Wine Making
From LoveToKnow Wine
Wondering what wine making is all about?
Wine Making: Getting Alcohol from Fruit
Here’s a secret, you can ferment almost anything. There are no promises that it will taste good, but you can do it. Ever had orange juice in the refrigerator too long and it starts to feel a little bubbly on the tongue and the taste changes? Perhaps the tops of your yogurt containers burst open after sitting for a while? That’s called fermentation. Making wine is just that—fermenting of fruit (in this case grapes) to make wine.
Fermentation
Here is what fermentation means:
- You take something that has sugar in it and you add yeast.
- The yeast eats the sugar for food, and in exchange gives off alcohol, carbon dioxide (CO2) and heat.
That’s all there is to it…in very simplistic terms, anyway. The process of wine making goes beyond just fermentation, but without that building block you don’t go anywhere, so let’s call that the foundation. So, you have some grapes you’re growing and when it comes time to pick them you do that and bring them to the facility where you will be making the wine.
Initial Factors and Options
Not to make this overly complicated, but there are many decisions and factors/questions you have to consider before you squeeze any juice out of the grapes:
- Are you going to use the whole cluster or de-stem the grapes?
- After you crush the grapes, are you going to ferment them in tank (like most do) or are you going to barrel ferment?
- Are you going to use what they call “native yeasts” or are you going to inoculate with lab-created yeasts?
These are just decisions you have to make BEFORE you crush the grapes for juice! Whew! Each decision has its consequences—but then again, thinking about how many different winemakers and wineries and styles of wines, no wonder there are so many options. So let’s talk more about options.
Whole Cluster
Whole cluster fermentation adds a nuance and flavor to the wine. However, if you use 100% whole clusters some people consider that to have too much of a “green” or “stemmy” flavor. So maybe you might want to do 50% or something less, but it’s your decision. Just a quick note, some very high-end award-winning wine uses 100% whole cluster.
Barrel or Tank?
Most wines are tank fermented, which means the juice/clusters are put directly into a very big stainless steel tank and fermented there. You have control over the wine this way because those tanks have sleeves on the outside that allow you to cool the liquid or heat it up, depending on what you want to do. In the very first part of fermentation usually the tanks are cooled down so far that they start forming ice on the outside. This is called cold soaking. This process extracts color from the skins of the grapes and stabilizes the wine…remember that most red wine grapes have clear juice, so to get color you need to extract it from the skins. Cold soaking is key in this process. Some wines are barrel fermented and say so right on the bottle. For white wines this adds more depth and richness to the wine, but then again some people might say it’s too “over-the-top” with too much buttery/wood derived extraction. Again, we’re talking about personal preference.
Yeast Choices
Did you know that when you pick grapes out in the vineyard that they all have natural occurring yeasts on them? Some winemakers choose to not add any yeast to the fermentation and just let the “native” yeasts do their thing. That can get tricky, and you’ll hear a lot about “stuck” fermentations where the yeast gets to a certain point and just stops fermenting. Lab created yeasts have more set and stable attributes, but some would say lack the flavor that natural yeasts have. Lab created yeasts are designed to do different things and each of those also have their own flavor attributes. Some yeasts can ferment in warmer/cooler environments or to higher alcohol levels. Whew! SO much to consider!
Post-Fermentation Wine Making Factors
There are so many choices to consider and these are just a few of the primary ones, so keep that in mind. OK, so you’re wine is now fermented and has alcohol in it…which doesn’t actually take that long, believe it or not (maybe 2-3 weeks). Now, at this point you can either keep it in the stainless tank or put it in barrel or a percentage in both.
If you put the wine in barrel to let it age there, you have decisions on what kind of barrels you want (which is a whole other article topic). Big, rich cabernets are usually aged in oak for 14-24 months. Some buttery, oaky chardonnay is aged in barrel for a bit of time as well. Crisp, bright, fruity sauvignon blancs are not, so maybe you would keep the wine in tank. Some wines benefit from a little of both.
Malolactic Conversion
One of the major things to consider is whether or not you would like to use malolactic fermentation or not. Basically, it’s a process where malic acid (found in Granny Smith apples) converts to lactic acid (found in butter). It’s a bacterial process that helps smooth out the wine. How much of the wine you want to do it to is again, up to you. All red wines go through it, so basically it’s a choice of whether you want to do it on your white wines or not.
To Filter or Not to Filter?
Last, do you want to fine or filter your wine? Some do, some don’t. Unfined and unfiltered wines are rich and have great mouthfeel, but from a winemaking perspective they are more difficult to do (because of bacterial issues). Some people don’t like the cloudy/unclear look to them, but some of the world’s best wines are this way. There are some strange things you can use to fine your wine, ranging from egg whites to fish organs (no joke).
Savor and Enjoy
So you now have a wine that is finished. A little sulfur is added in the winemaking process to preserve it a little, so you are able to put it in the bottle and have it be stable. After you put it in bottle and cork it you’re set. Generally, you will let it sit for a while to get over its bottle shock from just being put in bottle. So after a bit of patience you can pop the cork and enjoy your creation. Then, as always in life, learn from your mistakes and make changes so you can do it again next year!
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