Wines and Spirits

Wine

Wine can be defined as fermented fruit juice. Most wine is fermented grape juice, but
almost any fleshy fruit can be fermented.
Fermenting of sugar in fruits to alcohol occurs naturally, and many animals have
enjoyed getting intoxicated on fermented fruit. Thus it is not unlikely that crude wine
was humanitys first experience with alcohol.
Evidence of fermented grape juice has been seen in 8000 year old pottery shards from
China. The ancient Egyptians (5000 years ago) had a well-developed wine
production system.
Wine is mentioned many times in the Bible. Jesuss first miracle was converting
large amounts of water into wine at a wedding feast.
It all starts with grapes on the vine: and it's important that these are properly ripe. Not
ripe enough, or too ripe, and the wine will suffer. The grapes as they are harvested
contain the potential of the wine: you can make a bad wine from good grapes, but not
a good wine from bad grapes.
Teams of pickers head into the vineyard. This is the exciting time of year, and all
winegrowers hope for good weather conditions during harvest. Bad weather can ruin
things completely.
Hand-picked grapes being loaded into a half-ton bin.
Increasingly, grapes are being machine harvested. This is more cost-effective, and in
warm regions quality can be preserved by picking at night, when it is cooler. This is
much easier to do by machine.

The harvester plucks the grape berries off the vine and then dumps them into bins to
go to the winery. This is in Bordeaux.
These are machine-picked grapes being sorted for quality.
Hand-picked grapes arriving as whole bunches in the winery.

Sorting hand-picked grapes for quality. Any rotten or raisined grapes, along with
leaves and petioles, are removed.
These sorted grapes go to a machine that removes the stems. They may also be
crushed, either just a little, or completely.
These are the stems that the grapes have been separated from in the destemmer.

Reception area at a small winery. Here grapes are being loaded and then taken by
conveyor belt to a tank, from where they are being pumped into the fermentation
vessel.

This is where red wine making differs from whites. Red wines are fermented on their
skins, while white wines are pressed, separating juice from skins, before
fermentation. This fermentation vessel - a shallow stone lagar in Portugal's Douro
region - will be filled up and then the grapes will be foot trodden, so that the juice can
extract colour and other components from the skins.
This is a very traditional winery, again, in the Douro. The red grapes have been
foottrodden, and fermentation has begun naturally. These men are mixing up the skins
and juice by hand: this process is carried out many times a day to help with extraction,
and also to stop bacteria from growing on the cap of grape skins that naturally would
float to the surface.

Sometimes cultured yeasts are added in dried form, to give the winemaker more
control over the fermentation process. But many fermentations are still carried out
with wild yeasts, naturally present in the vineyard or winery.

These red grapes are being fermented in a stainless steel tank. During fermentation,
carbon dioxide is released so it is OK to leave the surface exposed. Sometimes,
however, fermentation takes place in closed tanks with a vent to let the carbon dioxide
escape.

In this small tank the cap of skins is being punched down using a robotic cap plunger.
In some wineries this is done by hand, using poles.

An alternative to punch downs is to pump wine from the bottom of the tank back over
the skins.

Here, fermenting red wine is being pumped out of the tank, and then pumped back in
again. The idea is to introduce oxygen in the wine to help the yeasts in their growth.
At other stages in winemaking care is taken to protect wine from oxygen, but at this
stage it's needed.

Once fermentation has finished, most red wines are then moved to barrels to complete
their maturation. Barrels come in all shapes and sizes. Above is the most common
size: 225-250 litres. The source of the oak, and whether or not the barrel has been
used previously, is important in the effect it has on the developing wine.

This is a much larger, older barrel, imparting virtually no oak character to the wine.
This suits some wine styles better than smaller barrels.

This is a basket press: once fermentation has completed and the young wine has been
drained off the skins, the remaining skins and stems are pressed to extract the last of
the wine that they contain.
This is a bladder press, used for some reds and almost all whites. A large bladder fills
with air, pressing the contents gently and evenly, with gradually increasing pressure.

And this is what is left at the end - the marc. It can be used to make compost.
The inside of a tank that has been used to ferment white wine: the residue consists of
dead yeasts cells.

Barrel halls can still look quite traditional. Cool underground cellars are perfect for
maturing wines - a process that takes anything from six months to 3 years
Winemakers typically check the maturing red wine barrels at regular intervals, and
top them up as some of the wine evaporates during the maturation process.

