Harvest:

This process occurs when the grapes reach their ultimate ripeness. This usually takes place in September and October in the Northern Hemisphere and in March and April in the South hemisphere.

Harvest can be done manually or by machine. On larger vineyards or flat sites, this is generally done by machine, steep sites with difficult access must be handpicked.

For some wine making, the whole bunch of grapes are needed, the harvest also needs to be done by hand, because the machine can shake off individual berries from the vine. Both methods are able to make good quality wines. The harvesting method used is dependent on labor availability, and the steepness of the vineyard.

Following the harvest, the grapes are transported to the winery as fast as possible to retain their freshness, preventing any breakage of the grapes, which may cause undesired oxidation.

Wine making:

SUGAR + Yeast = Alcohol+CO2

This is a very important process of wine making, it’s called fermentation. During this process, the yeast converts the natural sugar in the grape pulp into alcohol and carbon dioxide, almost all of the flesh of the grapes are white, for red and rose wines, these are made from black grapes. The colour of the wine is obtained by soaking the colored skin in the fermenting juice.

White Wine:

In most case, white wines are made from white grapes, the grapes are pressed as soon as possible and crushed to separate the grape juice from the solid part, mostly grape skins.

Yeast is then directly added to ferment the grape juice in a stainless steel tank, concrete or wooden fermenter and kept at a cool temperature to preserve as much fruits as possible. Sometimes white wines can be made with a black grape variety as well, making sure the grapes have no contact with the grape skin during the pressing stage, ensures the wine remains white.

Red Wine:

Black grape varieties are used to make red wines, the grapes are crushed and then placed into a fermenter, together with the grape skins to extract the colour, tannin and flavors from the grape skin. This process usually takes around 5 days for light wines or up to 2 weeks for richly flavored wines.

After the desired tannin and colors are extracted from the skin, the juice from the fermenter is allowed to drain and finally must is pressed.

Rose Wine:

Like red wines, Rose wines are made in the same way as red wine. To get the familiar rose colour, the colour and tannin extraction process is much shorter than the red wine making. Usually just 12 to 36 hours.

Maturation:

After the wine making process has been completed, transforming the current grape juice into wine requires another important process; known as maturation.

At this stage we often think of oak barrels, however not all wines are necessarily matured or aged in oak barrels.

The maturation process can take place in barrels, wooden casks, stainless stills or in bottles. Only new oaks barrels impart more complex flavours to the wines, the rest are more neutral, but also allowing slow chemical reactions to happen to allow complex flavours to occur, here we particularly will look at oak barrel ageing.

Oak barrel ageing:

Ageing wines in new oak barrels involves an extra cost, when we say new oak barrels, we usually refer to 225 L oak barrels, which will import flavors like vanilla, coconut and spices to the wine, which also allows for slow oxidation to occur, developing more complex flavours in the wine

Bottling and packaging:

The majority of wine worldwide is packaged in glass bottles, they are inert and strong, glass bottles are consumer’s most preferred packaging, however, plastic packaging and bag in box packages are also available.

Closure:

The mission of a closure is to protect the wines from harm, until the wine is served.

Cork:

Using a cork and the benefits of a cork is an ongoing controversy. Cork bottle stoppers are made from the bark of oak trees, which, unsurprisingly, comes at a considerable cost. Using alternatives can be a far cheaper alternative and avoids any risk of cork taint, it’s simply more practical for a lot of wine.

Certain varieties of wine, for example Riesling and Sangiovese, are more sensitive to cork-issues such as TCA Taint. Since the majority of wine is consumed within the following year from when was made, perhaps developing alternatives to wine bottles are a better alternative.

Synthetic corks:

These are perfectly smooth, uniformly-colored corks and can almost pass for a real cork. They retain the ritual of using a corkscrew and popping a cork, while keeping a more predictable, cost effective closure in the bottle.

Screwcaps:

We all know how to open these. Screw caps are usually aluminum with a neutral plastic liner on the inside to seal with the bottle. They make a near perfect seal with the bottle, meaning there is very little bottle variation.