Intro to Wines Flashcards
Four important things that determine the character of a wine:
- The grape variety
- How it is grown
- Terroir (the soil and climate)
- Capability of the winemaker
White wine production
- Picking of Grapes
- Transporting to Winery
- Crushing/Destemming
- Sulfur Dioxide Addition
- Settling of skins, pulp, juice and pressing
- Fermentation
- Cellar Operations
- Aging in Stainless Steel, Glass, or Wood
- Blending
- Cellar Operations: Optional winemaking practices
- Bottling and Packaging
- Bottle Aging
When does the picking of grapes occur for white wines?
Beginning late summer and early fall, the green, yellow and gray-skinned grapes are picked when they reach 21-23 percent sugar
The Process of Crushing/Destemming
The stems are simultaneously separated and removed, crushing the grapes and releasing the grape juice
Sulfur Dioxide Addition
This has two major functions in winemaking: to control undesirable micro-organisms and to serve as an antioxidant
Fermentation
Yeast converts the grape sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide is produced
Cellar Operations (4)
- Lees Stirring
- Lees Contact
- Malolactic Fermentation
- Barrel Sampling
Lees Stirring
This is stirring of the yeast cells of the yeast cells to develop body, texture, and in some cases, more alcohol
Lees Contact
This is resting the wine on the dead yeast cells to develop body and texture
Malolactic Fermentation
This is secondary fermentation when the malic acid converted to lactic acid giving the wine more body, less harsh acid, complexity, flavor, and aroma while also increasing biological stability
Barrel Sampling
Each barrel is tasted and the flavor profiles noted
Fining
Addition of a precipitating agent to remove small, suspended particles
Filtration
Process of clarifying a wine by passing it through a filter
Stabilization
Microbiological stability is achieved by removing, killing or preventing developments of the microbes by use of sulfur dioxide and other permitted agents such as sorbic acid
Cold stabilization
To prevent tartrate precipitation
Ion-exchange
Wine is made from a process of chemical reactions
How red wine is made (15)
- Picking of grapes
- Transport to winery
- Crushing/destemming and juice separation
- Sulfur dioxide addition
- Vatting
- Fermentation
- Pressing
- Aging
- Cellar Operations
- Barrel Sampling
- Continued Aging
- Blending
- Cellar Operations
- Bottling
- Bottle Aging
Vatting
Pumping of skins, pulp, and juice into fermenting tank. Red wines can also be put through a cold soak or maceration period to extract color, flavor, and aroma from the grape skins and in some regions, stem
Racking
In large cooperage, the suspended particles in the fresh wine are allowed to settle and the clear wine is then pumped off. After this “racking” process, often repeated three times, the wine is then allowed to mature for some period of time.
Table wine consumption by color
Red
White
Blush
Red - 43.6%
White - 50.5%
Blush - 5.9%
Table wine consumption by origin - domestic/imported
Domestic - 76.8%
Imported 23.2%
Viticulture
Grape Growing
3 steps to viticulture
- Growing the grapes
- Picking the grapes (harvest)
- by hand
- by machine - Transport to the winery
- By baskets
- By truckload
Viniculture
Winemaking
2 steps to viniculture
- Sort the grapes
- De-stemming and crushing
- whole berry
- whole cluster
Red wine fermentation has skin contact, white wine does not
What grapes can white wine be made from?
A white wine can be made from either white or red grapes
Must
Unfermented grape juice
Where does vatting take place?
Vatting: Pumping the “must” into fermentation vessels
- Stainless Steel
- Oak
- Ceramic
- Fiberglass
The label is the birth certificate of the wine. It tells us (5)
- Who made the wine
- Where was it made
- When was it made (vintage year)
- What is in the bottle (grape variety)
- And possibly some indication of special handling, quality ranking or classification
New World
Any region producing wines less than 400 years
Old World
400+ years in producing wines (e.g., France, Germany)
