THE QUICK SIP ON WINEMAKING: THURSTQUEEN ANSWERS ALL YOUR QUESTIONS YOU WERE TOO AFRAID TO ASK…
Have you always wanted to know how wine was made but felt self conscious asking that question?
I don’t know what it is about the Wine Industry, but for some reason it’s not very friendly to people on the outside looking in. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people get nervous when they want to ask about how wine is made, like they’re asking a dumb question or something. Here’s the thing - it’s not.
I was a wine distributor in my twenties and I can tell you firsthand, I feel your pain. I asked more than my fair share of questions only to be shut down or mocked by people who knew more than me. I don’t get that attitude if you want to know the truth, I think curiosity and asking questions about something you’re genuinely interested in is a great thing. And I’m here to help support you on your wine journey. So let’s get into the details of how wine is made and how it gets to your glass.
HOW WINE IS MADE:
It’s a tragic tale, really. And the protagonist of our story? The hero? Yeast.
Yes, yeast is the protagonist in our story because yeast is probably the unsung hero in the winemaking saga. It’s not the grapes. It’s not the bottles. It’s yeast.
Yeast is everywhere. And yeast is a living thing. It’s on you, on me, on fruit, on surfaces. I’ve heard stories about guys brewing beers using the yeast in their beards. Gross, I know but hey, they were just using the yeast they had lying around I guess.
Needless to say, yeast exists on grapes.
Winemakers have choices when it comes to yeast in their wines. They can use the ambient yeasts floating in the air and on the surfaces of their grapes — or natural yeasts - or they can do this thing called, “inoculation,” where they purchase designer yeasts (no, they’re not Louis Vuitton) and add them to their winemaking process. In this story let’s just say the winemakers are using the natural yeasts during their winemaking journey.
HARVEST
So it’s that special time of year called Harvest Time, and a bunch of people go into the vineyards and pick the grapes from their vines.
It’s hard, backbreaking work and the wineries are usually abuzz with activity at this time.
After the grapes are picked, they are usually put onto a sorting table, de-stemmed, and any material other than grapes or MOG is separated from the grapes. What is MOG, you ask? MOG can be a bunch of things, from spiders, to stems, to leaves, to even snakes. Yikes! Then what?
CRUSHING
This process is pretty self explanatory. The grapes are crushed. Sometimes it’s like that famous, “I Love Lucy,” episode and sometimes it’s not. Crushing is a pretty fun process where the grapes are turned into juice.
FERMENTATION
This is where that magical tale of our hero, Yeast, begins. In the fermentation process, the, “must,” or a combination of the skins, seeds, and juice of the grapes - yeast included - gets turned into that magical elixir that I have devoted an entire blog and many hours of my life to.
WINE
During the Fermentation process, yeast converts the sugars - or if you wanna be all smart you can say glucose molecules - into our very fun friend ethanol. (That’s the stuff that gets us drunk.)
Anyway our dear friend yeast does this by eating all those glucose molecules and, well, I don’t mean to be crass about it, pooping out alcohol.
That’s right. Ethanol is, essentially yeast poop. During the fermentation process, the yeast eat all of the sugars in the wine, pooping out alcohol this entire time until there’s no more sugar to eat.
Eventually, the yeast starves and dies, surrounded by its own shit. Can you imagine????? Oh, the humanity! How sad and poetic, huh?
AGING
In this process the wine is, “aged,” which means it chills out for an extended period of time in Oak Barrels, Concrete Eggs, heck — sometimes it’s even Clay Amphorae!
There’s a lot of decision-making that goes into aging. Winemakers have to choose the type of oak they want to use, whether it’s New or, “Neutral,” which means it was used before. They have to decide the amount of time spent in the barrel — whether it’s months or years, because that also affects the wine.
