This article will increase your knowledge of winemaking, the process of making great wine.

Although winemaking has been raised to a fine art and an increasingly precise science over the last five thousand years, it remains, in essence, a relatively simple process. Wine grapes can grow with considerable ease in most warm–to temperate climates. Ripe grapes contain a solution of natural sugar and water, with more sugar than in most other fruits. Additionally, the skin of the grape is an ideal medium for the accumulation of natural yeasts; on-celled plants that consume the natural sugar and convert it to ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is as if grapes want to become wine. Had we not evolved into humans, it is conceivable that apes could have learned to make wine – it is that simple. Of course, in the thousands of years since this process was first observed, technology has played an ever-increasing role in winemaking.

There are many technological options available to the modern winemaker. Equipment such as crushers, destemmers, and fermentation tanks come in so many shapes and varieties that each and every configuration of them. However, whether the end product is red, white, or pink, and whether it is cheap or expensive, there are several principles common to all winemaking.

First of all, air is the enemy. Exposure to oxygen robs wine of its fresh-tasting qualities and also encourages the production of vinegar. The winemaker, therefore, must take care to prevent air from ruining the wine.

It is crucial that the grapes are picked and transported to the winery without prematurely splitting the skins. While handpicking is best, mechanical harvesting machines have been developed that can handle grape bunches with enough care. Exposure to air is also minimized during fermentation, and nature lends a helping hand in this stage of winemaking. Carbon dioxide, which is discharged by the yeasts along with ethyl alcohol, provides a cushion of protection against the ambient air. This is especially important in the fermentation of red wine.

Clarity is another goal common to all winemaking, and the brilliant transparency of both red and white wines does not come naturally. Wine is, by nature, cloudy with dead yeast and tiny particulate matter. Several processes such as fining, filtration, racking and cold stabilization may be used to clarify wine.

Fining is one of the few processes in which a foreign matter is introduced into the wine. Whipped egg whites have long been used as a fining agent for quality wines. Shortly after fermentation is complete, the wine is transferred to a large settling tank. When added to the tank of young, unfinished wine, the mass of whipped egg whites slowly sinks to the bottom, attracting undesirable particles along the way. The clear wine is then drawn off, leaving the remains at the bottom of the barrel.