How Do You Make The Best Red Wine?
When making red wine, the winemaker has at his disposal a far greater range of techniques, and must make more decisions than when making white wine. The process is essentially the same, gathering the grapes, fermentation, maturation and bottling. But there is one main difference – extracting the colour from the skins. At various stages the winemaker can intervene to change the style of the wine he is making. Just follow some straight forward rules, and you are on your way to making a good red wine. The processes are as follows: 1. Picking Grapes To make the best red wine we need good quality, fully ripened red wine grapes, which are clean and free from disease. Before harvesting the grapes in the autumn/fall, the sugar levels tend to rise from day to day depending on the weather, while at the same time the acidity levels fall off. Getting the balance between the two is important – too much acid will mean that the wine will be harsh and take longer to develop, too little and the wine wi
