White Wine and Red Wine
Wine making is a delicate process, involving different techniques for different types of grapes. White wines, for example, are made from pale colored grapes that are picked at night when the acid in the fruit is more prevalent than the sugars. The grapes for red wine, on the other hand, are picked during daylight hours to give them the sugar content that the sweeter wines require. The flavorful acids are still in the dark grapes that are used for making red wine, as well as the white varieties, but they exist in the skins of the grapes rather than in the inner juices. The grapes must be crushed, complete with skins and all, to remove the juices from within the fruit. The grapes are pressed twice, once lightly to extract the inner pulp from each grape and then again, more powerfully, to extract the juices from the skins as well.
Pressing and Fermentation
Once the juices are pressed out of the grapes, the fermenting process must be started. This is done by introducing yeast to the mix, which consumes the sugars in the juice, beginning the fermentation. The sugars then become alcohol and carbon dioxide. This process is done differently for white wine and red wine. The red wines are fermented with the skins still in the mix, creating the flavor that is unique to the red varieties. White wines, on the other hand, are separated before fermentation, with the skins removed from the juice. The skins and the juice are fermented separately. There are two ways to store fermenting wine while it goes through the process; in wooden barrels or in stainless steel ones. The wooden barrels add their own flavors to the wine, making them fuller bodied.
Storing the Wine During Fermentation
Red wines are allowed to ferment for anywhere from 4 to 14 days at a temperature of between 65 and 80 degrees, though the process is sometimes shortened to prevent the yeast from removing all of the sugars, thus creating a sweet wine. White wines are typically fermented from 4 to 6 weeks at 60 degrees F. While in the fermentation stage, the wine is stored in temperature- and light-controlled rooms, because of the fact that any degree of variance has an effect on the flavor of the finished wine. Light can easily destroy the flavor, so all is kept quite dark. Some wines are treated to a second fermentation, which removes the tart flavor and gives it a more polished, sweeter flavor. This adds a somewhat different flavor while in the aging process.
Fining and Racking the Wine
Now the wine must be "fined," a process also known as "racking," in which the wines are strained from the heavier particles such as clumps of yeast, grape seeds or skins. The wine is poured gently from the fermenting barrel into another container, leaving behind the unwanted particles, which are known as sediment. The fining process involves using a natural drawing agent, such as egg whites, milk protein or isinglass to draw out further sediments from out of the wine. Some wines are then filtered, but this process is not recommended, as it can remove some of the flavor from the wine as well as the last of the sediments. The fining process is also necessary to help remove the yeast from the wine to keep the yeast from continuing the fermentation process while in the glass bottles. If wine continues to ferment at this point, it could easily explode its bottle. Most wines reach their peak at 3 years of aging, and some at 10 years. Only one kind of wine, called Madeira, can be aged for decades without losing or changing its flavor too much.
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