People who stamp on grapes with their bare feet in order to make wine from the juice are long gone. This method is long outdated and is only used for advertising purposes. Nowadays, machines do most of the work and create wine from grapes.

But what exactly do the processes look like today? What exactly happens to the berries before they end up in the bottle? And how do the different types of wine differ in their production?

We explain the basic steps of winemaking step by step!

Table of contents

1. The grape harvest

2. Pressing and fermentation

3. Fining

4. Maturation

5. Bottling

Summary

• • • •

Reading time approx. 3:20 min

1. The grape harvest

Wine is made from grapes. The winemaker has to tend these in the vineyards until the vines bear fruit. In the process, the berries take all the important nutrients they need from the soil. The so-called harvest takes place between August and October. The exact time of the harvest depends on various factors, such as the climate. It is important that all the grapes are ripe! Only then do they have enough sugar to be processed further. After the harvest, the grapes are destemmed . This means that the berries are separated from the stems in order to avoid undesirable bitter substances that are in the stems.

2. Pressing or fermentation

Red wine and white wine do not differ greatly in terms of production. The only difference is that with white wine the grapes are pressed first and then fermentation takes place. With red wine it is the other way round. How the individual steps work is described below:

White wine
red wine

The pressing:

For white wine, the grapes are first pressed. This means that they are pressed to extract the juice from the grapes. During this process, the skin and seeds of the berries remain. The resulting grape juice, also called must, is transferred to large stainless steel tanks for fermentation.

Fermentation:

During fermentation, the must is converted into wine. This is done by adding yeast, which converts the sugar from the grape juice into alcohol. Carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct, which escapes immediately.

Important: Since fermentation takes place without grape skins and seeds, this step is called must fermentation.

➤ The coloring agents of the grapes are in the skins. Since fermentation takes place without grape skins, a light wine is produced.

Fermentation:

The flesh of the fruit is always light, regardless of the color of the grape. The color pigments of the grape are found in the grape skin. In order to achieve the red color of the wine, fermentation takes place first in red wine. This is because the grapes are first mashed thoroughly so that the colorants can be released from the skins and absorbed into the juice.

In addition, during fermentation the sugar is converted into alcohol with the help of added yeast.

Important : Since the fermentation takes place with grape skins and seeds, this step is called mash fermentation.

The pressing:

After fermentation, there are enough color pigments in the mash. The mash is crushed in a press and the juice is pressed out. The skins and seeds are then separated from the juice using a sieve.

There are three different processes for producing rosé wine . If you would like to learn more about the processes, click here !

Did you know?

During fermentation, the winemaker can decide how sweet his wine should be. The longer the fermentation lasts, the drier the wine will be. If he stops fermentation early, not all of the sugar has been converted into alcohol. This means that the wine tastes much sweeter, but at the same time also contains less alcohol.

3. Fining

After these processes, a so-called young wine is created. This is usually still very cloudy and now needs to be "beautified". To do this, the wine needs to be freed of suspended particles. Suspended particles mainly include tannins, anthocyanins and other phenols as well as proteins. Otherwise, they would cause the wine to settle and streaks to form in the bottle. To remove these from the wine, they are first converted into a solid state. The most commonly used fining agent is bentonite. With the help of the clay, the proteins flake up, sink to the bottom and can then be easily removed from the barrel. With red wine, wine is rarely beautified with bentonite; gelatine is used instead.

4. Maturation

When the wine is free of components that cause undesirable changes, it is allowed to rest. In this process, the wine usually develops its complexity and structure. It is usually transferred to wooden barrels to mature there. Barriques are mostly used to give the wine fine wood and roasted aromas. How long a wine needs to mature depends on its type and quality.

Roughly speaking, there is no such thing as a bad vintage, only bad wine. For some, a Riesling is ripe after 3 years, while for others, the Riesling only tastes good after 13 years.

Every wine tastes different. Mature wines generally taste less sweet, but the acidity is more prominent. In addition, the fruity aromas of the wine fade over time. Instead, spicy aromas become more complex. Therefore, those who prefer fruity and sweet wines should avoid older wines.

5. Bottling

Once the wine has developed its full aroma after storage, it is ready to be bottled. Hygiene is the top priority in this process. Although the wine is already very clear due to the “beautification”, it is still filtered to descale the wine and keep yeasts away. Filtration is important because it prevents subsequent biological processes. After filtration, the wine is bottled. The remaining space in the neck of the bottle is filled with carbon dioxide to displace the air in the neck of the bottle and prevent the wine from aging too quickly. After bottling, the bottle is either sold directly or left to mature.

Summary

The harvest takes place between August and October. After that, the berries are removed directly from their stems to avoid unwanted bitter substances. This process is called destemming.
This is where the production of red and white wine differs. With white wine, the process begins with pressing. The berries are first pressed and then the resulting juice is separated from the skin and seeds. This is followed by fermentation, in which the sugar is converted into alcohol by adding yeast.
To obtain the red color of the red wine , fermentation takes place first. This means that the grapes are first mashed and then the resulting juice ferments together with the grape skins for a few hours. This causes the color pigments to separate from the grape skins and enter the juice. Only then does the pressing take place, where the skins and seeds are separated from the juice.
After these processes, the so-called young wine is still very cloudy. This means that it still needs to be “beautified” by adding various substances.
The wine then usually has to mature in oak barrels, where it develops most of its complexity and structure.
After the maturation process, the wine can be bottled. The wine can either be sold immediately or stored for further maturation.