Making White Wine
The basic steps involved in making white wine are listed
on the left and are linked to detailed explanations. Briefly,
the process begins with cool grapes or concentrated juice. If using
concentrate, follow the instructions provided. If using grapes, start with
cool, ripe, clean fruit. Remove the berries from the stems and crush.
Press the juice out of the crushed berries and treat the juice with SO2
and pectic enzyme. Collect the juice in a glass carboy and keep the juice
cool and allow to settle overnight. Adjust the sugar level if needed and
add yeast to ferment the juice. When fermentation has ceased and the yeast
have settled at the bottom, the residual sugar is checked and the wine is
racked (siphoned) off of the lees. Add 50 ppm SO2 after fermentation and
racking. Clarify the wine with bentonite (clay) and stabilize it through a
cold treatment. Add 15 - 25 ppm SO2. Rack 1 - 2 more times as needed and
then bottle. Serve at 50 - 60 degrees F. Wine may be sweetened with sugar
to taste at serving.
The entire process from fruit to bottle should take
about 4 to 5 months.
