Step 1. Harvesting

Determining when to harvest requires the outdated tasting as well as simple scientific approach. The grapes sweetness and acidity must be completely balanced, but harvesting also depends heavily on the weather conditions.

Hand-picked grapes must be sorted by quality, removing under-ripe or rotten grapes along with leaves and petioles.

Step 2. Crushing and Pressing

The grapes are ready for de-stemming and crushing after being sorted. These grapes go to a machine that removes the stems. They may be also crushed, either just a little or completely. To make white wine, the process of crush and press must be quick to prevent unwanted tannins and color from leaching into the wine. Red wines are fermented on their skins.

Step 3. Fermentation

The process of juice fermentation starts naturally during 6 to 12 hours with the help of wild yeasts in the air. The fermentation process will stop when all the sugar will be transformed into alcohol and then dry wine will be produced. But to produce sweet wine, the process should be stopped before the transformation of the sugar. The whole fermentation usually process takes 10 days to 1 month or sometimes more.

Step 4. Clarification

The next step of the process is clarification - removal of proteins, dead yeast cells, and tannins. Then we transfer wine into an oak barrel and clarify it with the help of the filtration system which catches the larger particles in the wine. After this, the wine is ready for aging or bottling.

Step 5. Aging and Bottling

Aging and bottling is the last stage of the winemaking process. There are two options: to give the wine additional aging or to bottle the wine right away. The wine aging in oak barrels will create more vanilla flavored, rounder, and smoother wine. It also rises wine’s exposure to oxygen while it ages, which helps the wine achieve its maximum fruitiness and decreases tannin.