Winemaking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Winemaking or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce
and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from
other fruits or plants. Mead is a wine that is made with honey being the primary ingredient after water.
Winemaking can be divided into two general categories: still wine production (without carbonation)
and sparkling wine production (with carbonation natural or injected).
The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A person who makes wine is traditionally called
a winemaker or vintne

Process[edit]

Anatomy of a grape, showing the components extracted from each pressing.

After the harvest, the grapes are taken into a winery and prepared for primary ferment. At this stage red
wine making diverges from white wine making. Red wine is made from the must (pulp) of red or black
grapes and fermentation occurs together with the grape skins, which give the wine its color. White wine is
made by fermenting juice which is made by pressing crushed grapes to extract a juice; the skins are
removed and play no further role. Occasionally white wine is made from red grapes; this is done by
extracting their juice with minimal contact with the grapes' skins. Ros wines are either made from red
grapes where the juice is allowed to stay in contact with the dark skins long enough to pick up a pinkish
color (blanc de noir) or by blending red wine and white wine. White and ros wines extract little of
the tannins contained in the skins.

To start primary fermentation yeast may be added to the must for red wine or may occur naturally as
ambient yeast on the grapes or in the air. Yeast may be added to the juice for white wine. During this
fermentation, which often takes between one and two weeks, theyeast converts most of the sugars in the
grape juice into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is lost to the atmosphere.
After the primary fermentation of red grapes the free run wine is pumped off into tanks and the skins are
pressed to extract the remaining juice and wine. The press wine is blended with the free run wine at the
winemaker's discretion. The wine is kept warm and the remainingsugars are converted into alcohol and
carbon dioxide.
The next process in the making of red wine is secondary fermentation. This is a bacterial fermentation
which converts malic acid to lactic acid. This process decreases the acid in the wine and softens the taste
of the wine. Red wine is sometimes transferred to oak barrels to mature for a period of weeks or months;
this practice imparts oak aromas to the wine. The wine must be settled or clarified and adjustments made
prior to filtration and bottling.
The time from harvest to drinking can vary from a few months for Beaujolais nouveau wines to over
twenty years for top wines. However, only about 10% of all red and 5% of white wine will taste better after
five years than it will after just one year.[1] Depending on the quality of grape and the target wine style,
some of these steps may be combined or omitted to achieve the particular goals of the winemaker. Many
wines of comparable quality are produced using similar but distinctly different approaches to their
production; quality is dictated by the attributes of the starting material and not necessarily the steps taken
during vinification.
Variations on the above procedure exist. With sparkling wines such as Champagne, an additional
fermentation takes place inside the bottle, trapping carbon dioxide and creating the characteristic
bubbles. Sweet wines are made by ensuring that some residual sugar remains after fermentation is
completed. This can be done by harvesting late (late harvest wine), freezing the grapes to concentrate the
sugar (ice wine), or adding a substance to kill the remaining yeast before fermentation is completed; for
example, high proof brandy is added when making port wine. In other cases the winemaker may choose
to hold back some of the sweet grape juice and add it to the wine after the fermentation is done, a
technique known as sssreserve.
The process produces wastewater, pomace, and lees that require collection, treatment, and disposal or
beneficial use.

The grapes[edit]

Harvested Cabernet Sauvignon grapes

The quality of the grapes determines the quality of the wine more than any other factor. Grape quality is
affected by variety as well as weather during the growing season, soil minerals and acidity, time of
harvest, and pruning method. The combination of these effects is often referred to as the grape'sterroir.
Grapes are usually harvested from the vineyard from early September until early November in the
northern hemisphere, and mid February until early March in the southern hemisphere. In some cool areas
in the southern hemisphere, for example Tasmania, harvesting extends into May.
The most common species of wine grape is Vitis vinifera, which includes nearly all varieties of European
origin.

Harvesting and destemming[edit]

Central component of a mechanical destemming. Paddles above the small circular slots rotate to remove the larger chunks
of stems. Grapes are pulled off the stems and fall through the holes. Some small amount of stem particles are usually
desired to be kept with the grapes for tannin structure.

Harvest is the picking of the grapes and in many ways the first step in wine production. Grapes are either
harvested mechanically or by hand. The decision to harvest grapes is typically made by the winemaker
and informed by the level of sugar (called Brix), acid (TA or Titratable Acidity as expressed by tartaric
acidequivalents) and pH of the grapes. Other considerations include phenological ripeness, berry flavor,
tannin development (seed color and taste). Overall disposition of the grapevine and weather forecasts are
taken into account.
Mechanical harvesters are large tractors that straddle grapevine trellises and, using firm plastic or rubber
rods, strike the fruiting zone of the grapevine to dislodge the grapes from the rachis. Mechanical
harvesters have the advantage of being able to cover a large area of vineyard land in a relatively short
period of time, and with a minimum investment of manpower per harvested ton. A disadvantage of
mechanical harvesting is the indiscriminate inclusion of foreign non-grape material in the product,
especially leaf stems and leaves, but also, depending on the trellis system and grapevine canopy
management, may include moldy grapes,canes, metal debris, rocks and even small animals and bird
nests. Some winemakers remove leaves and loose debris from the grapevine before mechanical
harvesting to avoid such material being included in the harvested fruit. In the United States mechanical
harvesting is seldom used for premium winemaking because of the indiscriminate picking and
increased oxidation of the grape juice. In other countries (such as Australia and New Zealand),
mechanical harvesting of premium winegrapes is more common because of general labor shortages.
Manual harvesting is the hand-picking of grape clusters from the grapevines. In the United States, some
grapes are picked into one- or two-ton bins for transport back to the winery. Manual harvesting has the
advantage of using knowledgeable labor to not only pick the ripe clusters but also to leave behind the
clusters that are not ripe or contain bunch rot or other defects. This can be an effective first line of
defense to prevent inferior quality fruit from contaminating a lot or tank of wine.
Destemming is the process of separating stems from the grapes. Depending on the winemaking
procedure, this process may be undertaken before crushing with the purpose of lowering the development
of tannins and vegetal flavors in the resulting wine. Single berry harvesting, as is done with some
GermanTrockenbeerenauslese, avoids this step altogether with the grapes being individually selected.

