How It's MadE
The Red Wine Making Process...
You can't make wine without the grapes. The grapes are the most important (okay... well the only) ingredient. The grapes provide the two necessary components needed for fermentation: sugars and yeasts. Here's a simplified step-by-step of how it all goes down:
1. Grapes
A ripe, organic grape has natural sugars, mainly glucose and fructose, that come from within the fruit. There are also wild yeasts alive and present on it's skin. These yeasts are what will give the wine most of it's unique flavor. Wine makers can control the process even more by using lab-cultured yeasts, in comparison to the wild natural yeasts that have the tendency to produce undesirable side-products such as acetic acid (vinegar-taste!)
2. Crushing & Stemming
The stem is taken out and the grapes are smashed, this combines the grapes juice with their skin. The stems and seeds can enhance the flavor, so many times the grape juice soaks with them as well. When a red grape is crushed, the liquid is pretty clear (makes sense, right?), what gives red wine its color is the pigments from the skin that are absorbed into the juice as it sits. The wine is now beginning to start the fermentation process...
3. Primary Fermentation
This part of the process starts immediately and lasts about one to two weeks. 70% of the fermentation occurs here. The yeast present on the grapes converts the sugar in the juice into alcohol, producing carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct. Alcohol is being produced in this stage, but a significant percentage of the of the yeasts energy is being used to reproduce itself. Heat is produced during the process, so it is important for the temperature to be regulated around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Some wine makers go below the fermentation range for a bit to encourage maceration. This is defined as making something soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid; to separate into constituents by soaking. Maceration boosts the extraction of color and flavor from the skins of the grapes.
4. Secondary Fermentation
This is when the last 30% of fermentation occurs, and can last anywhere from one to two weeks, depending on amounts of sugars and alcohols present. In order stop the yeast from multiplying, and instead focus their energy on making alcohol, air exposure should be kept to a minimum during this stage. Then the wine enters it's aging process...which can take up to 6 months to complete. This is when the wine is in big oak barrels or stainless steel containers. Fermentation continues here, but slowly. Maloactic fermentation can also be used if the wine has a high malic acid concentration. This process uses lactic acid bacteria to convert the malic acid (that has a bitter taste) to the milder lactic acid, which is less sour.
5. Fining, Filtering & Bottling
After sitting in the barrel or container for a while, many of the particles and yeast cells have sunk to the bottom. This helps the process of filtration. The wine is then fined, which removes any unwanted compounds and adjusts the acid levels in the liquid. After, the wine undergoes a more thorough filtrarion, where all the large particles and remaining microbes that are removed. (Imagine that in your drink, no thanks!) The finished product is then bottled, corked, and ready for the consumer!
6. It doesn't stop!
Did you know wine can continue to age in the bottle? With time, it will develop more earthy, nutty flavors because the oxygen that can enter through the pores in the cork will help the wine mature.
What about white and rose wines? Check out this video to learn more about the similarities and differences from red wine in the fermentation process!
1. Grapes
A ripe, organic grape has natural sugars, mainly glucose and fructose, that come from within the fruit. There are also wild yeasts alive and present on it's skin. These yeasts are what will give the wine most of it's unique flavor. Wine makers can control the process even more by using lab-cultured yeasts, in comparison to the wild natural yeasts that have the tendency to produce undesirable side-products such as acetic acid (vinegar-taste!)
2. Crushing & Stemming
The stem is taken out and the grapes are smashed, this combines the grapes juice with their skin. The stems and seeds can enhance the flavor, so many times the grape juice soaks with them as well. When a red grape is crushed, the liquid is pretty clear (makes sense, right?), what gives red wine its color is the pigments from the skin that are absorbed into the juice as it sits. The wine is now beginning to start the fermentation process...
3. Primary Fermentation
This part of the process starts immediately and lasts about one to two weeks. 70% of the fermentation occurs here. The yeast present on the grapes converts the sugar in the juice into alcohol, producing carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct. Alcohol is being produced in this stage, but a significant percentage of the of the yeasts energy is being used to reproduce itself. Heat is produced during the process, so it is important for the temperature to be regulated around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Some wine makers go below the fermentation range for a bit to encourage maceration. This is defined as making something soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid; to separate into constituents by soaking. Maceration boosts the extraction of color and flavor from the skins of the grapes.
4. Secondary Fermentation
This is when the last 30% of fermentation occurs, and can last anywhere from one to two weeks, depending on amounts of sugars and alcohols present. In order stop the yeast from multiplying, and instead focus their energy on making alcohol, air exposure should be kept to a minimum during this stage. Then the wine enters it's aging process...which can take up to 6 months to complete. This is when the wine is in big oak barrels or stainless steel containers. Fermentation continues here, but slowly. Maloactic fermentation can also be used if the wine has a high malic acid concentration. This process uses lactic acid bacteria to convert the malic acid (that has a bitter taste) to the milder lactic acid, which is less sour.
5. Fining, Filtering & Bottling
After sitting in the barrel or container for a while, many of the particles and yeast cells have sunk to the bottom. This helps the process of filtration. The wine is then fined, which removes any unwanted compounds and adjusts the acid levels in the liquid. After, the wine undergoes a more thorough filtrarion, where all the large particles and remaining microbes that are removed. (Imagine that in your drink, no thanks!) The finished product is then bottled, corked, and ready for the consumer!
6. It doesn't stop!
Did you know wine can continue to age in the bottle? With time, it will develop more earthy, nutty flavors because the oxygen that can enter through the pores in the cork will help the wine mature.
What about white and rose wines? Check out this video to learn more about the similarities and differences from red wine in the fermentation process!