Wine making has been around for thousands of years. In its basic form, wine making is a natural process that requires very little human intervention. Mother Nature provides everything that is needed to make wine; it is up to humans to embellish, improve, or totally obliterate what nature has provided, to which anyone with extensive wine tasting experience can attest.

Grape Wine

Grape Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by the fermentation of the juice of the grapes. A number of other fruits, such as plum, elderberry, and blackcurrant, may also be fermented, only grapes are naturally chemically balanced to ferment completely without requiring extra sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Non-grape wines are called country wine.

Winemaking, or vinification, is the process of wine production, from the selection of grapes to the bottling of the finished wine.

After harvesting, the grapes are crushed and allowed to ferment. Red wine is made from the must (pulp) of red or black grapes that undergo fermentation together with the grape skins, while white wine is usually made by fermenting juice pressed from white grapes. White wine can also be made from must extracted from red grapes but with minimal contact with the grapes' skins. Rose wines are made from red grapes where the juice is allowed to stay in contact with the dark skins long enough to pick up a pinkish colour, but little of the tannins contained in the skins.

During primary fermentation, which often takes between one and two weeks, yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into ethanol (alcohol). After the primary fermentation, the liquid is transferred to vessels for the secondary fermentation. Here, the remaining sugars are slowly converted into alcohol and the wine becomes clear. The time from harvest to drinking can vary from a few months for Beaujolais nouveau wines to over ten years for certain Bordeaux wines. However, most wine on the market tastes best between one and three years after the harvest.

Variations on the above procedure exist. Sweet wines are made by ensuring that some residual sugar remains after fermentation is completed. This can be done by adding a substance to kill the remaining yeast

To extract the grape juice you could go to the expense of a grape press, but most people will make do with the base of an old fashioned glass milk bottle.

The next step of winemaking is breaking down the wine must, and preparing it for fermentation Sulphites are added to protect the must from hostile micro organisms.

The beneficial micro organism, yeast, which conducts the process of fermentation, is added next, along with a few specialized nutrients and a lot of sugar for the yeast to eat. Sometimes a bit of tannic acid is added to give the wine that special "bite." Dilution or the addition of other acids is necessary to modulate the pH of the must and ensure it is optimal for fermentation and subsequent consumption. Tap water is added to provide a base for the must.

After all the ingredients are in place, the primary fermentation begins. The must is maintained at 21°C - 24°C in an open container and left to ferment for several days to just over a week. These conditions are ideal for the yeast to grow and eat. The yeast consumes the sucrose, or sugar, breaking it down along with the larger carbohydrate molecules in the grapes, which eventually produce alcohol and other sugars.

 Fermentation is a process for the turning loose of micro organisms into the must. Special strains of wine yeast are used, because the wrong yeast or a different micro organism will not turn the must into wine, but produce an undrinkable microbial soup.

After this initial fermentation, the secondary fermentation begins. The liquid is siphoned off and transferred to another container, where it is sealed off from the air. This is another phase of fermentation, called the anaerobic phase, which is necessary for alcohol to be produced. This phase takes several weeks, with the wine repeatedly being transferred from vessel to vessel in an effort to isolate the liquid wine from the solid matter. The process takes place at a lower temperature than the primary fermentation, and therefore takes significantly longer.

After several weeks of fermentation, and a month or two of transferring between vessels and waiting for all the solid matter to sink to the bottom and be eliminated, the wine is ready to be bottled. Wine must be slightly aged to be drinkable - white wine must sit for 6 months , and red wine for a full year. If wine is aged for too long, it turns into vinegar.

Country Wine

Country wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of ingredients other than grapes (the base of "ordinary" wine) and having a variety of flavours. Country wines are always called something wines (e.g., plum wine), since the word wine alone is often legally defined as a beverage made only from grapes. Country wine can be made from any fruit or, with addition of sugar or honey, from many plant sources. 

Few foods other than grapes have the balanced quantities of sugar, acid, tannin and water to produce a stable, drinkable wine, so most country wines are adjusted in one or more respects. Enough natural sugar is needed to support a satisfactory fermentation and provide bacteriological stability through sufficient ethanol content, so the winemaker adds table sugar (sucrose). If a food is too tart, sugar and water may both be added to dilute the acidity, or additional tannin or acid may be required to round out the taste. These are added as chemicals.