Wine Fundamentals Part 2: Vinification

(Parade) - Now that you have a basic understanding of viticulture and the intricacies of growing grapes, it’s time to find out how winemakers transform those expertly grown grapes into wine! This process is called vinification, and it can vary significantly by country, region, grower, producer, and style. However, there are basic principles that remain the same no matter what, and these principles are what we’re focusing on today in order to explain the fundamental steps in making wine.

How do you make wine?

Theoretically, making wine is pretty simple. You pick grapes, crush them, ferment them, age them and violà! Well, almost. While in theory this is true, if it were really that simple we’d all be making wine in our own backyards (trust us, we would if we could!). The truth is that winemaking is extremely technical. While winemakers do follow these general steps, each step comes with lots of decisions that significantly impact the quality and flavor of the resulting wine, the first of which happens in the vineyard.

Step 1: Harvest

While viticulture ends with harvest, or the actual picking of grapes from the vine, harvest is where vinification actually begins. Because grapes begin deteriorating the minute they are plucked from the vine and exposed to oxygen, winemakers must decide how to harvest based on the wine they want to make. For higher quality, more expensive wine, a winemaker will likely hire people to hand harvest the grapes. This means that pickers will specifically pluck only the ripest, healthiest grapes and ensure that all other debris from the vines (leaves, grape stems, sticks, etc.) does not get mixed in with the fruit.