How white wine is made (wine enthusiast)
To make white wine is quite simple in concept. A winemaker gets some freshly harvested grapes, presses the juice out of them, ferments that juice using yeast, lets it mature, and then bottles the wine.
In reality, the process takes twists and turns at each stage, even though grape juice and yeast are the only necessary ingredients.
Freshness is vital to making quality white wine. As soon as a crew plucks the grapes from the vines, the rush is on.
Typically, harvest takes place early in the morning when the grapes are cool from the night air. In some cases, mobile lighting rigs illuminate the vines so workers can do their jobs even before sunrise.
The grapes are delivered quickly to the winery in bins, trailers, or on truck beds. They’re pressed in a matter of hours to get the juice and pulp out of the skins. Grapes harvested by hand are in clusters or bunches. Those harvested by machines have already been removed from their bunches.