How to Make Homemade Wine

How to Make Homeade Wine How to Make Homemade Wine Wine making or vinification is the production of wine starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it can also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material.
The science of wine making is known as oenology.
The quality of grapes determines the quality of the wine more than any other factor. Grape quality is affected by various reasons like changes in the weather during the growing season, soil minerals and acidity, time of harvest, and pruning method.
THE PROCESS:
After the harvest, the grapes are taken into a winery and prepared for primary ferment. Red wine is made from the pulp of red and black grapes that undergo fermentation together with the grape skins. White wine is made by fermenting which is made by pressing crushed grapes to extract juice and the skins are removed. Occasionally white wine is made from red grapes.
To start primary fermentation, yeast is added to the pulp for red wine or juice or white wine. During the fermentation, the yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The fermentation takes about one or two weeks. After the primary fermentation of the red grapes the free run wine is pumped off into tanks and skins are pressed to extract the remaining juice and wine
The next process in the making of red wine is secondary fermentation. This is bacterial fermentation which converts malic acid to lactic acid. This process decreases the acid in the wine and softens the taste of wine.
HARVESTING AND DESTEMMING:
Harvest is the picking of the grapes and in many ways the first step in wine production. Grapes are either harvested mechanically or by hand. The decision to harvest grapes is taken by the winemaker and informed by the level of sugar, acid and pH of the grapes. Other considerations include phonological ripeness, berry flavour, seed colour and taste.
Mechanical harvesters are large tractors that straddle large grapevine trellises, and using firm plastic rods, strike the fruiting zone of the grapevine to dislodge the grapes from the rachis.
Manual harvesting is the hand picking of grape clusters from the grapevines. It has the advantage of using knowledgeable labor to not only pick the ripe clusters but also to leave behind the clusters those are not ripe or contain bunch rot or other defects.
CRUSHING AND PRIMARY FERMENTATION:
Crushing is the process of gently squeezing the berries and breaking the skins to start to liberate the contents of the berries. In traditional and small scale wine making, the harvested grapes are sometimes crushed by trampling them barefoot.
PRESERVATIVES:
The most common preservative used is sulphur dioxide. Another useful preservative is potassium sorbet.
FILTRATION:
Filtration is used for clarification and microbial stabilization.
BOTTLING:
A final dose of sulphite is added to help preserve the wine and prevent unwanted fermentation in the bottle. Then the wine bottles are sealed with a cork.