The wine-making is the transformation
of grape into wine and the whole techniques taking
part in this transformation.
The wine-making starts as early as the end of the
grape gathering and has got a variable duration for
the type of wine desired.
It thus depends on which
the vegetative cycle and the work cycle in the vineyard
last all along the viticultural
year.
The grape gathering can be hand-made
or machine-made. Besides the grape treatment is almost
all the time mechanical including the sorting, the
crushing of grapes (bursting of grapes), the desteming
(the grapes are separated from the stalk), the straining
(to collect the free-run juice), the pressing (to
collect the press wine) and then the ageing (in vats
or barrels).
The alcoholic fermentation can take place at two different moments:
After the pressing, the result is a white juice whatever the grape colour at the origin. This process is called a
a white wine-making
Before the pressing and after the crushing, the winemaking on black grapes gives a red wine because the skin pigment dissolves in the alcoholic liquid. This process is called a
a red wine-making
The rosé
wine is obtained whether :
by the process of a white wine-making
with dark-red grapes,
>or by the wine-making of a
juice coming from light-red grapes that have macerated
a very short time (6 hours for example).
A dry wine ensues from the complete transformation
of the sugar contained in the grape into alcohol.
To get a sweet wine, we have to stop the fermentation
before the complete transformation of sugar.
