For hundreds of years, people have loved wine because it can bring out the flavors of a place and make you feel good. If you like wine, have you ever thought about how it gets from the vine to the bottle? It takes great care and attention to detail to turn plain grapes into rich, flavorful wine. And this article will show you the process of how it’s done.
Cultivating the Vineyard
Years of work start in the field before a bottle of wine is made. The type of wine the winemaker wants to make determines the grapes they use, called varieties. Plants that were just planted may take three to four years to bear fruit. A good vine can live for more than fifty years.
Harvesting and Sorting the Grapes
The grapes are ready to be picked when they are fully ripe. Harvesting is a very important time that must be planned carefully and accurately. Many farms pick the grapes by hand, so they are handled gently and sorted correctly. When workers pick grapes by hand, they can eliminate any broken or not ripe, ensuring that only the best fruit gets to the farm.
Once the grapes are picked, they go through a very strict sorting process. Winery can use manual or automated methods to pick only the best berries. Each grape is picked by hand and then goes through one more pass on the sorting table before being gently pressed immediately.
Crushing and Pressing the Grapes
After the grapes have been picked, the next very important step is to crush and press them. At this point, the skin of the grapes is broken to get the juice out. The juice will then be made into wine. In the past, grapes were crushed by hand in big vats, but nowadays, wineries use mechanical crushers to process larger amounts quickly.
The grapes are lightly pressed to get the juice out after they have been crushed. There are different ways that wineries press their grapes. Some use traditional basket presses, while others use more modern pneumatic presses. The amount of pressure used during pressing decides the type of juice made.
Also, the best quality juice is free-run juice, often used for high-end wines. The next best quality juice is press juice, which can be used for various wine styles.
Fermentation and Aging
In winemaking, fermentation refers to transforming grape juice into wine. The juice is fermented in stainless steel tanks or wooden barrels with natural yeasts or selected yeast strains. Yeast ferments sugars in juice into carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Many wines undergo an aging process after fermentation to make them more complicated and bring out their flavors. At this point, the wine’s flavors can come together and take on desired traits like smoothness, richness, or subtle oak notes.
Blending and Bottling
With great care, winemakers choose and mix wines from various grape types or vineyard locations to create their desired flavors. This step takes a deep understanding of what makes each wine special and the skill to balance and improve those qualities.
Enjoying the Fruits of Labor
The wine is ready to be enjoyed after its long trip from the vine to the bottle. For many people, opening a bottle of wine is the culmination of countless hours of hard work, commitment, and skill. Utilizing a wine decanter enhances this experience further, as with each sip, you can taste and smell the flavors and aromas that nature and the winemaker’s skill have carefully shaped, accentuated by the aeration achieved through decanting.
Take a Sip of the Finest Wines
The process of making wine is a mix of old and new ideas, and each step shows how dedicated the winemakers are to making each experience special. Each bottle of wine is the passionate result of a story that unfolds in every sip. It starts with care in the fields and ends with skill in the cellar. White or red wine is the best example of how nature and art work together.
So, if you want to appreciate the great taste of fine wines, you can check out The Wine Collective for the best wine brands available.