Everything begins with the famous vendimia, it is this special season where Mendoza revolutionizes. You can start in February and end in April. During these months it begins with the grape harvest, the maceration of wine and its fermentation.
When the grape enters the winery there are two controls that must be done yes or yes: despite the grape and perform the measurement of azucarine concentration. The weight is to see the amount of liters: logical performances per kilo of grape. In low price wines, the yield is 75% (100kg, 75 liters of wine), in more qualified wines is reduced to 60 to 65%.
After the harvest, the next step is the pressed. In white wines the pressed precedes fermentation, in reds it is later. The more tightening (prense) the grape, the more unwanted components are released: cations and polyphenols.
Then follow the maceration of the same, which consists of letting in contact the liquid with the hollejo (the skin of the grape). Managing a physical process. There are substances to yield according to solubility of solid part to juice. The aromatic precursors are higher.
If maceration is preferred in cold, what is sought is to extract aromatic components.
The different types of maceration:
- Typical: that of the traditional red, that coexists a time with fermentation
- Cold Prefermentative
- Carbonic maceration: rip the process off with the whole racimus.
Then comes the famous alcoholic fermentation, which is that biochemical process that achieves the conversion of must into wine. So far we had a moistening grape must. When fermenting and then macerar (physical phenomenon), the wine is called new wine. This is not a wine ready to be bottled and launched on the market.
From the microbiological point there has to be a second fermentation (biological process), called mallactic fermentation, which is an instance to “pull” the wine, since the new wine is a rather “rustic” wine or deprolijo. The maceration also transfers tannins.
That is, wine needs 3 main phenomena: alcoholic fermentation, maceration, mallactic fermentation.
At this moment the wine is turvo and you can not sow. It should stabilize and clean up. One should look for stable cleaning and brightness in time, this is achieved with a filtration. Only with filtration can certain substances that are in wine be retained. Just filter some particle size.
And at this point it is when it is decided whether the wine will pass to barrels for a few months, or whether it is decided to bottled as young wine. It all depends on the winemaker and the wine you seek to make.
All this is the way to make a red wine. The only difference that has white wine is that fermentation occurs without the presence of solids.
Since, in solids, the skin, right there we have the color of the wine. And as in white wines we do not usually seek color, we take skin and ready. We boil only grape juice.
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