How Wine Is Made!

4 Pages 883 Words

How wine is made!
Wine is an alcoholic beverage derived from grapes or other fruits by fermentation, almost as beer is produced from grains. Unlike beer, wines are not carbonated (except champagne and sparkling wines). They also have about twice the alcohol content of beer. In this essay, we will examine the steps in the fascinating process of making wine.
The types of grapes that are used are one of the biggest factors in making the wine. The grapes that are planted and grown in any given area, depend upon the climate. In the Northern Hemisphere, grapes begin to bud in late March or early April. The grapes grow, bloom and develop fruit throughout the summer. The goal is to keep the leaf growth small, which allows more sun in and keeps the grape clusters small, but numerous. In late September or early October, the grapes are ready to harvest.
Next, it's time to get your feet wet! In the fall, it is crush time, one of the most famous aspects of wine. The grapes are harvested, some vineyards use mechanical harvesting techniques, but most hire workers to pick the grapes by hand. Many wineries are located on or near the vineyards so there isn't far to take them. If the wineries are far away, the grapes are shipped in refrigerated trucks. At the winery, they get crushed. Inside the crusher, there is a perforated, rotating drum. The holes in the drum allow the juice and the skins of the grapes to pass through, but keep the stems inside the drum. The crushed grapes and juice are called must.
What happens next depends on the type of grape. Red-grape must is sent directly to the fermentation tanks. White-grape must is sent first to a wine press, where the juice is separated from the skins, because white wines are fermented from skinless grapes.
The wine press consists of a stainless steel cylinder with an inflatable rubber bladder inside. The must is poured inside the cylinder and the bladder is inflated with air. The bladder sq...