While sipping wine, have you ever wondered as to how it is made? Of course, it is a fermented grape juice, but what does that mean and what choices are made along the way?
Here are the 6 important steps of white wine preparation:
1) Grape Harvesting:
The time of grape harvesting is determined by balance between acidity and sugar levels.This is the most crucial phase in the process of white wine preparation. Usually, the grape harvesting season in India is from February to April.
2) De-stemming, crushing, draining the juice and pressing:
Once the grapes are sorted, they are de-stemmed and gently crushed just enough to break open the skins. Crushing enables the wine-maker to extract more juice from the berry during subsequent pressing.
3) Settling of the juice:
The cold juice which is obtained after pressing is allowed to settle in a container.
4) Fermentation:
Though some yeast is present on the grapes, activated yeast is added to the fresh grape juice which then sets the pace for the alcoholic fermentation. The sugar present in the grape juice is broken down by the yeast; the by-products of this process are carbon-dioxide and alcohol. The entire process takes about 21-24 days and this process is carried out at low temperatures.
5) Racking:
Racking means removing the wine from one tank and pouring it intoanother, so that it stabilises.
6) Filtering and Bottling:
Filtering purifies the wine by removing the unwanted elements in it. The major considerations in the bottling step are the type of bottle to be used, type of closure and whether to use gas or not. White wines are usually contained in dark coloured bottles.
If you are a wine lover, you can go on wine tasting tours in the wineries in Nashik and famous beyond vineyard resorts in the city such as Soma Vine Village.
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