Winemaking

Winemaking can be divided into two general categories: still wine production (without carbonation) and sparkling wine production (with carbonation).

Process

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

After the harvest, the grapes are crushed and allowed to ferment. Red wine is made from the must (pulp) of red or black grapes that undergo fermentation together with the grape skins, while white wine is usually made by fermenting juice pressed from white grapes, but can also be made from must extracted from red grapes with minimal contact with the grapes' skins. Rosé wines are 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, but little of the tannins contained in the skins.

During this primary fermentation, which often takes between one and two weeks, yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into ethanol (alcohol). After the primary fermentation, the liquid is transferred to vessels for the secondary fermentation. Here, the remaining sugars are slowly converted into alcohol and the wine becomes clear. Wine is then allowed to age in oak barrels before bottling, which add extra aromas to the wine, while others are bottled directly. 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. 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 süssreserve.

The process produces wastewater, pomace, and lees that require collection, treatment, and disposal or beneficial use.

The grapes

Harvested Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

Of all factors affecting the quality of a wine, the quality of the grapes more than any other factor determines the quality of the wine. Their quality is not only affected by their variety, but also by the weather during the growing season, the soil, the time of harvest, and the way they are pruned. The combination of these effects is often referred to as their terroir. The most common species of wine grape is Vitis vinifera, which includes nearly all varieties of European origin.

The grapes are usually harvested from the vineyard in the autumn (fall), in the northern hemisphere from early September until the beginning of November, or the middle of February until the beginning of March in the southern hemisphere.

Harvesting and destemming

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 acid equivalents) and pH of the grapes. Other considerations include phenological ripeness, berry flavor, tannin development (seed colour and taste). Overall disposition of the grapevine and weather forecasts are taken into account.

The corkscrew shaped feed auger sits on top of a mechanical crusher/destemmer. Grape clusters are then fed into the machine where they are first crushed, then destemmed. Stems exit at the end while juice, skins, seeds and some debris exit the bottom.

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.

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.

Manual harvesting is the hand-picking of grape clusters from the grapevines. In the United States, grapes are traditionally picked into 30 pound boxes, and in many cases these boxes are consolidated into ½ ton bins or two-ton bins for transport 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, like what is done with some German Trockenbeerenauslese, avoids this step altogether with the grapes being individually selected.

Crushing and primary fermentation

Crushing is the process of gently squeezing the berries and breaking the skins to start to liberate the contents of the berries. Desteming 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 desteming 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,because the stems of the grapes have a relatively high tannin content, they are usually removed before fermentation; 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 partial carbonic 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 rosé 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 wine maker was making a white wine.

Yeast is normally already present on the grapes, often visible as a powdery appearance of the grapes. The 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 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.

During or after the alcoholic fermentation, malolactic fermentation can also take place, during which specific strains of bacteria convert malic acid into the milder lactic acid. This fermentation is often initiated by inoculation with desired bacteria.

Pressing

Ancient winepress in Israel with the pressing area in the center and the collection vat off to the bottom left.

Pressing is the act of applying pressure to grapes or pomace in order to separate juice or wine from grapes and grape skins. Pressing is not always a necessary act in winemaking; if grapes are crushed there is a considerable amount of juice immediately liberated (called free-run juice) that can be used for vinification. Typically this free-run juice is of a higher quality than the press juice. However, most wineries do use presses in order to increase their production (gallons) per ton, as pressed juice can represent between 15%-30% of the total juice volume from the grape.

Presses act by positioning the grape skins or whole grape clusters between a rigid surface and a moveable surface and slowly decrease the volume between the two surfaces. Modern presses are able to follow a pressing program which dictates the duration and pressure at each press cycle, usually ramping from 0 Bar to 2.0 Bar. Sometimes winemakers choose pressures at which they wish to separate the streams of pressed juice, which is called making "press cuts." As the pressure increases on the grape skins so too increase the amount of tannin extracted into the juice, often rendering the pressed juice excessively tannic or harsh. Because of the location of grape juice constituents in the berry (water and acid are found primarily in the mesocarp or pulp, whereas tannins are found primarily in the pericarp, or skin, and seeds), pressed juice or wine tends to be lower in acidity with a higher pH than the free-run juice.

