How Wine is Made

Have you ever wondered as you sip a relaxing glass of wine just how wine is made? It’s not just about squashing grapes you know! Wine making is a true skill that, in many countries, is passed down through generations. So, let’s take a quick look at just how wine is made.

Wine making starts with a grape – well, with more than one of course! The color and variety of the grape that is used in wine making and the way that it is fermented basically dictates the color and type of wine that ends up in the bottle you buy in a store. It’s not actually true that white wine has to be made from a white grape – you can make white wine from a red grape if you like. The key thing here is that the color of the grape skin will color the wine so, if you want white wine from a red grape, then you would remove the grape skin early on in the process. If you want red wine, then you leave the skin in longer.

So, the first step in wine making is to gather a whole load of ripe grapes and to squish them to get the juice out. In olden days this was done by treading on the grapes – which, although not always hygienic, was singularly effective! Nowadays, however, this will probably be done by machine most of the time!

The juice you are left with here basically interacts with the grape skins. The sugars of the juice react with the yeast in the skins – this then goes through a fermentation process. This fermentation process in wine making is what will get you tipsy! This is as simple a process as it appears – basically if you squash grapes and leave them then they will turn into a form of wine. So, once the fermentation process is done the liquid is separated from the other stuff and it is stored in casks or barrels until it is judged to be ready to drink. 

But, of course, making a truly great bottle of wine isn’t that simple and the wine maker may need to add sugar, yeast and acids to get the whole mix right depending on which kinds of grapes are used and where in the world the process takes place. For the best tasting and nicest bottle of wine, however, try and go as natural as you can. Organic wine making processes will certainly do this for you as you’ll know how wine is made (and what’s in it!) with this method!

Making wine at home!

If you like to drink a glass or two of wine at home, then there’s no reason why you can’t think about making your own wine at home. There’s no greater feeling than pouring a glass of homemade wine for yourself, having had all the fun of making it and of waiting for it to be ready to drink! And, don’t worry – making wine at home doesn’t need any particular skills or experience – there are lots of wine kits out there to help you turn grapes into nectar! And, you can save yourself a whole lot of cash into the bargain!

So, let’s take a look at how wine kits can help you turn some basic ingredients into some great bottles of homemade wine! The great advantage to using wine kits is that they usually come with most of the ingredients in them so you have even less work to do! All you need to do is to follow the instructions!

You will need some equipment before you start making wine at home. So, you will need to buy stuff like containers (often referred to in the industry as demi-johns), corks, bottles, sterilizer solutions, funnels and siphons. Then you get to choose the kind of wine kits that will suit you!

Basically, once you have a container in which you can make homemade wine (and you’ve sterilized it) then you simply need to follow the instructions on your wine kits. You don’t even need grapes as the wine kits themselves contain everything you need. So, in most cases you’ll simply add water (and possibly sugar) to the contents of your wine kits to get started. Then, you’ll probably have to add yeast (which again should come with your kit), bung in the cork according to its instructions and then leave the wine to ferment.

In order to make sure that the fermentation process works you’ll need to keep your wine nice and warm so it’ll need to be stored in a warm place or you can buy heating pads if you prefer. You’ll find full instructions on wine kits in terms of how to measure the sweetness of the wine so that you can make sure that it will suit your tastes. So, for example, with a hydrometer or similar measure you can assess whether your homemade wine is at the dry, medium or sweet stage. Wine kits will also tell you what to do with your wine – if anything – once it is fermented before you leave it in a cooler place so that the sediment clears and get ready to decant it into your bottles!