Winemaking
Winemaking is the production of wine through fermentation of grapes or other fruit, followed, when desired, by aging, blending, and bottling.
Alcoholic fermentation: The conversion of sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide by yeast or other microorganisms. Yeast fermentation converts grape sugars into alcohol and drives wine’s primary transformation.
Grape varieties: Distinct cultivated forms of grapevine selected for traits such as flavor, ripening, and disease resistance. Variety strongly influences a wine’s aroma, structure, and suitability to a climate.
Red wine: Wine made from dark-skinned grapes, typically fermented with their skins to extract color and tannins. Extended skin contact is a defining choice in many red-wine methods.
Neolithic wine: Archaeological evidence of grape-based fermented beverages from Neolithic communities, including a vessel from Hajji Firuz Tepe. Early residues show that grape fermentation predates written winemaking records.
Natural wine: Wine made with minimal intervention in the vineyard and cellar, though definitions and standards vary. Its low-intervention ideals contrast with tightly controlled cellar practices.
Maceration: The extraction of compounds from grape skins, seeds, or other plant material by contact with liquid. Skin contact determines much of a red wine’s color, tannin, and flavor.
Must: Freshly crushed grape juice, usually containing skins, seeds, and sometimes stems, before or during fermentation. Must is the raw material whose composition guides fermentation and extraction.
White wine: Wine usually made by fermenting grape juice without prolonged contact with skins. Pressing and limiting skin contact produce a contrasting approach to red-wine extraction.
Ancient Greek wine: Wine produced and consumed in ancient Greek societies, often traded and associated with ritual and social life. Greek practices spread viticulture and wine customs across the Mediterranean.
Conventional winemaking: Wine production using standard cellar interventions, which may include cultured yeasts and permitted additives. It offers a useful counterpoint to minimal-intervention approaches.