Making wine
How to make wine
It’s easy to make wine. In fact, wine will quite happily make itself with a bit of help. All you do is crush some grapes and let the grapes’ natural yeasts convert the grape sugar into alcohol and hey presto! You’ve got wine.
Trouble is, it probably won’t be very pleasant to drink because making good wine is the really hard part. And it requires a lot of experience, knowledge and skill to know how to make it really worth drinking. In particular, the winemaker needs to make the right choices at the right time to achieve the right outcome. Moreover, one wrong step often spells disaster!
These days, though there are lots of great winemakers who are turning out thousands of great wines. Here are the basic building blocks of how they do it for white and red wines.
White wine
Harvest the grapes.
Machine crush the grapes to release their pulp and juice. This makes them easier to press. The grapes can also be de-stemmed if, required, at this stage.
Cool the crushed grapes to prevent fermentation from starting too soon.
Load the grapes into the press, collect any free run juice and then begin pressing. The more gentle the pressing, the better quality of the resultant must (unfermented grape juice).
Settle the pressed and free run juice in a vat by allowing any remaining skin, pips or stems to fall to the bottom.
Rack (transfer out) the clean must into separate vats ready for fermentation.
Ferment the wine in oak casks or in temperature controlled tanks. Use natural or cultured yeasts to begin fermentation converting the natural grape sugar into alcohol. The length and temperature of the fermentation will affect the style of the wine.
Encourage or prevent the malolactic fermentation as required. This second fermentation converts harsher malic acid into softer lactic acid and can add greater complexity to a wine.
For early drinking whites, rack the wine off its lees. Then clarify by filtering, centrifuging or fining the wine to remove unwanted yeasts, proteins and particles. These processes help stabilise the wine. Additionally, cold stabilisation will precipitate out any tartrate crystals. The wine can then be bottled in sterile conditions and may be flash pasteurized or ‘hot-bottled’ to ensure its lasting stability.
More expensive, age-worthy and full-bodied whites can be matured on their lees in oak barrels for up to two years following fermentation. During this time the lees may be stirred to accentuate their effects on flavour. Equally the wine may be racked (transferred to clean, sterile barrels) at least once.
The wine may then be fined and possibly filtered depending on the winemaker’s preference.
Finally, it will be bottled in sterile conditions.
Red wine
Harvest the grapes.
Machine crush the grapes to release the juice. The grapes can also be de-stemmed at the same time. If the Beaujolais technique of carbonic maceration is being used, the bunches remain whole.
Transfer the pomace (grape mass) to fermentation vats and begin to ferment the must using natural or cultured yeasts. Again, the temperature and length of the fermentation will affect the style of the wine. Similarly, depending on the wine, some winemakers precede fermentation with a period of cold maceration (soaking) to extract colour and tannin from the skins. Others will macerate after fermentation.
After fermentation is complete, collect the free run wine. Then press the pomace to extract the press wine. Once this has been fully fermented and clarified, some or all of it may be blended in with the free run juice.
In red wines, the malolactic fermentation (see above) is almost always carried out to soften the wine’s acidity and add complexity.
If the wine is to be blended, this process may take place at this point. The wine should also be analysed and checked before maturation.
Transfer the wines to oak barrels or tanks for maturation. With oak barrels, the wine should be regularly racked from any sediment by transferring it to clean, sterile barrels. Maturation in oak barrels can take over two years.
Once the wine has matured, it can then be fined to clarify it. This involves adding a fining agent such as egg white or bentonite which binds itself to impurities in the wine, depositing them at the bottom of the vat.
Additionally, the wine can be filtered as an additional stabilisation process. However, some winemakers believe this strips the wine of character.
Bottle the wine in sterile conditions. Some wines may also be hot bottled or pasteurized to ensure their stability.
Carbonic maceration is an alternative fermentation technique where the fruit ferments spontaneously under a protective layer of CO2 to produce softer, less tannic wines usually for early drinking, such as Beaujolais Nouveau. | |
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