Before the advent of modern winemaking, most presses were basket presses made of wood and operated manually. Basket presses are composed of a cylinder of wooden slats on top of a fixed plate, with a moveable plate that can be forced downward (usually by a central ratcheting threaded screw.) The press operator would load the grapes or pomace into the wooden cylinder, place the top plate in place and begin to lower it until juice began to flow from the wooden slats. As the juice flow decreased to a minimum, the plate was ratcheted down again until a similar flowrate was achieved. This process would continue until the press operator determines that the quality of the pressed juice or wine is below standard, or all liquids have been pressed from the grape skins. Since the early 1990s, modern mechanical basket presses have seen a resurgence amongst higher-end producers seeking to replicate the gentle pressing of the historical basket presses. Because basket presses have relatively compact design, the press cake offers a longer relative pathway through which the juice must travel before leaving the press. It is believed by advocates of basket presses that this relatively long pathway through the grape or pomace cake serves as a filter to solids that would otherwise negatively impact the quality of the press juice.

With red wines, the must is pressed after the primary fermentation, which separates the skins and other solid matter from the liquid. With white wine, the liquid is separated from the must before fermentation . With rose, the skins may be kept in contact for a shorter period to give color to the wine, in that case the must may be pressed as well. After a period in which the wine stands or ages, the wine is separated from the dead yeast and any solids that remained (called its lees), and transferred to a new container where any additional fermentation may take place.

Pigeage

Pigeage is a French winemaking term for the traditional stomping of grapes in open fermentation tanks. To make certain types of wine, grapes are put through a crusher and then poured into open fermentation tanks. Once fermentation begins, the grape skins are pushed to the surface by carbon dioxide gases released in the fermentation process. This layer of skins and other solids is known as the cap. As the skins are the source of the tannins, the cap needs to be mixed through the liquid each day, or "punched," which traditionally is done by stomping through the vat.

Cold and heat stabilization

Cold stabilization is a process used in winemaking to reduce tartrate crystals (generally potassium bitartrate) in wine. These tartrate crystals look like grains of clear sand, and are also known as "wine crystals" or "wine diamonds". They may appear to be sediment in the wine, but they are not. During the cold stabilizing process, the temperature of the wine, after fermentation, is dropped to close to freezing for 1-2 weeks. This will cause the crystals to separate from the wine and stick to the sides of the holding vessel. When the wine is drained from the vessels, the tartrates are left behind.

During "heat stabilization", unstable proteins are removed by adsorption onto bentonite, preventing them from precipitating in the bottled wine.

Secondary fermentation and bulk aging

During the secondary fermentation and aging process, which takes three(3) to six(6) months, the fermentation continues very slowly. The wine is kept under an airlock to protect the wine from oxidation. Proteins from the grape are broken down and the remaining yeast cells and other fine particles from the grapes are allowed to settle. Potassium bitartrate will also precipitate, a process which can be enhanced by cold stabilization to prevent the appearance of (harmless) tartrate crystals after bottling. The result of these processes is that the originally cloudy wine becomes clear. The wine can be racked during this process to remove the lees.

The secondary fermentation usually takes place in either large stainless steel vessels with a volume of several cubic meters of wine, or oak barrels, depending on the goals of the winemakers. Unoaked wine is fermented in a barrel made of stainless steel or other material having no influence in the final taste of the wine. Depending on the desired taste, it could be fermented mainly in stainless steel to be briefly put in oak, or have the complete fermentation done in stainless steel. Oak could be added as chips used with a non-wooden barrel instead of a fully wooden barrel. This process is mainly used in cheaper wine.

Amateur winemakers often use glass carboys in the production their wine; these vessels (sometimes called demijohns) have a capacity of 4.5 to 54 liters (1.2–14.3 gallons). The kind of vessel used depends on the amount of wine that is being made, the grapes being used, and the intentions of the winemaker.

