Winemaking is truly a meticulous craft involving a lot of special techniques, science, and timing to make the perfect glass of wine. Making a batch of wine can take anywhere from 2 to 15 years, so as you can imagine, it takes an extreme degree of patience to be a winemaker (which is why I would very much discourage making wine at home). I’ll explain the magic that goes on behind-the-scenes in the winemaking process so you can have a greater scene of appreciation for what comes in the wine bottle, because that’s what I got from learning about it. Here’s the step-by-step process in a nutshell.
1. Harvesting the Grapes
Wine all starts in the vineyards, where the components of the terroir affect how the grapes grow and how quickly they ripen. When the grapes are harvested, the sweetness, flavour, and acidity in the grape juice are set. After this, the outcome of the wine is all in the hands of the winemakers. Grapes are typically harvested in the late summer to early fall, dependent on the wine variety that is going to be produced.
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For sparkling and white wines, grapes are picked earlier to set a lower sugar level and drier taste.
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For red wines, the grapes are harvested later as they take longer to mature and require higher sugar levels.Grape picking can be done by hand or machine. Of course, handpicking is the preferred method as it ensures there’s less damage to the grapes, but it’s more expensive and takes longer. People than sort the grape bunches and cut off rotten and underripe grapes before crushing.
2.Crush N’ Press
3. Fermentation
Fermentation is where the chemists run the show. It’s the chemical process where yeast is added to turn sugar into alcohol. This process is done in wooden vats, stainless steel tanks, or barrels, and takes between 10 days to over a month. Since red wine grapes tend to be harvested at a higher sugar level, you can guess here why red wines have higher alcohol content. For sparkling varieties, winemakers metabolize the sugars to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, giving the wine its bubbles.
Winemakers will stop fermentation when the wine reaches the right sweetness level. This brings sweeter wines to be fermented for shorter periods so some sugar is left in the wine. Some techniques used to stop the fermentation process include cold shock (cool temperatures), pasteurization (heat to kill the yeast), and when the alcohol levels reach 14-18%.