Make white wine

While the basics of making wine remain the same, regardless of the type of wine you are doing, white wine has much more delicate flavors and aromas so it requires some special care. Normally white wine is made from white grapes, although it is possible with red grape skins and seeds if they are removed.

Grape harvest

Time to collect grapes for white wine production depends on the variety that was planted and the style that you want the finished wine. Timing is important, as they need to be collected at the time of the day, to ensure the right balance between acids and sugars.  To avoid bruising, the grapes are carefully picked.  First are placed in a cleaner that removes extraneous substances.

Some types of grapes are more acidic than others and need more time on the plant to produce more sugar.  Other varieties that are intended to be produced with low alcohol content is not necessary the same amount of sugar during fermentation.  How about diseases, white grapes have a higher tolerance against infection without compromising quality. A dry botrytis infection can, in fact, improve the wine with many varieties.

Sorting

The grapes are harvested as whole cluster in the vineyard.  Because of this, many other issues are also undesirable foreigners.  When the grapes reach the wine cellar, they are sorted for quality.  Grapes for white wine be transformed into the process of Destemming. Pressing whole cluster of white accentuate flavour varieties more delicate, fruity aroma. However, pruning grapes white can add greater extraction of tannin and more body.

Squeezing

Soon after their arrival at the winery, the grapes are crushed. At this point, all the skins and stalks are removed.  The resulting juice (must run free) is sent to settle in containers. The rest of the grapes are pressed as soon as possible. As the air is the enemy of contact with white wine, it must be minimized because if the oxidation occurs, the wine becomes colored.

Fermentation

After extracting the juice, the liquid held in a stainless steel tank.  Here, the yeast transforms sugar into alcohol.  Winemakers can choose whether to use the natural yeast found in grapes or cultivated yeast.  The fermentation process generally takes from 3 to 4 weeks.

The ultimate goal of fermentation is to maintain the quality and finesse of aroma.  This can be achieved only with an accurate control of temperature field during the process, usually between 60 degrees f to 68 degrees f.  This range will allow optimum flavour development, including the slow transformation of the sugar and alcohol production. The process of fermentation can stop and be made difficult if lower temperatures are allowed to persist.  On the other hand, highest temperature fermentation will overly active; with the resulting loss of aroma fine and you'll get a coarse and ordinary wine.

Shelving

The sediments accumulated at the bottom of the containers of fermentation is called lees.  To separate the clean wine from the Lees, uses a process called racking decanting.  This is done several times until the wine comes out clean, clear and fair for bottling.  White wines are usually could shortly after the completion of alcoholic fermentation. It is repeated after the wine has been cold stabilised.

Aging

Most white wines are aged for 1-3 years in stainless steel tanks, although white Chardonnay and several others are often aged in oak barrels to give extra flavour. After this, the wines are filtered out one last time and put in the bottle. Most white wines are ready to drink after bottling and actually begin to deteriorate if aged in bottle for too long.

Gino Marino is a grape growing and wine-making expert. For more information about red and white vinification http://www.grapesmakewine.com, visit