Crushing and primary (alcoholic) fermentation[edit]

Crushing is the process when gently squeezing the berries and breaking the skins to start to liberate the
contents of the berries. Destemming is the process of removing the grapes from the rachis (the stem
which holds the grapes). In traditional and smaller-scale wine making, the harvested grapes are
sometimes crushed by trampling them barefoot or by the use of inexpensive small scale crushers. These
can also destem at the same time. However, in larger wineries, a mechanical crusher/destemmer is used.
The decision about destemming is different for red and white wine making. Generally when making white
wine the fruit is only crushed, the stems are then placed in the press with the berries. The presence of
stems in the mix facilitates pressing by allowing juice to flow past flattened skins. These accumulate at the
edge of the press. For red winemaking, stems of the grapes are usually removed before fermentation
since the stems have a relatively high tannin content; in addition to tannin they can also give the wine a
vegetal aroma (due to extraction of 2-methoxy-3-isopropylpyrazine which has an aroma reminiscent of
green bell peppers.) On occasion, the winemaker may decide to leave them in if the grapes themselves
contain less tannin than desired. This is more acceptable if the stems have 'ripened' and started to turn
brown. If increased skin extraction is desired, a winemaker might choose to crush the grapes after
destemming. Removal of stems first means no stem tannin can be extracted. In these cases the grapes
pass between two rollers which squeeze the grapes enough to separate the skin and pulp, but not so
much as to cause excessive shearing or tearing of the skin tissues. In some cases, notably with "delicate"
red varietals such as Pinot noir or Syrah, all or part of the grapes might be left uncrushed (called "whole
berry") to encourage the retention of fruity aromas through partialcarbonic maceration.

Crushed grapes leaving the crusher

Most red wines derive their color from grape skins (the exception being varieties or hybrids of non-vinifera
vines which contain juice pigmented with the dark Malvidin 3,5-diglucoside anthocyanin) and therefore
contact between the juice and skins is essential for color extraction. Red wines are produced by
destemming and crushing the grapes into a tank and leaving the skins in contact with the juice throughout

the fermentation (maceration). It is possible to produce white (colorless) wines from red grapes by the
fastidious pressing of uncrushed fruit. This minimizes contact between grape juice and skins (as in the
making of Blanc de noirs sparkling wine, which is derived from Pinot noir, a red vinifera grape.)
Most white wines are processed without destemming or crushing and are transferred from picking bins
directly to the press. This is to avoid any extraction of tannin from either the skins or grapeseeds, as well
as maintaining proper juice flow through a matrix of grape clusters rather than loose berries. In some
circumstances winemakers choose to crush white grapes for a short period of skin contact, usually for
three to 24 hours. This serves to extract flavor and tannin from the skins (the tannin being extracted to
encourage protein precipitation without excessive Bentonite addition) as well as Potassium ions, which
participate in bitartrate precipitation (cream of tartar). It also results in an increase in the pH of the juice
which may be desirable for overly acidic grapes. This was a practice more common in the 1970s than
today, though still practiced by some Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay producers in California.
In the case of ros wines, the fruit is crushed and the dark skins are left in contact with the juice just long
enough to extract the color that the winemaker desires. The must is then pressed, and fermentation
continues as if the winemaker was making a white wine.
Yeast is normally already present on the grapes, often visible as a powdery appearance of the grapes.
The primary, or alcoholic fermentation can be done with this natural yeast, but since this can give
unpredictable results depending on the exact types of yeast that are present, cultured yeast is often
added to the must. One of the main problems with the use of wild ferments is the failure for the
fermentation to go to completion, that is some sugar remains unfermented. This can make the wine sweet
when a dry wine is desired. Frequently wild ferments lead to the production of unpleasant acetic acid
(vinegar) production as a by product.

A cap of grape skins forms on the surface of fermenting red wine.

During the primary fermentation, the yeast cells feed on the sugars in the must and multiply, producing
carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. The temperature during the fermentation affects both the taste of the end
product, as well as the speed of the fermentation. For red wines, the temperature is typically 22 to 25 C,

and for white wines 15 to 18 C. For every gram of sugar that is converted, about half a gram of alcohol is
produced, so to achieve a 12% alcohol concentration, the must should contain about 24% sugars. The
sugar percentage of the must is calculated from the measured density, the must weight, with the help of a
specialized type of hydrometer called a saccharometer. If the sugar content of the grapes is too low to
obtain the desired alcohol percentage, sugar can be added (chaptalization). In commercial winemaking,
chaptalization is subject to local regulations.
Alcohol of more than 12% can be achieved by using yeast that can withstand high alcohol. Some yeasts
can produce 18% alcohol in the wine however extra sugar is added to produce a high alcohol content.
During or after the alcoholic fermentation, a secondary, or malolactic fermentation can also take place,
during which specific strains of bacteria (lactobacter) convert malic acid into the milder lactic acid. This
fermentation is often initiated by inoculation with desired bacteria.