The wine making process seems like it would be kind of easy
on the surface but there are some intricate details.
Although the grapes pretty much do all the work for you
they have to be guided along in the process. The one main
ingredient to making good wine is that the grapes are grown
correctly and tended to well during the growth process.
Mature grapes should be well tended to in order to get the
best taste. That means they should have been exposed to a
lot of sunlight, watered well and pruned correctly.
The first step in the wine making process is the harvesting
of mature grapes. This is just as it sounds because it is
the actual picking of the grapes off the vines. During this
process be sure to carefully pick only those grapes ready
to be fermented. It is during this time that you may want
to de-stem the grapes as well. De-stemming can be done
after the grapes are picked but some people like to do it
during the harvesting process to save time. It's up to the
discretion of the wine maker how to do this.
Crushing the grapes for fermentation is the next step in
the wine making process. There are many methods to crushing
grapes and crushing is defined as the gentle squeezing of
the grapes to liberate the juices from the skin. The old
school method of crushing the grapes is to stomp them with
bare feet to split the skins open and release the inside
contents. However, there are inexpensive small crushers
that can be used just as effectively. In some winemaking
the stems are left in the mix to further advance
fermenting. Temperature during this first fermentation
phase is important to the taste of the wine.
To separate the wine juice from the skins and stems if any
the next step is the pressing of the grapes. For some wines
pressing is not necessary as the wine is separated during
the crushing process however you can get another 15-30% of
wine out of the pressing process in some cases. Then the
wine is cold and heat temperature stabilized. During the
cold stabilization period the wine is kept at close to
freezing for 1-2 weeks. To rid it of unstable proteins
after the cold stabilization the wine is heat stabilized.
----------------------------------------------------
Bob Hirsch is a wine making enthusiast of over 20 years.
You can learn about Bob's foolproof formula for making
delicious homemade wine by visiting:
http://GrowingGrapes-MakingWine.com . Your also invited to
register for Bob's informative Free Email Mini-course at
http://GrowingGrapes-MakingWine.com where he shares tips
and secrets professional vintners would rather you not know.
EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=55299
0 comments
Post a Comment