How Wine is Made

We’ve known many famous wines, but do you know how they’re made? Now we are going to introduce the steps briefly.

1. Grape Harvest

Grape harvest can be finshed by either mechanical equipment or by hand. The latter does a better job of selecting grapes in good condition. The former is more efficient and cost effective.

2. Crushing and Destemming

Crushing is to split the external skin, so that the juice can meet and mingle with the natural yeast for the first chance. Then the wine alcohol is produced by the combination of yeast and sugar.

3. Wine Fermentation

It’s during fermentation that the sugars are converted to alcohol. The red wine fermentation often takes place in stainless steel tanks, large vats or oak barrels, while white wine fermentation is in stainless steel tanks with lower heat levels, except for Chardonnay.

4. Pressing

Pressing process is done right after the crush for whites and fermentation for reds and squeezes the grape solids to get a very thick liquid to enhance color and flavor.

5. Maturation of the Wine

Both French and American oak are the most common containers for the maturation process. The other option is stainless steel tanks, more popular and economical.

6. Finishing and Clarification

Finishing removes many unwanted particulates still and egg whites are used to remove the floaters. Clarification removes bigger solids like dead yeast cells and other particles to make clearer and brighter.

7. Blending Wines

Blending two separate wines makes a new wine with a unique flavor.

8. Bottling Wine

Nowadays it’s done by mechanical bottling lines. Then the bottle is capped with a traditional cork or a modern screw cap.

And finally that’s what you see and buy from a wine store.