Occasionally it is necessary to move wine from one barrel to another, or from barrel
to stainless steel tank. This cellar hand is using nitrogen gas to move the wine without
exposing it to large amounts of oxygen.
Here wine is being moved from one barrel to another deliberately exposing it to
oxygen to aid in the maturation process.

Some wines see no oak at all, but are kept in stainless steel tanks to preserve the fresh
fruity characteristics.
Finally, the wine is ready and is prepared for bottling. Often, filtration is used to make
the wine bright and clear, and to remove any risk of microbial spoilage. The glass on
the left has been filtered; on the right you can see what it was like just before the
process.

Distilled Spirits

The alcohol content of beer and wine is limited by the fact that an alcohol
concentration of 18% or more kills the yeast that produces it.
To produce stronger alcohol, distillation is needed. The principle is that ethanol boils
at a temperature lower than water. So, the alcohol boils off, leaving the water behind.
You just need to capture the alcohol vapor and condense it.
The first 1% or so of what distills off has headache-inducing compounds in it, and it is
generally discarded.
Distillation was invented by the Arabs around 700 AD.
The word alcohol comes from Arabic: alkuhul, which refers to kohl, a preparation
used to darken the eyes. Alternatively, alghoul, which means monster or spirit. This
word origin is somewhat debatable.
Alcohol concentration is measured in proof, where each proof is 1/2 %. So, 80 proof
means 40% alcohol. Most distilled spirits are 80-100 proof.
Alcohol can only be distilled to 95%. It is colorless and tasteless. The color and taste
of distilled spirits come from other byproducts of fermentation and aging that remain
after distillation.

Brandy
Brandy is distilled grape wine that has been aged in oak barrels for up to 50 years.
Other fermented fruits can be distilled to produce fruit brandies of various kinds:
peach, apricot, plum, cherry, blackberry, etc.
Rum
The starting material for rum is molasses, the main byproduct in sugar manufacture.
It is first fermented (by adding yeast) to generate alcohol, and then distilled. Aging it
in wooden barrels gives it color and flavor.
Rum was invented on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean by the slaves.
Whiskey
Whiskey is a distilled spirit made from fermented grain. It is aged in wooden barrels,
usually made from white oak that have been charred. Some whiskies are distilled
several times.
Bourbon whiskey is made from corn. It was invented in Bourbon County, Kentucky
and is a distinctly American product.
Scotch whiskey is made in Scotland from malted barley plus other grains. The smoky
flavor comes from drying the malted barley over a peat fire.
Rye, wheat, and corn whiskies are made from the respective grain.
Gin
Gin is a distilled spirit flavored with juniper berries. Juniper is a gymnosperm, and
the berries are actually the cones (reproductive structures).
Gin is made by fermenting wheat, corn, and rye with malted barley, and then
distilling it with juniper berries and other spices mixed in. It does not need to be aged,
which made it an attractive product during Prohibition.
Vodka
Vodka is the traditional distilled spirit of Russia, Poland, Finland, and other Eastern
European countries.
Vodka is made from fermented grains (mostly wheat and rye), or from potatoes. It is
distilled repeatedly until it is almost pure alcohol (95% = 190 proof). Then, it is
diluted to a drinkable concentration, around 40% alcohol. Flavoring is sometimes
added at this point, but pure vodka is unflavored.
Vodka is not aged.

The Whisky Production Process

Malting
First, top-quality barley is steeped in water and then allowed to germinate. During
germination, the grain slowly changes into malt where the starch in the grain is made
ready to be converted into sugars in the mash tun. Drying in a kiln stops the
germination process.

Mashing
The malted grain is crushed and mixed with hot water into the mash tun. The sugar is
run off in liquid form, called wort.

Fermentation
The wort is cooled and then pumped into fermentation vessels called washbacks
where yeast is added and the fermentation process starts. The yeast converts the sugar
into alcohol. After 2 3 days fermentation is complete, leaving a liquid called wash
which contains 8-9% alcohol by volume.

Distillation
The wash is distilled twice. The first wash distillation produces a liquid with a low
level of alcohol known as low wines, which is then re-distilled in the spirit
still. During this second distillation only the pure centre cut, which is about 65%
alcohol by volume, is collected in the spirit receiver.
The contents are then stored in a cistern room where water is added to lower the proof
before the whiskey is placed in new charred oak barrels for aging and later bottling.

Maturation
The newly distilled, colourless spirit is filled in oak casks, while maturing the Whisky
becomes smoother and more flavoursome and draws its golden colour from the cask.
By law the whisky must be matured for a minimum of three years, but most single
malts lie in the wood for 8 years or more.