So what are the secrets of the cellar once the harvest has been sorted and put into the vats? It depends on the type of wine being produced. At our partner winemakers, they produce mainly white and red wines.

White or red wine?

As we saw in the article describing the harvest, many of the harvested bunches of grapes for making red wine are sorted and de-stemmed to separate the grapes from the stalks. Sometimes the winemakers will then decide to lightly crush the berries. In the olden days this was done by foot or by hand, but these techniques are now much rarer because the machines that de-stem the grapes can also be used for this purpose. The aim of this step is to break the grape skins and to help diffuse the tannins and colour during the maceration period to follow. For the white wines, the grape bunches are generally put in whole, directly into the press.

The next steps differ depending on whether red or white wine is being made. For red wine, we put the must, containing all of the matter that makes up a grape (the skin, flesh, juice and pips), into a vat or cask to start fermenting. The contact between the juice and other components of the berry during the maceration period will help to develop the colour and taste of the wine. To make white wine, the grapes are pressed as soon as they have been harvested so as to extract the juice from the elements which could colour or make the wine tannic.

Pressing is a very important but delicate step for making white wine, as the winemaker needs to find the right balance between pressing the grapes sufficiently hard to extract as much juice as possible, and not over pressing them which can give grassy and acidic tastes. Once the juice has run off, the must is left alone so that the tiny solid particles that have been carried into the vat settle at the bottom. This is known as clarification or débourbage.

The alcoholic fermentation

Whether it's the juice to make red wine that is macerating in the vat, or the juice to make white wine that has been pressed, the moment will come when the sugar that it contains will start to turn into alcohol. This is known as the first or alcoholic fermentation. It usually starts all by itself thanks to the yeast found naturally in the must. It can also be set in motion by adding selected yeast or some must from another vat that has already started to ferment.

The temperature during the fermentation period is crucial and differs between white and red wine. In both cases, the yeast stops working below 10°C and the cells die above 35°C. The winemakers can control the temperature of the vats by pumping hot or cold water into an immersion heater or around the jacket of the vat. For red wines, fermentation generally takes place between 25 and 30°C to keep the maximum aromatic properties whilst extracting the tannins and colour. For white wines, the temperatures can be kept lower, between 15 and 20°C because no extraction is needed, allowing more aromas to be kept. The alcoholic fermentation usually lasts anywhere between a couple of days and a month.

There is another peculiarity for the red wines. As the fermentation takes place, carbon dioxide is released, which pushes the pips, skin and any other solid matter to the top of the vat, causing a cap to form. The colour and tannins necessary for the wine are contained within this solid matter, but the juice stays below the cap. It?s therefore necessary to keep the juice in contact with it by punching the cap down into the juice (pigeage), or by drawing off the juice from the bottom of the vat, pumping it to the top and letting it filter down through the cap (remontage). Depending on the style of wine that the winemaker is hoping to achieve, this will be done for each vat anywhere between a couple of times a day to once every few days.

The malo-lactic fermentation

Once the juice has been transformed into wine, more patience and work is needed whilst it ages. Generally, once the first fermentation has finished, the winemaker will rack the wines to separate them from the larger lee particles and put the wine into a clean vat or into barrels.

For red wines, when the wine from the fermentation tank is drawn off, we get what is called free-run wine (vin de goutte). The remaining marc of solid² matter is then pressed to extract the rest of the wine, which is known as press wine. These two wines are then either blended together during the ageing period or are aged separately, leaving the winemaker the choice to blend them or not at a later stage.

Shortly after alcoholic fermentation, a second fermentation starts, the malo-lactic fermentation, which transforms the malic acid into lactic acid. This decreases the acidity and softens the wines, so is also an important step in making good quality wine.

Then comes the magic of the winemaker in ageing the wine. Each has their own methods and preferences concerning the container used (concrete or stainless steel vat, wooden cask, old or new barrels etc), the length of time needed for ageing, the blend, and so on. As our partner winemakers often remind us, it's as much about personal taste as anything else, and so they task themselves with the onerous job of regularly tasting all of their wines throughout the ageing process!

