Winemaking Process
Red Wine Winemaking Process
1.
Grape Planting and Harvesting
Vines can produce grapes in the third year of planting. No matter how old your vines are, the grapes will take a year to grow before they can be picked. Some wineries rotate the planting of new vines so that when one batch of vines is less capable of producing wine, a new one can catch up. In addition, we have found some incredible planting sites on the planet.
2.
Pressing
Grapes are often first destemmed to reduce the tannin content (the stems produce sharper tannins). Most of the famous wineries put the grapes on a conveyor belt for further inspection and pick up any mixed leaves or rotten grapes. The grapes are then pressed and the pressed juice is placed in an environment conducive to yeast reproduction. Red wines are red because the skins are not removed during the fermentation process.
3.
Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol
The fermentation process is essentially a continuous incubation of grape juice in a yeast environment where the yeast gradually converts sugar into alcohol. Most of these yeast strains occur naturally, but some are added (also called grafting) to give the finished wine a certain flavor profile. Red wines ferment at slightly higher temperatures than white wines because they can ferment more efficiently in a warmer environment. Usually, red wines are fermented essentially to the extreme, meaning that all the sugars in them are converted and a dry red is created.
4.
Clarification, filtration and bottling
Regular red wines are usually bottled between four months and four years. During the aging process, the wine is often “refined” to make it clearer. Wine enhancers are often used in this process. After refining and filtering, the wine is ready for bottling. Some wineries that make red wines (common in France) do not refine and filter their wines (see What is unfiltered wine). They believe that this makes the wine fuller. They have been proven correct, but unfiltered wines need to be decanted before drinking.
The process of making white wine
1.
Pressing, peeling, and juice collection
White wines can be made from either white or red grapes. The main difference between red and white wines is that the grape skins are removed when the white wine is fermented. Therefore, the grapes are first pressed to remove the skins and then the must is collected in barrels for fermentation.
2.
Fermentation – converting the must into wine
When it comes to the fermentation process, the fermentation of white wines is much colder than the fermentation of red wines. In this process, the amount of two sugars should be fermented into one alcohol, which means that if the must contains two sugars, they will later be converted into 1% alcohol. A high sugar content in the must means that it will be converted to a wine with a high alcohol content after fermentation. White wines are more likely to change color (e.g., turn yellow) during the fermentation process, and white grapes are not usually stored for very long compared to red wines.
3.
Barrel fermentation and malolactic fermentation
The vanilla flavor of white wines is primarily the result of oak fermentation, while lactic fermentation adds a creamier flavor to white wines. In any case, both fermentation processes add material and time costs, and wineries spend a lot of extra money on them, which is why white wines fermented in oak barrels are usually more expensive.
4.
Filtration and bottling White wines are almost always bottled after filtration. I was wondering if you have ever tried making white wine at home. You will find that the finished wine is very cloudy because it has not been filtered and impurities are still mixed in. In fact, white wines are more unstable than red wines. Often, winemakers will add more sulfites to white wines to increase their stability.
