How Is Wine Made?

Quick Answer

Wine is made by crushing grapes and letting yeast ferment their natural sugars into alcohol, then ageing and bottling the result.

The Full Story

Grapes are harvested when their balance of sugar and acidity is right, then crushed to release juice. For red wine, the skins stay with the juice during fermentation, giving colour and tannins; for white wine, the juice is usually separated from the skins first. Yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide over days or weeks. The wine is then pressed, clarified and aged in steel tanks or oak barrels for months or years. Finally it is filtered and bottled, and some wines continue to develop in the bottle.

Key Facts

1.Evidence of winemaking in Georgia dates back about 8,000 years.

2.Most wine is made from Vitis vinifera grape varieties.

3.Sparkling wines such as Champagne get bubbles from a second fermentation in the bottle.

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