making Wine
While the winemaking process is quite complex and there are many variations and techniques, below are the basic steps on how red and white table wines are made.
White Wines
- Picking the grapes
- Crushing a mixture of juices, skins and seeds
- Pressing & Clarification: to separate the juice from the skins
- Fermentation: yeast is added to the juice in a vessel (refrigerated for up to three weeks)
- Racking / Fining: Wine is pumped into another tank and an agent is added to clean, clear and stabilise the wine
- Blending with other batches to achieve the correct style and balance
- Filtering: to take out any final undesirable elements
- Bottled and Labelling
Red Wines
- Picking the grapes
- Crushing a mixture of juices, skins and seeds
- Fermentation: yeast is added to the crushed mixture in a vessel. This is kept warm through fermentation.
- Pressing: the red grape skins left behind go into a pressing machine
- Racking / Fining: Wine is pumped into another tank and an agent is added to clean, clear and stabilise the wine
- Oak Maturation: most red wines are kept in oak barrels for 6 months - 2 years
- Blending with other batches to achieve the correct style and balance
- Minimal Filtering: to take out any final undesirable elements
- Bottled and Labelling