In addition to all of this, winemakers also get to decide the amount of toast on their barrel. Toast is simply charring a barrel with fire. These all affect the flavor profile of the wine. A wine aged in New French Oak tastes very different from Slavonian Oak, or Hungarian Oak, or Neutral Oak. And a wine aged in oak is wildly different from a wine aged in concrete.
This is a log of information to cover, for now we’re just talking about the basics.
BOTTLING
So our wine has aged in barrel, egg, amphora, or whatever vessel for a specific amount of time, and we’re ready to get to bottling.
Sometimes at certain wineries, a bottling truck drives up to the winery and the wine gets bottled from there. It’s a pretty cool process to watch. After the wines are bottled, they are typically released into the wild, but this is not always the case.
Some producers like to hang onto their wines and let them chill out in bottle for a little while before sharing them with the general public.
THE THREE TIER SYSTEM
This, my dear friends, is how I was able to pay my rent for 5 years. It was set up in the United States after the repeal of Prohibition.
It was created to regulate wineries, breweries and distilleries so there would be no monopolies within alcohol producers. It has a lot of flaws, I’m not going to lie.
Within this system, you have — you guessed it — three tiers.
Importers/Producers: This would be your winemakers, your distillers, your brewers - basically the people who just did all the hard work I listed above. It also includes your Importers. The people who pick up the wines from places all over the world and bring them in, usually in containers, to the United States.
Distributors: This is what I did, back when I was pounding the pavement. If you’ve ever been to a bar or a restaurant - usually around 3PM - and seen a person sitting at the bar with a laptop and a rolly bag filled with booze chatting up the bartender, tasting them on wines, perhaps wearing a suit (sigh) that’s probably a distributor.
We really benefit from this system. But people don’t really like us very much.
Retailers: This would be your Vons, your Ralphs, your Wally’s Wine and Spirits, your sites like Wine.com — you get the picture.
But… why does it exist?
The reason this system exists is to levy and collect taxes on alcohol producers. A lot of people argue that this system is broken.
And like any, “system,” it has its pluses and minuses. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this system with the changes in the world due to the rise of COVID-19.
Closing thoughts…
The one thing I did know from being a Broker for so long and then going into distribution for a big company was when you get in the big leagues, you’re motivated more by money. At least I was. There were brands that, “kept the lights on,” that we had to push at the expense of smaller producers who were trying so earnestly to make their brands be seen. It saddened me, because a lot of these smaller producers created great wines at great values that were implementing environmentally responsible practices. Whereas some of the bigger brands… Well… let’s just say big business is big business. Those are the cold harsh realities of life.
I really do feel like this system leaves the little guy out. Which is why I encourage ordering directly from some wineries if they just don’t have enough of a distribution hold in the market. You’ll be amazed at the kind of money you’ll save if you do this.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Freixenet Cava Brut $8.97 @ Total Wine
This with some OJ? Sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday.
I didn’t really talk about any wine region in particular this week or a type of wine. So I wanted to do something a bit different this week. This week’s pick of the week is a little, “Wine Secret,” that I have and wanted to share with you. If you’re a Mimosa or a Spritz fan, you’ll be super grateful for this tip. Consider this a Mimosa Secret Wepaon. I know for a fact this wine is widely available and pretty much at every Trader Joe’s, Ralphs or Vons.
I’m not gonna act like this wine is some amazing Cava. But what it is good at is playing with mixers. This neutral, spritz, softly bubbled - dirt cheap - bubbly is great in Mimosas, Spritzes, Royals, and Bellinis.
I won’t go too much into tasting notes because — there’s not really much to say? The reason I prefer this to the slightly pricier Proseccos is it’s fresh, and it’s honestly just clean. Some of those Proseccos like the Tiffany blue Schma Schmarka brand are not as clean. The bubbles are harsher and they don’t play as well with mixers.
Anyway, the next time you plan on having a breakfast drink — or indulging in an Aperol Spritz — I highly suggest purchasing this inexpensive little wine. Hope you have a great rest of your week and happy drinking!