| Ever wondered what goes into making
a top drop of wine?
Assume that you have been nurturing a top class Shiraz grape vineyard
for the past 10 years...
Pick
Your premium grapes have to be harvested from the vine at exactly
the right time.
You know when this is by long experience – part art and part
science – but you're aiming for just the right balance of
flavour, sugar and acid. You taste and measure the grapes daily
as "vintage time" approaches, sometime in Autumn.
On the big day your team of hand pickers start (gently!) stripping
the vines.
|
The grapes determine the potential of the wine
|
Crush
You gently split the grapes in the crusher to release all that
luscious grape juice.
If you were making white wine, you'd also separate the juice from
the seeds, stalks and leaves.
But since you're making red wine, you want to ferment the juice
with the other bits for a first to get that rich red colour and
flavour. That's right: red wine is not made from red grape juice,
but from colourless grape juice fermented with red skins and seeds
– called the "must".
|
Feed the crush (gently!)
Crush (gently!) to release the sugary grape juice ready for fermenting
|
Ferment
The must goes into your stainless steel vats along with wild yeast
found naturally in the grapes, or you might add an introduced yeast
strain for greater control.
Natural bacterias also play a part in fermentation: turning the
glucose and fructose into alcohol – from mere juice to (almost)
wine.
You press the must after fermenting to get every last drop of young
wine ready for the next stage. |
Vats control the temperature of the fermentation
|
Stabilise
Next you stabilise and clarify the fermented wine by removing particles
left over from fermentation.
Some winemakers use "finings", a substance such as gelatin
that attracts the particles to them, making them heavy enough to
fall to the bottom of the vat. But you know that the best way to
do this is with patience: simply let the particles fall naturally
to the bottom over a period of time, so the wine can be poured off
the top. |
|
Age
Your wine now spends anything between a few weeks up to a few years
ageing in barrels. Wines stored in oak barrels slowly accumulate
vanillin and other substances from the wood.
You debate with fellow winemakers about whether French or American
oak, new or old barrels work better...
|
Age – American or French oak barrels impart a complementary
woody flavour
|
Bottle
Now you – the winery – have decided to bottle this
batch as "cleanskins", without the label.
Sometimes this is because the quantity is too small to be worth
the expensive labeling process.
Sometimes more of the wine is made than can be sold labelled.
Or maybe you simply needs the fast cash flow!
cleanskins.com customers get the savings because you haven't spent
money on marketing, design, labeling and distribution expenses.
Good value! |
The finished product – a cleanskins.com Shiraz
Photos courtesy of Andrew
Zealand.
|
