How is Wine Made?
By Ian • Mar 7th, 2008 • Category: Wine Making
The grapes are hand picked or mechanically harvested, often at night to keep the grapes cool as it’s very important to the quality of the wine that the grapes arrive freshly picked.
On arrival at the winery the grapes are destemmed then crushed to break the skins. Red varieties and some whites are left in contact with the skins for a period of time to release some of the aromas and flavours present in the skins.
Next, the grapes are pressed to extract the juice. The free-run is the juice that comes out of the press before any mechanical pressure is applied. This juice is collected separately as it is the best portion of the pressing.
Once the juice has been extracted it is ready for fermentation to take place. Yeast is added to the juice which converts the sugars in the juice into carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Red wines are fermented with the skins still in the juice as this gives the wine more flavours from the skin as well as its colour. Typically fermentation can take weeks to months depending on the wine.
On completion of fermentation, removal of the yeast or racking begins. The yeast settles to the bottom of the tank and the wine is pumped out to another tank. This can be repeated several times until all the yeast has settled and been removed. Further filtering or fining can be done at this stage to remove unwanted solids.
Once the wine is clear it can be further aged in tanks or barrels prior to bottling, or bottled immediately depending on the variety.
Filed Under: Wine Making
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