Wine Making: An Introduction to the Basic Processes
For beginners, a nice red table wine is the simplest type to make. White wines tend to oxidize or brown much more easily than red wines. Also, red wines are fermented from the entire grape, rather than just the juice, so the extra filtration process is unnecessary with red wines.
The following is a list of the main processes involved in wine making, though they are not necessarily performed in the following order:
1. Stemming and Crushing- Stems are usually removed from the grapes in most wines, but not all. The skins of the grapes are then broken in order to free the grapes’ juices. The resulting mixture of pulp, grape skins, pulp, juice and perhaps pips (depending on the grapes) are called the ‘must’.
2. Determining the acidity and sugar content- Grapes must be picked at the right time to have these figures work out depending on the type of wine you are making. While these can be figured purely scientifically, there is also the old fashioned way of tasting and smelling grapes to determine their sweetness and acidity for the purpose of wine making.
3. Adding sulfur dioxide- this is added to prevent the growth of organisms that would spoil the wine. Sulfur dioxide also prevents oxidation.
4. Pure wine yeast cultures facilitate consistent, clean and complete fermentation. Though must will begin to ferment on its own within twelve hours, wine yeast starter cultures ensure that fermentation ensues at a consistent pace.
5. Pressing- With white wine the skins and seeds are removed from the grape juice at the beginning of fermentation, while red wines are allowed to ferment for a while with the skins and pips left in the must.
6. Fermentation is the process by which yeast is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
7. Adjusting sulfur dioxide content helps to prevent spoilage as well as oxidation.
8. Racking- Clear wine is separated from the used yeast cells and other solids after fermentation has taken place.
9. Aging, Topping and/ or Clarification
10. Bottling
For the next degree of detailed information that describes these processes in detail, take a look at this wine making website: http://www.thewineman.com/wp_winemaking1.htm.
