Red Wine

Red wine is a kind of wine which is prepared from dark colored variety of grapes. The real wine color can vary from extreme violet, distinctive young wines, brown for older red wines and brick red for mature wines.

The juice derived from black grapes is greenish-white in color and the red color appears due to anthocyan colors which are present in the skins. The production of red wine process includes removal of flavor and color components from the skin.

How Red Wine is made?

Grape Processing

First of all, pick the black colored grapes and after that physical dealing of the grapes is done. Grapes are harvested through machine or by picking hand and put in a bin and then processed.

• De-stemming and Crushing

One can find a combination of hand picked grapes, individual berries, leaves and stems at winery. The main objective of de-stemming is to divide the grapes from the leaves and stems. Automatic de-stemmers generally involve a revolving cage punctured with holes of the size of the grapes. After the process of de-stemming, the grapes are crushed. These crushes include a pair of rollers and the fissure synchronized enables for hard, light or no crushing according to the preference of the wine maker. The combination of skins, grapes, seeds and juice is called as must. Then it is pushed to a vessel and the vessel should be made up of concrete or stainless steel for fermentation.

• Additions at Reception

The additive sulphur dioxide is added to the grapes. The rate of addition ranges from zero to 70mg/litre. The main aim is to avoid corrosion and to holdup the arrival of fermentation. Macerating enzymes and tannin are also added in making of red wine.

• Cooling of the Must

After that, wine makers choose to cool the must at the temperature of 10 degree Celsius which enables a period of cold soaking and requires about 1-4 days.

Inoculation and Fermentation

During this process, the yeasts present on the grape’s skins begins the alcoholic fermentation in which sugars get turned into alcohol along with heat and carbon dioxide as derivatives.

• Pumping Over

When the must is kept in the fermentation vessel, liquid and solid phases are divided. This can be done by following the certain steps such as:-

• Pushing liquid from the base of the tank and scattering it above the floating cap
• Blowing down the cap which is done using automated mechanical system or manually
• Immersing the cap
• Drain and return

• Temperature Control

The temperature is prohibited using variety of refrigeration systems. Fruitier red wines can be controlled under the temperature 25 – 28 degree Celsius and more tannic wines can be controlled at higher temperatures 28 – 35 degree Celsius. The temperature for fermentation cannot go beyond 40 degree Celsius.

Pressing

The period of maceration between the liquid phase and the skins is based on the technique of production of red wine.

• Types of Press

There are various types of wine press and they are:-

• Tank presses
• Continuous presses

Malolactic Fermentation

This process is generally accomplished for red wines in which malid acid present in the juice of grapes gets turned into lactic acid under the control of bacteria.

Racking

After the process of malolactic fermentation is finished, the red wine is generally decanted off from the other solids and dead yeast cells and there is an addition of sulphur dioxide to prevent corrosion and bacterial spoilage.

Ageing

Some of the red wine is aged for few days. For example, the varieties of red wine such as Bordeaux and Beaujolais Nouveau are aged for about 18 months. Ageing can take place in concrete tanks, stainless steel urns and large or small oak barrels.

Fining and Stabilization

Red wines undertake fining for illuminating the wine and to rectify the errors like surplus tannin. Most of the red wines are cold stabilized to avoid the precipitation of tartrate crystals in the pot.

Filtration and Bottling

Filtration is done to make the red wine clear and to remove the left over bacteria and yeast cells. Finally, red wine is packed in the glass bottles and cork stoppers are put on the bottles.