To learn more about the vinfication, ageing and blending of wine, why not join us for a Gourmet Odyssey Vinification Experience Day!

Other articles relating to the 2015 vintage

The 2015 harvest gets under way for our partner wineries

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We had a lovely sunny day to start the harvest at Domaine la Cabotte last Saturday. Following an introduction to the winery and an update on the 2014 campaign so far, we made our way through the vineyard to harvest the Syrah plot of vines that will be used in the Garance wine, which is the chosen wine for the Gourmet Odyssey clients.

 

 

Once Eric and his wife Marie-Pierre, the owners of the winery, had explained to us how to pick the grapes, we spread out among the vine rows in pairs. This year, the harvest was made easier due to the excellent condition of the grapes, with practically nothing to sort or leave behind.

The buckets filled up quickly, and by the end of the morning we had filled two trailers. We followed our harvest to the chai to assist with the de-stemming, before the grapes were put into the vat. The berries are separated from the stalks and then, once in the vat, will start to slowly ferment. It was then time to refresh ourselves with a tasting of some of the estate's wines.

After lunch, which was prepared by Marie-Pierre, we headed back out into the vineyard. We learnt how to taste the grapes to decide whether they are ready for picking or if they need more time to mature. It's all a matter of the colour of the skin, the taste in the mouth, and what the pips look like. It all seems very easy to Eric, but for the rest of us, the nuances are often very subtle!

Whilst tasting the grapes, we took sample bunches from a number of different vine plots of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah. We then mixed these together in the cellar to estimate the sugar levels and hence the potential volume of alcohol of the wine, if it were blended with these three grape varietals. It's quite a simple technique, but one that has to be repeated often and for each plot during the harvest time, to ensure the quality of the juice and of the wine that it will produce.

We finished the day by tasting the grape juice produced from the Viognier vine plot, which had started its fermentation two days beforehand. It was still very sweet, but had already started to fizz a little. After a few words on how the estate is managed organically and biodynamically, we had spent a very full and informative day.

Many thanks to all the participants for their questions and enthusiasm, and of course for the snip of their secateurs!

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We were welcomed by Eric & Marie-Pierre, the winemakers at Domaine la Cabotte, who started the day by showing us around the chai. Here we saw the vats full of wine, and Eric explained to us the first stages of fermentation. We quickly got down to the practical side of things with a tasting direct from the vats of some of the 2013 white and red wines that are still in the process of ageing. We compared them to the 2012 vintage to give an idea of how they will develop over time. We also learnt how to spit out the wine, so as not to saturate our taste buds with all the wine to be tasted!

Back in the warmth of the tasting room, we put our senses of smell to the test with a workshop to identify the aromas present in the wines at Domaine la Cabotte. It's not always as easy as it would seem...

We then tasted wines from the three different grape varietials, grenache, syrah, and mourvèdre that will be used to make the Garance 2013, which is the wine selected for the Gourmet Odyssey clients. Following Eric's instructions we each then had a go at making several blends to see how the taste of the blended wine varies according to the grape varietials and percentages of each used.

After all this wine tasting, we were ready to sit down to eat a delicious home-made meal prepared by Marie-Pierre with other local specialities such as the winery's own olive oil and some truffles that their dog had found the day before! During the meal, we tasted some of the estate's finished wines, the Sauvageonne white wine, followed by the Garance and Gabriel red wines. Eric also explained to us the fundamentals and his passion for biodynamic wine-making.

In the afternoon we headed out into the vineyard to visit our adopted vines. Eric took us on a little tour of the estate to show us the different vines and terroir.

We ended the day back in the chai, where Eric showed us the different preparations and tools used in biodynamic wine-making, and how the wine is bottled and labelled once it is finally ready to be sent out to the clients.

We can't wait to see how the 2013 will age and mature over the coming months. Thanks to Eric and Marie-Pierre for having welcomed us so warmly, and to all of the participants for their good humour.

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