What is wine making really?
Throughout history, wine has made a significant impact on different society’s and culture’s around the world. Able to completely trace it’s origins all the way back to 4000BC in ancient Egypt, to where the first known reference of wine making was used. In that regard, the text mentions the Egyptians using cork, to plug their wine bottle’s. Through six-thousand year’s of history, hundreds if not thousand’s of wars, the rising and falling of civilization’s, wine making as we know it today still exists.
Wine makers around the world still pride themselves on what the majority of their ancestors have passed on throughout history and through the generations. Of all thing’s to consider during the creation process, the first step has always been the most important. And that is the selection of the proper grapes, out of over five thousand varieties, that will be used to fill that ever popular bottle. These various type’s can also have an impact, depending on location, as to the time of harvest, as well as the amount of time needed for fermentation.
After the grapes are grown and harvested, they are crushed and then allowed to ferment. The pulp of red or black grapes that ferment together with the skin is used to make red wine. This differs greatly from the process of creating white wine. Which is usually made by fermenting only the juices pressed from white grapes. During primary fermentation of the grapes which can take anywhere from one or two weeks, yeast is used to convert most of the sugar in the grape juice into alcohol. After the initial fermentation, the juices are transferred slowly into another container. This secondary fermentation process is where the remaining sugar’s are converted into alcohol and the wine becomes clear.
From separation of the juices from the skin and allowing them to ferment over weeks at a time, to transferring them to another fermenting pot, the process at time’s can take close to a month. All of this occurs before bottling is ever considered. After the wine maker’s have achieved the right taste, the wine is bottled and then racked, and allowed to age. Aging of the wine in some instances can take upward of twenty year’s for some of the more finer varieties.
As you have seen, wine making use to be a very time consuming process. However, I guess we had to start somewhere right? Make sure you let your wine sit for a while and that is for months if you want it to turn out good using this method.
