Unit 20 of 26 · Online wine course

How Wine Is Made: Winemaking Course

From grape to glass. 7 lessons · about 55 min

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The 7 lessons

  1. From grape to glass: the winery's year, step by step

    Follow grapes through the winery, from crushing and fermenting to the quiet finishing steps that make wine clear, stable and ready to bottle.

    You will be able to:

    • describe the winery's stages from harvest to bottle
    • explain what yeast and its enzymes do to sugar
    • explain racking, fining, filtering and cold stabilisation
    about 8 min

  2. How red, white and rosé differ

    Colour and grip come from time on the skins: a dial from blanc de noirs and vin gris through rosé and clairet to red, and orange wine beside it.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why skin time sets colour and grip
    • place vin gris, rosé and clairet on the colour dial
    • describe the three ways winemakers make rosé
    about 7 min

  3. How sparkling wine gets its bubbles

    Bubbles are carbon dioxide trapped under pressure. Six methods trap it, from the bottle you buy to a tank or a gas cylinder, and each leaves its mark in the glass.

    You will be able to:

    • explain where the bubbles in sparkling wine come from
    • compare the six ways to make a wine sparkle
    • read the bubble-making method on a wine label
    about 8 min

  4. How sweet wines are made: three moments to keep sugar

    Sweet wine keeps some of the grape's sugar: concentrated in the berry before fermentation, saved by stopping the yeast, or added back at the end.

    You will be able to:

    • sort any sweet wine by when its sugar was kept
    • explain why fortified wines are both strong and sweet
    • compare icewine with cryoextraction, and vine-dried with mat-dried
    about 8 min

  5. What oak barrels do: wood, air and time

    Why a barrel adds flavour, softens a wine and lets some of it escape, how size, age and forest change the effect, and why many fresh wines skip oak.

    You will be able to:

    • explain the three things an oak barrel does
    • tell how barrel size, age and grain change oak
    • spot when oak suits a wine and when it overwhelms
    about 8 min

  6. How white wine is made, step by step

    From a gentle press to a cool, slow fermentation: the steps that keep a white wine pale, fresh and fragrant, from the grape to the bottle.

    You will be able to:

    • explain why white grapes are pressed before fermenting
    • describe the steps of white winemaking, press to bottle
    • explain why whites ferment cool and away from air
    about 8 min

  7. How red wine is made, step by step

    Red wine ferments warm with its skins, is worked, pressed and blended: follow every cellar choice from stems to the final blend.

    You will be able to:

    • walk a friend through red winemaking, stems to blend
    • name three ways to work the cap
    • explain free-run wine, press wine and the assemblage
    about 8 min

Related reading on Winelingo: How Wine Is Made, From Vine to Bottle