How to Make Wine - Making Red Wine
Should you make a red wine - or should you make a white wine? What's the difference? Read on to find out...
There are basically two kinds of grape juice: red grape juice, and white grape juice.
You have seen the two different types of grapes at the grocery store.
Most people think that the difference is all about the color of the grape.
Well, to a certain extent, that's true.
But there's something else.
You can make a white wine out of red grape juice! The difference is the skins of the grapes.
If you let the red grape juice soak in and ferment with the grape skins, it allows the chemicals and tannins in the grape skin to leech out and become a part of the red grape juice.
The skins give the juice a rich dark color that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Fermenting a red juice without the skins results in a very light colored juice, almost a white wine.
This is where we get rose from and also white zinfandel.
Both of these wines are made from red grapes and red grape juice, but the juice is not allowed prolonged contact with the grape skins.
Without the tannins and the phytochmicals in the skin of the grape, you get a very light, almost white wine.
For a "full bodied" red wine, you need to crush the grapes and then leave the juice and the grape skins together for a long period of time - usually several days.
Or, alternatively, you could start the fermentation of the juice and leave the grape skins in the must (the juice) while the primary fermentation takes place.
Once the primary fermentation is complete, you strain the skins out of the wine while racking over to the secondary fermenter or carboy.
Then let the wine continue to ferment under an airlock for at least a few months.
This process results in a red wine with a deep rich color and a full bodied flavor.
If you have a chance to tour a vineyard that produces red wine, you will see large vats of juice, along with the crushed skins, sitting in the sun and soaking away.
You can also duplicate this process at home and make your own red wine.
There are basically two kinds of grape juice: red grape juice, and white grape juice.
You have seen the two different types of grapes at the grocery store.
Most people think that the difference is all about the color of the grape.
Well, to a certain extent, that's true.
But there's something else.
You can make a white wine out of red grape juice! The difference is the skins of the grapes.
If you let the red grape juice soak in and ferment with the grape skins, it allows the chemicals and tannins in the grape skin to leech out and become a part of the red grape juice.
The skins give the juice a rich dark color that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Fermenting a red juice without the skins results in a very light colored juice, almost a white wine.
This is where we get rose from and also white zinfandel.
Both of these wines are made from red grapes and red grape juice, but the juice is not allowed prolonged contact with the grape skins.
Without the tannins and the phytochmicals in the skin of the grape, you get a very light, almost white wine.
For a "full bodied" red wine, you need to crush the grapes and then leave the juice and the grape skins together for a long period of time - usually several days.
Or, alternatively, you could start the fermentation of the juice and leave the grape skins in the must (the juice) while the primary fermentation takes place.
Once the primary fermentation is complete, you strain the skins out of the wine while racking over to the secondary fermenter or carboy.
Then let the wine continue to ferment under an airlock for at least a few months.
This process results in a red wine with a deep rich color and a full bodied flavor.
If you have a chance to tour a vineyard that produces red wine, you will see large vats of juice, along with the crushed skins, sitting in the sun and soaking away.
You can also duplicate this process at home and make your own red wine.