Throughout the history of French wine, natural, ecological and healthy winemaking traditions have been respected by winemakers. The “traditional winemaking method” conveys an attitude of respect for history, tradition and nature. The winery considers the wine as its own child. It is responsible for the entire process, from growing to harvesting, from winemaking to ageing. This small difference reflects the French passion and fascination for wine, and has led to a French wine that is recognized worldwide as a classic, with a unique taste and quality.
What is “traditional winemaking”? Many people believe that every step of the winemaking and aging process should be done by hand, and that this is a traditional winemaking method to produce a quality wine. In today’s rapidly industrializing world, this is unrealistic.
Traditional winemaking techniques are not defined as the absence of machinery, transport vehicles, conveyors, bottling machines, etc. The traditional winemaking process emphasizes the planting, winemaking and harvesting of grapes, manual planting of grapes, manual picking of grapes, manual sorting of quality grapes and traditional equipment for crushing grapes. Compared to the mechanization of industrial wines, it greatly eliminates bad grape clusters, stems and leaf remnants. The traditional process guarantees the quality and freshness of each grape, resulting in better wines.
It also highlights the finesse of the traditional process in the fermentation, winemaking and aging process. It avoids the excessive oxidation of industrial wines in these mechanized stages, allowing the wine to ferment. The traditional winemaking method embodies the crystallization of manual labor, the efforts of the winemaker, and the quality of French wines.
Traditional winemaking process steps: raw material selection → sorting → blocking → disinfection → rinsing → crushing → primary fermentation → tight → post-fermentation → storage → clarification and filtration → bottling and sterilization.
Some of the best wines in the world are still made using traditional methods. In traditional winemaking, both white and red grapes are first selected for their quality, pressed to remove the stems, and then pumped directly into the juicer. The juice must be squeezed as quickly as possible to prevent the pigments in the skins from dissolving into the original juice. After pressing, the juice is clarified or pumped directly into the fermentation tank.
Some wines need to be stored in oak barrels for post-fermentation aging, while others do not. Most wines are clarified (solid particles removed) using egg whites. After clarification, the solution is pumped into a “cold room” or refrigerated tank to precipitate the tartaric acid salts. This helps stabilize the acidity of the wine and removes crystals before bottling.
For red wines, the crushed and destemmed grapes are pumped directly into wooden or concrete vats where the raw juice is fermented with the skins, pulp and stones.