Malo lactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation is carried out by bacteria which metabolize malic acid and produce lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The resultant wine is softer in taste and has greater complexity. The process is used in most red wines and is discretionary for white wines.

Laboratory Tests

Whether the wine is aging in tanks or barrels, tests are run periodically in a laboratory to check the status of the wine. Common tests include °Brix, pH, titratable acidity, residual sugar, free or available sulfur, total sulfur, volatile acidity and percent alcohol. These tests are often performed throughout the making of the wine as well as prior to bottling. In response to the results, a winemaker can then decide if more sulfur needs to be added or other slight adjustments before it is bottled.

°Brix is a measure of the soluble solids in the grape juice and represents not only the sugars but also includes many other soluble substances such as salts, acids and tannins, sometimes called Total Soluble Solids (TSS) However, sugar is by far the compound in greatest quantity and so for all practical purposes Brix is a measure of sugar level. The level of sugar in the grapes is important not only because it will determine the final alcohol content of the wine, but also because it is an indirect index of grape maturity. Brix (Bx for short) is measured in grams per hundred milliliters, so 20Bx means that 100ml of juice contains 20gm of dissolved compounds. There are other common measures of sugar content of grapes, Specific gravity, Oechsle (Germany) and Beaume (France). The French Beaume (Be for short) has the benefit that one Be gives approximately one percent alcohol. Also one Beaume is equal to 1.8 Brix, that is 1.8 grams of sugar per one hundred milliliters. This helps with deciding how much sugar to add if the juice is low in sugar; to achieve one percent alcohol add 1.8 grams per 100 ml or 18 grams per liter. This is the process of chaptalization, legal in some countries illegal in others. However, perfectly acceptable for the home winemaker. Generally, for the making of dry table wines a Bx of between 20 and 25 is desirable, this is equivalent to Be of 11 to 14.

A Brix test can be ran either in the lab or out in field for a quick reference number to see what the sugar content is at. Brix is usually measured with a refractometer whilst the other methods use a hydrometer. Generally, hydrometers are a cheaper alternative. For more accurate use of sugar measurement it should be remembered that all measurements are affected by the temperature at which the reading is made, suppliers of equipment generally will supply correction charts.

Volatile acidity test verifies if there is any steam distillable acids in the wine. Mainly present is acetic acid but lactic, butyric, propionic and formic acids can also be found. Usually the test checks for these acids in a cash still, but there are new methods available such as HPLC, gas chromatography and even enzymatic methods. The amount of volatile acidity found in sound grapes is negligible. It is a by-product of microbial metabolism. It's important to remember that acetic acid bacteria require oxygen to grow. Eliminating any air in wine containers as well as a sulfur dioxide addition will limit their growth. Rejecting moldy grapes will also prevent possible problems associated with acetic acid bacteria. Use of sulfur dioxide and inoculation with a low-V.A. producing strain of Saccharomyces may deter acetic acid producing yeast. A relatively new method for removal of volatile acidity from a wine is reverse osmosis. Blending may also help—a wine with high V.A. can be filtered (to remove the microbe responsible) and blended with a low V.A. wine, so that the acetic acid level is below the sensory threshold.

Blending and fining

Different batches of wine can be mixed before bottling in order to achieve the desired taste. The winemaker can correct perceived inadequacies by mixing wines from different grapes and batches that were produced under different conditions. These adjustments can be as simple as adjusting acid or tannin levels, to as complex as blending different varieties or vintages to achieve a consistent taste.

Fining agents are used during winemaking to remove tannins, reduce astringency and remove microscopic particles that could cloud the wines. The winemakers decide on which fining agents are used and these may vary from product to product and even batch to batch (usually depending on the grapes of that particular year)

Gelatin has been used in winemaking for centuries and is recognized as a traditional method for wine fining, or clarifying. Generally no gelatin remains in the wine because it reacts with the wine components, as it clarifies, and forms a sediment which is removed by filtration prior to bottling.

