The elixir of comfort

The wine making process is quite complicated, but once you know the basics you can tweak your wine making skills to your own taste. Obviously, the first is getting your grapes. If you buy grapes ensure there is no mold, no insects on the grapes. After obtaining the grapes the next step is to crush the grapes. Crushing the grapes can take time, so ensure you allow the time to include this in your overall wine making process.

The juice is allowed to run off in a special container, or it is pressed out. The mass of grape mush is called must, which must be treated to further separate solids and facilitate settling prior to fermentation.

The next step is one of the most important to the flavor and color of the wine. Fermentation requires a very controlled process involving temperature, a proper mix of good yeasts and bad yeasts. Fermentation can take from 10 to 30 days. Clarification, or removal of the suspended materials like skins and yeast cells to eliminate cloudiness, follows the wine making fermentation process and involves six procedures: fining, filtration, centrifugation, refrigeration, ion exchange and heating.

Aging during barrel wine making or bottle wine making improves the quality of wines by reducing acidity and enhancing clarity, flavor and aroma compounds. This is where the tweaking is involved in the wine making process. The vast majority of table wines on the market are aged and consumed within two years. This is a brief method for the wine making process.