Seminar:

The seminar this year is Saturday, August 11, 2012. We have another great schedule of presentations.  Please remember that our speakers come to us at their own expense and are not paid for their efforts, so when you can, please support them.  

We have just confirmed that Daniel Pambianchi will be speaking on "Understanding and Managing Acids and pH: How to Sharpen Taste, Maintain
Balance and Ensure Microbial Stability in Your Wines".  If you don't know about Mr. Pambianchi, then here is a bit about him. 

Being Italian, Daniel grew up in a culture of food and wine, where wine is
always part of a meal. At an early age, he enjoyed helping his father make
wine at home, and was always fascinated by what seemed magic of it all at
the time. Perhaps that's why he chose a path of learning pure and applied
sciences. Speaking of magic, here's a little-known fact about Daniel: he
performed as a semi-professional magician for over 20 years, delighting kids
and all audiences with his dexterity and humor.

Daniel received his B. Eng. degree from McGill University in 1983, where he
specialized in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has held various
positions in his 20-year career in the telecom business, from product
development to managing R&D teams, to launching network solutions that are
part of today's communications networks.

Daniel's interest in wine continued as he resumed making wine at home while
sharpening his winemaking knowledge and skills. He wanted to share his
knowledge and experience, and in 1999 he published the first edition of his
well-known book "Techniques in Home Winemaking." His book quickly became a
best-seller and is currently in its third edition. He also published two
other books: "Kit Winemaking" and the general interest book "Wine Myths,
Facts and Snobberies."

But in 2003, Daniel wanted to pursue his dream of running a commercial
winery. In 2004, he acquired Maleta Winery (www.MaletaWinery.com) in
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario where he now makes award-winning wines from his
15-acre vineyard planted to vinifera varieties. His true passion, he admits,
is sparkling wine: he enjoys making it, drinking it, talking about it, and
writing about it, usually sharing it in good company with Italian food. And
he is adamant about the best sparkling wines being crafted using the
traditional method. In fact, if you visit his operation, the entire
traditional method process is done by hand, including riddling, disgorging,
and corking.

Daniel may be familiar to many of you. He has been a regular author for
WineMaker magazine (www.WineMakerMag.com) since 2000 and serves as Technical
Editor, and he also runs a small wine analysis lab for home winemakers
(www.TechniquesInHomeWinemaking.com).

Currently, Daniel is working on two other book projects: Wine Chemistry, and
Wine Microbiology.

As you can see Daniel is eminently qualified to speak to us on "Understanding and Managing Acids and pH: How to Sharpen Taste, Maintain Balance and Ensure Microbial Stability in Your Wines".  Remember if you don't come, then you can't ask questions.  We will be allowing more than sufficient time for your questions.  We know that your questions make any presentation that much better, for everyone.  

As we confirm our speaker and they provide us with a biography or a "Curriculum Vitae" it will be shown here.  Do come back to see who we have speaking at our seminar this year. 

PDF’s:

Presentations from previous seminars are available on the Seminar page.  These presentations have been converted to Portable Document Format (.pdf) format, which can be viewed with Adobe Reader, which is available free of charge.  In the past, some of the presentations were Power Point files, but not everyone has the Power Point program, so the format was changed to PDF.  Presentations from this year’s seminar will be added after the seminar has been held, when the presentations become available.

Website:

One of the areas we would like to expand in the website is to other winemaking clubs.  On the "Links" page there is a link to the Rochester Area Home Winemakers Club, and we would like to add links to more club websites.  Even if a home winemaking club does NOT have a website, then it could have a listing there, but no link, of course.  Just have a club officer send the information to:  webmaster@nys-homewine.info

Vintage:

By definition, the vintage of a wine is the year in which the fruit, generally grapes, is HARVESTED.  This is how ALL vintages are determined.  Not the year the wine is made or bottled.  If wine is made from a kit, and the vintage is not stated on the packaging or the wine is a blend of vintages, then it is a non-vintage wine.  That is not a fault or problem, in any competition, but it should be labeled N/V.   

What's the rush? 
One of the things we have found in winemaking is to not rush the process.  Don't hurry to finish a wine just to make a competition deadline.  You will get a better product, if everything happens in its own time. 

E-Mail Addresses:
Remember we do NOT spam, nor do we sell your e-mail address to spammers.  We will send you reminders about the seminar.  That should be not be more than once a month and at least twice a year.  If you have any questions, then please send an e-mail to webmaster@nys-homewine.info.