How do you make wine?

Wine is made from grapes. The essential steps of winemaking after the grape harvest are pressing, fermentation, maturation, fining and bottling. The decisive process in winemaking is fermentation, in which yeast converts the sugar from the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The fundamental difference in the production of white and red wine is that fermentation takes place after pressing in the case of white wine(must fermentation) and before pressing in the case of red wine(mash fermentation).

The ripe grapes are harvested in the vineyard (harvest) and then first lightly crushed. This is how the mash is produced: the mixture of juice, pulp, skins and seeds. The colouring substances of the grapes are located in the skins - the pulp is also light in red grapes - and through the maceration, the juice of the grapes begins to dissolve the colouring substances from the skins.

To make white wine (from white grapes) or Rosé wine (from red grapes), the mash is then pressed after a short standing time (a few hours). This produces the must (the pressed juice of the grapes) and the marc (the solid residues such as skins, seeds, stems). To produce white wine from red grapes, the grapes are pressed immediately and without any maceration time (so that no colouring substances are released from the skins). The must is then fermented. The yeast necessary for this is either added(pure culture yeast), or natural yeasts are used; then fermentation starts automatically. Fermentation not only forms the alcohol, but is also responsible for a large part of the wine's aromas.

To make red wine (from red grapes) or Orange Wine (from white grapes), the entire mash is fermented. In the process, not only the colouring substances are released from the grape skins, but alsotannins, which are found in the skins and seeds. This is why red wines and orange wines have tannins that taste slightly bitter and can have an astringent effect in the mouth. Fermentation also takes place either with pure cultured yeasts or with natural yeasts, and only then is pressing carried out. During this process, the resulting young wine is separated from the marc.

After fermentation (and subsequent pressing for red wine and orange wine), the young wine is first filtered to remove the yeast residue from the fermentation. This is followed by ageing: the young wine is stored for a certain time (weeks, months, years) in stainless steel tanks or in wooden barrels(large wooden barrels, barrique). During this time, the aroma and, depending on the length of maturation, the texture change again.

At the end of the ageing period, the wine is clarified and fined to stabilise it before it is subsequently bottled.

These general steps of winemaking can be divided into numerous small intermediate steps. These are explained in detail, subdivided by type of wine, in the following articles:

How is white wine made?
How is red wine made?
How is rosé wine made?
How is Orange Wine made?

One more note: It is not possible within the framework of this description to give anything like instructions on how to make wine. Only individual steps can be described here in more or less general terms. To learn how to make wine, there are specific training courses(winemaker, wine technologist) and courses of study(viticulture and oenology) as well as - also independent of this - textbooks and the possibility of doing an internship in a winery.