White wine making (or vinification) refers to all the operations necessary for the production of wine. Their sequence varies according to the nature of the wine. Red wines are made from red grapes, while white wines can be made from both white and red grapes. Thus, the wine making of Château Cantenac Brown or Brio will be different than the one of the Alto!
White wine making process
1°: Destemming
Once the grapes are harvested, they are brought to the cellar. First of all, the crop is destemmed. The stalk, the frame of the cluster, is removed and separated from the grape berries. Being made of fibres, tannins and plant matter, it is dissociated from the berries to avoid yielding to the wine herbaceous aromas. However this step is not systematic and some vineyards choose to keep the stalks to let the tannins express themselves.
2°: Crushing
Then, the grapes are crushed. The objective of the crushing is to break the grapes to release the must, without pressing the seeds. The must is composed of juice, pulp, skins, seeds and a proportion of stalks defined by the winemaker.
3°: Pellicular maceration (optionnal)
After pressing, the berries can be placed in vats for a few hours of maceration. This technique allows to extract a maximum of aromas from the skin’s berries. The pellicular maceration is only carried out with white grapes. Indeed, a maceration of red grapes would lead to a coloring of the wine.
4°: Running of and pressing
Once maceration is complete, there are two methods to recover the juice and continue its vinification.
- Draining: The draining consists in recovering the juice from the bottom of the tank. The wines that use this method are called “free-run wines”.
- Pressing: This second method consists of pressing the marc to recover the juice. This process will yield wines loaded with tannins called “press wines”.
5°: Settling
Settling is the process by which particulates settle to the bottom of a liquid and form a sediment. Wines can be settled by two different ways:
- Stabilization: At first the particles naturally fall back to the bottom of the tank. Then, the juice is removed.
- Centrifugation: This consists of passing the juice through a centrifuge. This quick and effective method is accused by some people to impoverish the future wine.
6°: Alcoholic fermentation
Once pressed, the grapes are placed inside vats. These can be made of stainless steel or wood, the choice will depends on the desired result. A wooden vat will bring tertiary aromas to the wine, in addition to those provided by the fruit and the soil. Conversely, a stainless steel vats will yield stable wines focusing on the primary and secondary aromas already contained in the must. During the alcoholic fermentation, the sugars of the grape are transformed into alcohol by the action of yeasts. It lasts about ten days.
7°: Ageing
During the ageing, the wine is placed in vats or barrels. The ageing in vats lasts from one to two months for the primeur wines and several months or years for the wines to be kept. During this period new aromas appear and the wine approaches its definitive character.
8°: Bottling
Once the previous steps completed, the precious liquid is placed in bottles before being closed by a cork. After its bottling, the wine can still age for some time in its new container (maturation in bottle), or perhaps being put for sale.