| Red Wine is made almost exclusively from black | | | | sufficient to squeeze the fermented juice out of |
| grapes, the colour coming from the skins.Firstly, | | | | grapes, and then this is allowed tio run into casks |
| the picked bunches of grapes are put through a | | | | as free-run wine.The rest of the bulk goes into a |
| crusher, which carefully breaks the skins. | | | | press and is crushed to produce a highly tannic |
| Depending on the type of wine being made, and | | | | wine. This may be added to the free-run wine to |
| the amount of tannin required, the stalks may or | | | | add structure to the blend. |
| may not be discarded at this stage.Then the | | | | The wine from both vat and press are mixed |
| grapes are moved from the crusher into a | | | | and transferred to tanks or barrels where a |
| fermentation vats with skins. Fermentation can | | | | second fermentation will occur.'Fine wine' almost |
| take upto 4 weeks or longer to complete. The | | | | always spends at least a year in barrels, large or |
| higher the temperature, the more colour and | | | | small. The wine is fined with egg-white, which |
| tannin is extracted.To produce soft red wines, | | | | drags suspended yeast and other solids in the |
| whole grapes are fermented in sealed vats. | | | | wine downwards before being racked, filtered, |
| Carbon dioxide trapped in the vat forces the | | | | and bottled.Finally, time spent in the bottle is |
| grapes to ferment faster under pressure and this | | | | important, but not every wine needs it. A |
| process can take as little a 5 days.A wine's colour | | | | complex (and expensive) bottle of red wine will |
| and tannin content is dictated partly by the length | | | | almost certainly benefit from bottle ageing, as will |
| of time the fermenting must remains in contact | | | | white wine with both body and high enough |
| with the skins and pips. Unless these are | | | | acidity. Simple wines, intended for prompt drinking, |
| restrained by a mesh, they will be carried to the | | | | will lose colour and freshness if left for too |
| surface and form a cap. If there is no mesh to | | | | long.Jason Hulott is Editor of UK Wine Online. UK |
| hold the skins and pips down, then the vat is | | | | Wine Online is an independent source for Red |
| flushed so the cap is broken up and the colour | | | | Wine. With guides on the major wine producing |
| leeched out.The weight of the mass of grapes is | | | | regions and content about each type of red wine. |