🍷 Winemaking

Winemaking is the turning of grapes into wine. Under EU rules, only the product of the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes or grape must may be called wine, and its actual alcoholic strength must be at least 8.5 % in the northern zones A and B and 9 % elsewhere.

At the winery the bunches first pass a sorting table, then destemming and crushing; the result is pomace — pulp, skins and seeds together with the juice. For white wine the grapes are usually pressed at once and clean must ferments. For red wine the juice ferments with the skins: during maceration colour and tannins pass into the wine, and pressing comes after fermentation.

During fermentation yeast turns the sugar in the must into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In a cool year the EU allows natural alcoholic strength to be raised by at most 3 % vol in zone A, 2 % in zone B and 1.5 % in zones C, with a further 0.5 % in exceptionally poor years. Acidity may be raised by no more than 4 g/l or lowered by 1 g/l, expressed as tartaric acid; the same product generally may not be both acidified and enriched.

The wine is then clarified, stabilised, aged if needed and racked off its lees, and finally bottled. According to the OIV, the world made 225.8 million hectolitres of wine in 2024 — 4.8 % less than in 2023 and the lowest since 1961. The largest producer is Italy, with 44.1 million hl.

Why it matters to you. Many words on a label describe winemaking steps: "aged on lees", "traditional method", "unfiltered". Knowing the order of the steps makes it easier to see why white wine is usually lighter and red more astringent: the difference lies in how long the juice spent with the skins.