Cellar talk: Post harvest through spring [or fall] bottling – A multi part series

Harvest in Wine Country is complete, except for those grapes left on the vines for the Ice Wine harvest. 

What happens from now until the finished wines are released for everyone to enjoy is a multi-step process.  Understanding a bit about what the winemakers and their ‘cellar rats’ will be doing over the coming months helps everyone to appreciate that first sip of a new vintage just a little more.

Beginning in late August and continuing through mid November, the grapes come into the crush pad in lugs  for hand-picked varieties or large bins on the trailers which followed the mechanical harvesters. As the grapes are dumped into the crusher/destemmer, one of the cellar crew manually pulls out any leaves, stems and other potential debris.

The mechanical de-stemmer separates stems from the berries and gently breaks the skins for red wines.  For whites, the skins are generally removed.  The whites then go directly into the large press.  Some wineries use bladder presses where a large ‘balloon’ forces the crushed fruit against the walls of the cylinder.  Very small wineries use a basket style press with a pressure plate forcing the juice out the side walls of the mechanism.  

The juice then drips into a catch pan. 

For reds, the slurry coming off the de stemmer will include the skins [from which color is extracted] and goes into fermentation tanks. When a vintner is looking to create some special premium wine, he or she will sometimes take the first, unpressed juice from the catch pan, something called ‘free run’ juice.  Some winemakers take whole bunches of reds and ferment them in oxygen free tanks in a process called Carbonic Maceration – a longer story for another column.] 

Then all juices are tested for acidity, tannins [reds] and stabilizing agents are added if needed.  In refrigerated tanks, the whites will be cold settled, and a specially chosen wine yeast is added. [There are dozens of various yeast strains.  Each winemaker chooses the one that matches his/her goal for the finished wines.]

The tanks are topped with a ‘fermentation lock’ as the yeast begins to ‘eat’ the sugars, start the conversion to alcohol and emits carbon dioxide through the top of the lock. Through the fermentation process, temperature control is essential. 

Whites are chilled to keep the process slow and steady to preserve fruitiness and aromas.  Most [except for some Chardonnays and a couple of others which would benefit from a bit of oak finish] spend their entire life in stainless. Vintners like to keep the range from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Reds on the other hand, like a hotter fermentation process from 75 to 90 degrees.  [They, along with a few whites] usually begin their lives in oak barrels [which creates a huge mess in the bottom of the barrel over the coming weeks] In both cases, strict attention is paid to the gauges. A too hot white will turn the juice ‘flabby’;  a too hot red fermentation will make the finished wine taste ‘baked.’ 

So ends the first few weeks after harvest. The next six to twelve months will be just as busy for the crews who produce award winning Ohio wines for all of us to enjoy.

For additional information:  dwinchell@OhioWines.org