Sometimes, when enjoying a glass of great wine, I like to think about all of the stops it made on its journey to me. From the original vine that was planted, and how long ago that may have been, to all of the people who had a hand in its making. All so I could sit here and enjoy it! The art of winemaking lies in these details and should not go unappreciated, so let’s dive into what it actually takes to make a wine.
The Vineyard
Great wine is made in the vineyard. Many great winemakers believe this to be true, and the statement has a lot of merit to it. The amount of work that goes into growing grapes for wine is incredible, and ultimately has a lot to do with the overall taste of the wine. To paint this picture, let’s pretend you and I are going to set out to make the best wine in the world. Before we can even start, we need to decide where we want to plant, what soil we have to work with and what grapes grow best in that soil. Once we’ve determined this and planted our grapes, we’ll have to wait about three years until we’ll be able to produce our first vintage.
Bud Break
Our first buds start to emerge! This happens in early spring, and once it does it is our job to protect these little guys from frost, sometimes by bringing in big fans to blow off cold air. Pruning is also very important during this stage, to control how many leaves are about to sprout and make sure once the buds start to grow that they’ll have enough natural protection from the sun.
Verasion
After our buds have flowered and dropped fruit (fingers crossed enough fruit dropped for a decent crop yield!), verasion occurs. This is the magical moment when our small green grapes begin to fill with juice and change color, red wines from green to red, and white wines from green to a softer, more golden green. This period is going to require a lot of our attention, our goal is to make the vine struggle to produce high quality clusters.
Harvest
We did it! Our grapes are finally ready to be harvested! Because we don’t want our ripe grapes to ferment prematurely, we have to get up at 2 a.m. to begin picking so we can be done before the sun comes up. We also have to decide if we want to use a tractor or pick them by hand, depending on the size of our vineyard and crop. The harvest and the winter pruning that follows are the most time consuming and expensive part of wine growing, as well as the most important.
The Winery
Now that we’ve got loads of grapes that we’ve worked so hard to cultivate, it’s time to make some wine! We’ve got many more decisions to make here, depending on what kind of finished product we’re after. Let’s say we’re making a red wine. First, we press the grapes. Next, we need to decide how long we let the skins stay in contact with the pressed juice during fermentation, as this gives the wine its color and tannin, which provides structure and bitterness. Then, we remove the juice. Since we’re making a red wine, we’ll probably want to age it, so we need to determine what aging vessel we want to use: oak, stainless steel or concrete. This decision greatly affects the flavor of the wine, so it’s a big one. Once we’ve got our vessel, we get to choose how long to age it. For the sake of this example, let’s say we decide to let it sit for two years.
Whew! Five years of hard work and we’ve got our first wine! All that’s left to do is bottle, marking the end of our journey as winemakers and viticulturists. While this may be bittersweet for those who took such care of the process, the wine now takes care of itself, constantly evolving even in the bottle, until it’s poured and enjoyed. QCBN
By Valerye Jeffreys