,000–15,000 once travel, samples and staff time are counted — and most of that investment is decided after the show, in the follow-up. How to set an objective before you book, capture leads that survive the flight home, run the 48-hour follow-up, and calculate honestly whether the show was worth repeating.