How Is Wine Made?

Squash some grapes and leave them in a bucket in a warm place and the naturally occurring yeasts on the grapes will react with sugars in the grape juice and you will turn grapes into wine. This is called fermentation. Your wine will taste disgusting which is why winemaking is a lot more sophisticated but the basic principle is the same. Yeast plus grape juice plus warmth equals wine. Cultivated yeasts are used to make sure fermentation kicks off rapidly and rules do allow some sugar to be added in some cases if the grapes are not fully ripe and so natural sugar levels are low. The process can be remarkably quick. A light drinking red wine needs to ferment for less than a week. Something more complex might take 2, 3 or 4 weeks to extract all the colour and flavour from the skins. After fermentation comes maturation. This usually starts with a second fermentation after all the grape skins and bits have been drained away. A number of other treatments follow depending on the complexity and type of wine.