Closely related to the clarifying wine, is stabilizing it. Many of the same methods used for clarifying wine are also used to stabilize it, with a few additions.
What is an unstable wine? Continue reading “Stabilizing Wine”
Clarifying Wine
At this point your wine has aged a bit and its time to start thinking about bottling. However, before we’re ready for that we need to take care of a few things. First is clarifying the wine.
No one wants to drink a cloudy or chunky-style wine. It looks bad and even if it tastes great people’s first impression will be that your wine is off somehow. Why else would it look like that (they might think)?
What Makes Wine Cloudy? Continue reading “Clarifying Wine”
Aging Wine
After fermentation and racking comes probably the hardest part of making wine aging it. It’s one of those necessary evils of wine making. As a society we have trouble with delayed gratification and this will test your patience for sure.
Why Age Wine Prior to Bottling?
Aging prior to bottling is necessary for two reasons. The most notable reason is shaping the flavor with oak barrels or chips. Most every red wine and a few whites are aged in oak for the flavors and tannins it adds to the flavor profile.
Another critical reason to age wines prior to bottling is to make sure all chemical reactions have completed. If wine is bottled while fermentation, malolactic fermentation, or any other chemical process is underway you’ll end up with a funky sparkling wine. Continue reading “Aging Wine”
Racking off the Lees
Racking is the next step, after the initial more vigorous fermentation.
What is racking?
Simply put racking is siphoning your wine off of the dead yeast, known as lees, into a clean container.
There are two reasons to rack your wine. First it helps clarify your wine but it can also prevent off flavors from the decomposing yeast.
Over time yeast and other sediment will precipitate out of your wine and settle to the bottom. The cloudiness will dissipate with each successive racking until you’ve got a nearly clear wine. Nearly because you do sometimes need to fine the last bit of cloudiness out.
Getting your wine off of the yeast as it decomposes can prevent off flavors. While some wines are aged on the yeast you really need to know what you’re doing to do this successfully. Continue reading “Racking off the Lees”
Fermenting Juice into Wine
Now that we’ve pressed the juice out of our grapes it’s time to turn it into something more fun. Namely, alcohol! To do this we need to employ the help of our new best friend Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (yeast). Continue reading “Fermenting Juice into Wine”