Wine Making
Almost everyone is familiar with the famous episode of “I Love Lucy” which shows Lucille Ball stomping grapes in a traditional wine making procedure. While hilarity and some grape-slinging ensue, there is also a bit of a lesson to be learned about the wine making process. Unlike other beverage making processes, which eliminate most of the fruit in pursuit of its juice, the wine making process requires the juice to come into contact with the natural yeasts that live in and on the skin of the grapes, hence the “stomping” together of both the grape’s skin and juice at the beginning of the process.
Though most modern vineyards do not employ human labor in the crushing process, they still perform the same exact task with special machinery, but this is getting too far ahead in the story of how wine is made…
Every single bottle of wine produced begins with grapes in a vineyard, and each grape’s native soil, cultivation techniques and even its harvesting will affect the wine that it produces. Seasonal growing conditions will also contribute to the final product as well.
Wine making requires various kinds of grapes, and while most grapes can be grown anywhere in the world, there are some that prefer the terrain of specific regions. The most well-known wines are made from grapes known as “varietals” for their frequent use in winemaking, and these can include such familiar names as “Zinfandel”, “Merlot” and “Chardonnay” grapes, among many others. Additionally, some grapes are not harvested when ready, but after one or two hard freezes, in order to make the dessert wine known as “ice wine”.
The actual process of making the year’s wines begins with the harvest, which can be done by hand (manually) or by machine (mechanically). The mechanical process easily damages the skin of the grapes, which can cause oxidation, a process that diminishes the sugar content of the grape, but manual picking can be too costly for even a smaller vineyard. Many wine makers actually take the harvesting method into consideration as they plan their wine making efforts for the season.
Once the harvest is in, the grapes are hurried into a crushing and destemming machine that removes the woody stems from the bunches of grapes, and begins the process of combining the juice and skins. The red wines are left with their skins, in order to develop their deep red colors, and the whites are separated to maintain their clarity. After that everything moves to fermentation, which is where the yeast from the skins develops into alcohol, feeding off the sugars in the juice.
Fermentation takes place in traditional oak barrels, stainless steel tanks or even large vats, where the temperature and conversion processes are closely monitored. It is during this process that any adjustments in the sweetness of the wine are made by the addition of such items as sugar or honey. Alternately, the acidity of the wine may need adjustment as well.
Both red and white wines have several different process that occur both during and after fermentation, all of which are intended to create a stronger balance and better overall taste. After the vintner is convinced that the wine is ready, it is matured in special oak barrels that prevent any oxidation from occurring and which can actually provide an additional boost in the flavor of the wine. Some wine making processes are completed in steel tanks instead of oak barrels, which save on space and money, but which often require the addition of oak chips to impart the traditional oak flavor to the wines.
Finally, wine making requires the completed product to be “fined” and “filtered” before being bottled. Both fining and filtering remove small and large particles and sediments that are the result of the fermentation process, and also allows any cloudiness to be eliminated. Some wines are then blended, and finally the wine is bottled.
