A first harvest leaves little room to learn on the fly: the team is under real pressure, with real raw material, and there's no second chance if something goes wrong. These are the mistakes that come up most often — not because anyone lacks skill, but because it's the first time they're facing decisions they'd only read about in a book before.
Confusing density with "it's done"
Seeing that density dropped doesn't mean fermentation is finished — it needs a second reading the next day to confirm. A single reading can be misleading if fermentation is stalling instead of ending.
Fermenting backwards
Applying a red's temperature range to a white (or vice versa) ruins the wine's style. Reds ferment between 25°C and 30°C to extract color and tannin; whites between 12°C and 18°C to preserve fruity aromas. More on why temperature matters →
Letting a day go by without measuring
A stuck fermentation doesn't warn you in advance — below 10°C to 12°C yeasts nearly stop, and that shift can happen overnight if nobody's measuring.
Confusing TCA with a winemaking defect
A wine that smells like wet cardboard isn't badly made — it's corked. TCA comes from the cork, not from a winemaking mistake, and mixing up the two leads to looking for the problem in the wrong place. More on what TCA is →
Blocking (or not blocking) malolactic without knowing why
Blocking it in an aromatic white that needs freshness, or not blocking it in a wine where it actually helps, changes the final style without it being a deliberate choice. More on the difference between the two fermentations →
None of these mistakes are unusual — what matters is when they happen. They're all a normal part of learning. What changes the outcome is whether the first time happens in a simulator, at no cost, or on a real tank, with an actual batch of wine on the line.
How LagarLab helps
The simulator reproduces each of these five mistakes with the same consequences — a misread density, an out-of-range temperature, a stuck fermentation — without using any real raw material. Practicing them there before harvest is the difference between recognizing them and suffering through them.
Want your team to practice these mistakes before the next harvest?
One payment covers the whole winery team — no per-seat billing.
Enter the laboratoryFrequently asked questions
Do these mistakes mean someone isn't cut out for the work?
No. They're normal first-harvest mistakes — what matters is where they happen for the first time: in a simulator or on a real tank.
Can these mistakes be practiced without risking real wine?
Yes. The LagarLab simulator reproduces the same alerts and consequences, without using any real raw material.
What's the single most common mistake?
Letting a day go by without measuring density or temperature — fermentation doesn't warn you before it stalls or spikes.
How much does it cost to add the whole team?
450 USD per semester or 720 USD per year, for up to 30 people — no per-seat billing.