10/15/07 Making Red Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. With the advent of harvest the winemaking year or the 2007 vintage is taking shape. On today's program we'll take a look at the making of red wine. Now although white wine can be made from red grapes only red grapes can make red wine. The color of the wine comes from the skin of the grapes. Along with all of that beautiful red color comes tannin. Tannin is the element that adds the pucker and the astringent quality to the wine. It also gives structure to red wine and acts as a preservative, allowing it to be ageable. Unlike white wine the red juice is fermented with the skins still in the juice. Yeast is added to the mixture and it feeds upon the sugar and converts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide eventually disappears into the atmosphere leaving the alcohol behind. This can go on for a few days or a few weeks depending on the temperature and how much sugar is in the juice. The skins will rise to the top of the juice, to continue to impart color, they will need to be pushed back down or pumped over into the fermenting juice. When this process is completed the wine skins will be removed. The red wine will be allowed to go through malolactic fermentation and then put into wood or stainless steel for aging. After the wines have aged to the style or preference of the winemaker the wine is filtered and stabilized so that it is clear and brilliant. At this point it is finally ready to bottle. The wine will be stored and bottle aged or after a bit of a rest released for sale. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at Vine to Wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.