The Making of Wine
Wine is (1) naturally fermented; or (2) the fermentation is controlled by the addition of brandy or spirits; or (3) it is sparkling. Dry or sweet, red or white, for better or worse, it falls under one of these three headings. If we are to learn to judge wines, it is quite important for us to understand the three processes of production that determine the various categories.
Wine fermented naturally is generally called table wine or natural wine. It contains less than 14 per cent alcohol by volume and will turn to vinegar if exposed to air for long. When we say “naturally fermented,” we do not mean the grape is merely pressed and left to fend for itself. It well might be were it not for many enemy bacteria, which, fortunately, man can control.
It has taken hundreds of years of our burgeoning chemical intelligence to perfect the palatable wines we have today, and it has required an enormous degree and amount of technical skill and patience to produce sufficient wine to satisfy the appetite of an ever-increasing population. So, in our time, we need not bewail a shortage as did once the Prophet Isaiah:
“There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.”
Through advances in chemistry and technology, the naturally fermented wine industry has developed to a point where its supply is substantial enough to make it an important commodity in our national and international economy. But its “natural” development has not suffered from technological advances. We have produced no synthetic to take its place. We protect naturally fermented wine from its microbe enemies, we provide it with perfect temperature and weather conditions, we house it in just the vats and casks it needs, we bottle it hygienically and store it painstakingly, but in no way do we alter the natural processes of fermentation and ripening.
The harvest is naturally an important part of the winemaking process. The cutting of the bunches of grapes must be done with great care in order not to harm the vines, and the grapes must be moved quickly to the press lest they ferment prematurely. But the most important factors of the harvest are weather and time.
The grapes are harvested at exactly the moment when they contain the greatest amount of sugar and when their skins are most densely covered with saccharomyces, the tiny yeast organisms which form the pale fuzz on the berries. This yeast is the fermenting agent or catalyst which converts the sugar into ethyl alcohol. It does not appear until the grape is ripe, and where it comes from is a mystery; but without it fermentation cannot take place. A heavy rain will wash it away; a frost will kill it. Because the sugar content of the fruit is increased by each day of warm sunlight and the vitality of the yeast organisms is developed in the fresh air, it requires consummate skill for the winegrower to be able to time his harvest to the last possible moment before rain or frost.’
Each year growers in the variable weather areas of the temperate zone gamble their entire crop against the whim of the weather. One more day of sunshine-will it bring perfection or disaster? Year after year, the production of an entire season is lost in the violent five minutes of a shower or a hailstorm. This is the story you hear each year throughout Bordeaux, in Burgundy, in the Champagne country and along the Rhine, Mosel, and Saar rivers in Germany, where the finest grapes grow, where fine wine means so much.
Once the grapes have been safely picked, they are taken to the press. A bunch of grapes includes the stalk, the skin, the pulp, and the seeds or pips. A certain amount of stalk is pressed with the berries, for the stalk contains a small percentage of tannin and other acids which contribute considerably to the life of the wine. The stalks have a bitter astringent taste, so that in pressing the fruit the grower must take care to see that enough of the stalks are crushed to increase the lasting qualities of the wine but not enough to make it bitter. Since the tannin present in the stalks is also in the grapeskins, many vintners remove the stalks entirely and draw the necessary tannin from the skins.
On every step in winegrowing and winemaking there are two schools of thought. Quite naturally the grower or vintner who follows one method thinks his wine is considerably superior to his competitors’. But whatever the manufacturing technique, the quality of the grape is what determines the intrinsic worth of the wine. All the techniques in the world will not make first-class wine from third-class grapes. It is possible-if not probable-to produce a good wine from fine grapes even when the methods of production are slipshod. The finest grapes require the most care in cultivation, are most susceptible to plant diseases, bear the smallest quantities of fruit, and yield the least wine.
Rain, sun, and soil are the food of the grape. The health of the wine is determined by the ability of the beneficial microbes in it to fight off enemy bacteria. The character of the yeast ferments gives corresponding character to the wine. Thus, the yeasts which convert the juice of the Riesling grape into Rhine wine are not the same yeasts which make the Pinot Noir grape into Burgundy.