**1. Winemaking Process:**
– Wine making involves five basic stages starting with harvesting or picking grapes.
– Red wine is made from the must of red or black grapes with fermentation occurring with grape skins for color.
– White wine is made by fermenting juice extracted from crushed grapes without skin involvement.
– Rosé wines can be made by allowing juice to stay in contact with dark skins for color extraction.
– The time from harvest to drinking varies depending on the wine’s structure and components.
**2. Grape Quality and Harvesting:**
– Grape quality significantly impacts wine quality.
– Factors affecting grape quality include variety, weather, soil minerals, acidity, harvest time, and pruning.
– The combination of these factors is known as the grapes’ terroir.
– Climate change affects winemaking due to grapes’ sensitivity to weather patterns.
– Grapes are typically harvested from early September to early November in the northern hemisphere.
**3. Fermentation and Wine Styles:**
– Primary fermentation involves yeast converting sugars in grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
– Red wine fermentation includes the skins, while white wine fermentation excludes them.
– Malo-lactic conversion softens the taste of red wine by converting malic acid to lactic acid.
– Wine styles vary from still to sparkling wines.
– Sweet wines are made by various methods like late harvest, ice wine, or adding sweet grape juice.
**4. Harvesting Methods and Techniques:**
– Grapes harvested based on sugar, acid, and pH levels.
– Mechanical harvesters cover large areas quickly.
– Manual harvesting allows for selective picking.
– Crushing breaks berry skins to release contents.
– Destemming separates grapes from stems.
**5. Fermentation and Preservation:**
– Alcohol fermentation involves yeast cells converting sugars in must into CO2 and alcohol.
– Malolactic fermentation metabolizes malic acid into lactic acid.
– Laboratory tests like Brix, pH, acidity, and sulfur levels are conducted.
– Preservatives like sulfur dioxide and potassium sorbate are used to prevent spoilage.
– Filtration in winemaking serves for clarification and microbial stabilization.
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Winemaking (also wine making) or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over millennia. There is evidence that suggests that the earliest wine production took place in Georgia and Iran around 6000 to 5000 B.C. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology. A winemaker may also be called a vintner. The growing of grapes is viticulture and there are many varieties of grapes.
Winemaking can be divided into two general categories: still wine production (without carbonation) and sparkling wine production (with carbonation – natural or injected). Red wine, white wine, and rosé are the other main categories. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other plants. (See fruit wine.) Other similar light alcoholic drinks (as opposed to beer or spirits) include mead, made by fermenting honey and water, cider ("apple cider"), made by fermenting the juice of apples, and perry ("pear cider"), made by fermenting the juice of pears, and kumis, made of fermented mare's milk.