Besides gelatin, other fining agents for wine are often derived from animal and fish products, such as micronized potassium casseinate (casein is milk protein), egg whites, egg albumin, bone char, bull's blood, isinglass (Sturgeon bladder), PVPP (a dairy derivative protein), lysozyme, and skim milk powder.

Some aromatized wines contain honey or egg-yolk extract.

Non-animal-based filtering agents are also often used, such as Bentonite (a volcanic clay-based filter), Diatomaceous Earth, cellulose pads, paper filters and membrane filters (thin films of plastic polymer material having uniformly sized holes).

Preservatives

The most common preservative used in winemaking is sulfur dioxide. Another useful preservative is potassium sorbate.

Sulfur dioxide has two primary actions, firstly it is an anti microbial agent and secondly an anti oxidant. In the making of white wine it can be added prior to fermentation and immediately after alcoholic fermentation is complete. If added after alcoholic ferment it will have the effect of preventing or stopping malolactic fermentation, bacterial spoilage and help protect against the damaging effects of oxygen. Additions of up to 100 mg per liter (of sulfur dioxide) can be added, but the available or free sulfur dioxide should be measured by the aspiration method and adjusted to 30 mg per liter. Available sulfur dioxide should be maintained at this level until bottling. For rose wines smaller additions should be made and the available level should be no more than 30 mg per liter.

In the making of red wine sulfur dioxide may be used at high levels (100 mg per liter) prior to ferment to assist stabilize color otherwise it is used at the end of malolactic ferment and performs the same functions as in white wine. However, small additions (say 20 mg per liter) should be used to avoid bleaching red pigments and the maintenance level should be about 20 mg per liter. Furthermore, small additions (say 20 mg per liter) may be made to red wine after alcoholic ferment and before malolactic ferment to over come minor oxidation and prevent the growth of acetic acid bacteria.

Without the use of sulfur dioxide, wines can readily suffer bacterial spoilage no matter how hygienic the winemaking practice.

Potassium sorbate is effective for the control of fungal growth, including yeast, especially for sweet wines in bottle. However, one potential hazard is the metabolism of sorbate to geraniol a potent and very unpleasant by-product. To void this either the wine must be sterile bottled or contain enough sulfur dioxide to inhibit the growth of bacteria. Sterile bottling includes the use of filtration.

Filtration

Filtration in winemaking is used to accomplish two objectives, clarification and microbial stabilization. In clarification, large particles that affect the visual appearance of the wine are removed. In microbial stabilization, organisms that affect the stability of the wine are removed therefore reducing the likelihood of re-fermentation or spoilage.

The process of clarification is concerned with the removal of particles; those larger than 5-10 micrometers for coarse polishing, particles larger than 1-4 micrometers for clarifying or polishing. Microbial stabilization requires a filtration of at least 0.65 micrometers. However, filtration at this level may lighten a wines color and body. Microbial stabilization does not imply sterility. It simply means that a significant amount of yeast and bacteria have been removed.

Bottling

A final dose of sulfite is added to help preserve the wine and prevent unwanted fermentation in the bottle. The wine bottles then are traditionally sealed with a cork, although alternative wine closures such as synthetic corks and screwcaps, which are less subject to cork taint, are becoming increasingly popular.

Winemakers

A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in making wine. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:

• Cooperating with viticulturists
• Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to determine the correct time for harvest
• Crushing and pressing grapes
• Monitoring the settling of juice and the fermentation of grape material
• Filtering the wine to remove remaining solids
• Testing the quality of wine by tasting
• Placing filtered wine in casks or tanks for storage and maturation
• Preparing plans for bottling wine once it has matured
• Making sure that quality is maintained when the wine is bottled

Today, these duties require an increasing amount of scientific knowledge, since laboratory tests are gradually supplementing or replacing traditional methods. Hence the vast majority of winemakers have, or are studying for, a Bachelor of Science degree (or similar) majoring in oenology. Winemakers can also be referred to as oenologists as they study oenology - the science of wine.