Vintage – part 2

Vintage – part 2

Directions

The story so far:

Having lovingly coaxed their precious berries through budburst, fruit-set and véraison, to plump maturity, the winemaking team anxiously awaits that serendipitous juncture when luscious fruit ripeness meets optimal harvesting weather. But it’s a narrow window: the instant the starter’s gun goes off, it’s all hands on deck. 

Harvesting by day, on shiny new tractors kitted out with Pivotal Striker Picking Heads - or dexterously wielding secateurs to hand-snip bunches in the cool of night, the picking team quickly relieves the vines of their juicy cargo. Then, swiftly transported to the winery, our perfectly ripened grapes are ready for their transformation.

VINTAGE!! Part 2: In the winery

Those grapes that were machine harvested, have probably already been sorted. Others are loaded onto a sorting table so that any MOG (Material Other than Grapes: sticks, leaves, frightened spiders) can be identified and discarded. From there, it’s into the cunningly named destemmer for... destemming. (For some reds, the winemaking team may choose to allow stems to remain if, for example, they want added tannin and phenolics). After separation from the stems, the berries are lightly crushed to break the skins, paving the way for fermentation. Up to this point, the process has been pretty much the same for reds and whites. But now their roads diverge, and it’s all because of skin.

Whites

The tannins that come from contact with skins and seeds have no place in delicate and aromatic white wines, and so the winemaking process is engineered to avoid them (although ‘skin contact’ white wines are on the rise, and can be downright delicious). 

After crushing, the must (crushed flesh, skin, and seeds) is transferred to a press where it’s... wait for it... pressed, to extract the juice, leaving skins and seeds behind. The juice is transferred to tanks, and the sediment allowed to settle. When the gloopy residue has settled at the bottom of the tank, the pure juice above is racked off and transferred to another tank, for fermentation. 

Meanwhile...

Your red wine grapes are just dying for a bit of skin-on-skin. (it’s how reds achieve their colour, tannin, and body). The must is pumped into a tank, and yeast introduced, triggering fermentation. Yeast essentially consumes grape sugars and expels alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide as a by-product. The CO2 causes the solid material to continually rise to the top of the tank – and that can be a problem: skins sitting on the surface will dry out before full colour and tannin extraction can occur. Winemakers use a gizmo like a long-handled potato masher to force the skins back down into the juice, in a fairly energetic operation known as plunging the cap. A less taxing, but equally effective method is pumping over – where juice from the bottom of the tank is gently pumped over the top of the skins and seeds.

Pure and Simple

When the primary ferment is complete, the pure, free-run juice is removed, and the remaining material is pressed. Press wine is high in tannin and phenolics, but is an important structural component in the final product. Typically, the finished wine will be a blend of free-run and press wine. For whites, the fermentation process is both simpler (no cap to plunge!) and cooler. Heat can play havoc with delicate fruit flavours, so white wines are fermented at around a chill 10oC.

Sparkling

The processes are a little different for fizz. There are at least 6 different methods for producing sparkling wines, ranging from the lowly carbonation method (where you simply take a still wine and carbonate it in a pressurised tank) to the time-honoured méthode traditionnelle (or méthode Champenoise).

The traditional method starts with just barely ripe grapes (usually Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), which are fermented into dry base wines – from which the winemaker creates a blend (or cuvée). Yeast and sugars are introduced into the cuvée, setting off a second ferment, and the wines are bottled and capped with crown seals. The CO2 produced in the ferment, and trapped in the sealed bottles, carbonates the wine naturally. As yeast cells die off, the remaining particles settle, creating lees, which contribute both flavour and structure.

The best – and richest – Sparklings are aged on lees (sur lie) for anything from 9 months to 5 years. After aging, bottles are inverted for a period of time (remuage), which allows the yeast residue to settle in the neck, where it is frozen, and the plug removed (disgorgement).  Expelling the plug under pressure means that a little of the wine is lost, so the final step is dosage: the bottle is given a wee top-up with a wine and sugar concoction that the French delightfully call liqueur d’expédition. It’s then corked, wired in its protective muselet, and labelled. 

From there, it’s - thankfully - just a short journey to WineDown’s waiting refrigerator.  

Next week: VINTAGE!! part 3: Maturation: Barrel or bottle, or not at all?