Status Updates From Fear of Wine: An Introducto...

Inexpensive wines the skins may be discarded after the fermentation (easily done, since the float up to the top of the vat). In fine wines, the winemaker will want to keep it there for a week or so longer: its called "maceration" (the skins to be punched down into the wine, or the wine pumped up over the skins to encourage this process). Oak aging is much more common for red wines than it is over white wine.

When making a red wine, the way to get a lot of color into the wine.. it means, when the grapes is crushed, the stems are removed, but the skins are left in. The skins contain most of the color pigment they also have what it calls tannin. Its like the substance in strong black tea that leaves our mouth dry (it's also found in the seeds of grapes, and in the oak, in which wine is sometimes age).

Malolactic fermentation is a process, where all the wines gets fermented at least once, sometimes a wine goes to a second fermentation either naturally or helped by a winemaker. During malolactic fermentation, malic acid, naturally present on the grapes, and turns into lactic acid, which taste less harsh than malic acid.

You may have seen wines that the label say, "aged on its "lees". On its lees translate to "sur lie" in French, ..... you may have seen that too. What it mean is that the winemaker left the dead yeast cells in the wine as it aged, instead of letting them settle to the bottom of the vat or barrel and draining off the clear juice, which is called "racking".

If rain is forecast, the harvest becomes a race against time, since a lot of water can actually dilute the taste (and the chemical composition) Of the grapes. If grapes becomes watery, so will the wine.

Vintners or wine grower will pay close attention to the weather won't often reach to the extremes, that summer will last long, so that the grapes can become very ripe, that it won't suddenly raining right before the harvest. Why? because "weather" can make wines grown in one year taste better than others. So, when people talk about good vintages (or year) these are the major factors they are considering.