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Home > Wine making


# Grow and harvest grapes.
  1. Remove stems and crush to release the juice. This juice is called must. If using carbonic maceration, crushing is unnecessary.
  2. If making a white wine, press the juice off the skins. The juice that comes out from the pressure of the grapes alone is called free-run juice, and is generally saved and fermented separately. Some regions have regulations about how much juice may be pressed from a given mass of grapes.
  3. Optionally, allow the wine to rest under refrigeration (the cold prevents fermentation). This period of maceration helps extract the maximum quantity of compounds from the skins.
  4. Either induce fermentation using a yeast culture, or allow fermentation to start naturally with already-present yeast.
  5. Keep the juice in a cool, food-grade container (usually stainless steel is used today, although home winemakers often use glass carboys), that has a small hole on top for the CO2 produced by the yeast to escape. (Danger: your cellar may be filled with CO2 gas, so please ensure good ventilation. It is a rare year when a cellar worker somewhere in the world does not drown after being accidentally suffocated and falling into the tank.)
  6. While fermentation is active in a red wine, the seeds and skins will rise to the top of the fermenting vessel. This cap needs to be kept wet with fermenting juice for maximum extraction. To achieve this, punch down the cap at regular intervals.
  7. Optionally, either during alcoholic fermentation or afterward, induce malolactic fermentation. Many reds and some whites undergo this process to convert sharper malic acid to softer lactic acid.
  8. Separate the juice from the skins (if this is a red wine), seeds, and fruit pulp. This may be done at various points, usually at the end of tank fermentation.
  9. When tank fermentation is complete, rack (draw off) the wine from the settled yeast cells and sediment which is called the lees. Or, leave the wine with its lees to age sur lie. Most winemakers add sulphur dioxide to prevent both oxidation and any further fermentation.
  10. Many solids suspended in the wine will settle out on their own, given a little time. However, this could take months, and does not always result in a crystal-clear wine. Commercial wines must be clear and not throw any sediment to be saleable. Fining agents such as bentonite (a kind of clay) or eggBird and fish eggs are common food sources. Fish eggs are known as roe or caviar. The most commonly-used bird eggs are those from the chicken, duck and goose, but smaller eggs such as quail eggs are occasionally used as a gourmet ingredient, as are the la whites are used to remove these suspended solids. Filtration is also used, which can have a negative impact on the quality of the wine. However, it has also made the production of slightly sweet wines possible by removing all yeast cells.
  11. Optional: blend wines from different areas, years, and grape types. Check local regulations for what is allowed.
  12. Bottle the ready wine. Continue its ageing in the bottle if appropriate.

If you wish to make a country wineCountry wine" is also a common translation of " vin du pays", or " Landwein Country wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of ingredients other than grapes (the base of "ordinary" wine) and having a variety of flavors. Country wines a from ingredients other than grapes, the procedure is similar. Usually refined sugarThis article deals with sugar as food and as an important, widely traded commodity; the word also has other uses; see Sugar (disambiguation A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alte or another sweetener is necessary; add it before fermentation begins.

See Also: Noble rotNoble rot is the name given to the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions, and if the weather stays wet, the malevolent form, grey rot, can destroy crops of grapes. Grape

oenologyOenology is the study of wines in general. It addresses vine growing, fabrication of wine, and degustation. This article will explain the basis of oenology. The name is derived from Greek "oinos", meaning wine. Natural aspects From a natural point of view

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