Many people who love wine know that one of their favorite drinks comes from grapes, but most of them don’t know how the grapes that are grown in the vineyards turn into the wine in their glass. How wine made is a delicate process that can vary between every vineyard around the world. Although every winemaker may have their own unique process, there are basic steps to how wine is made:
Picking the Grapes
It all begins with a grape. On the vineyards, most of the time the white grapes are picked first before moving on to the reds. They are all collected into bins or lugs and are then sent off to a crushing pad. Grapes can either be picked by hand with sheers or some vineyards use machines to remove the grapes. Grapes can be picked during the day or at night. Picking grapes at night allows time to beat the heat of the day and capture grapes at stable sugar levels. In this part of the picking process, the grapes are still attached to the stems and some leaves.
The Crushing Process
Once the grapes have been picked, it’s time to start crushing them. The grapes are put on a sorting table before being crushed in the destemmer. The destemmer is a piece of winemaking machinery that is able to remove the stems from the clusters and lightly crushes the grapes. For white wine grapes, following being crushed they are transferred to be pressed. The grapes are pressed for their juices, leaving the skin behind. The pure juices of the grapes are then transferred into tanks where sediment settles to the bottom. Once the settling period is over, the juice is then filtered out of the settling tank into another tank to ensure all the sediment is gone.
The process is almost the same for red wine grapes. The only differences for the red wine grapes are that they are taken directly into a vat to start fermentation with their skins after being crushed. This is what helps red wine keep its color.
Fermentation of the Grapes
This is the step that turns the juices into wine. The sugars convert into alcohol during fermentation. There are a variety of ways for this process for the different types of grapes. For red and white wines, sometimes yeast is added so fermentation can take place. Other times for red wine, carbon dioxide is released during fermentation. This causes the grape skins to rise to the surface and winemakers have to punch down or pump over the “cap” several times a day to ensure the skins stay mixed in with the juice.
Aging the Wine
Once the grape juices have finally become wine, they must be aged. There are many ways for winemakers to age their wine and each will have their favorite choice. The longer the wine is aged, the more intense the taste will be. It can be aged for several years or several months, aged in stainless still or oak, in new oak or neutral, American oak barrels or French barrels, in various levels of ‘barrels that have been charred by fire.
Bottling WIne
Once the winemaker feels their wine has reached the perfect age, it is time for it to be bottled. This means that it’s time to grab a glass and have a taste. Every wine goes through a delicate process for it reach perfection for the wine-loving consumers.