Why wine is bottled. Barrel and bottle aging of wine. Pasteurization of alcoholic beverages

Any wine, even quite transparent to the eye, and even more cloudy, before being bottled, should be cleared of the dregs that may be present in it, although imperceptible to the eye. This is primarily achieved by straining or filtering.

Filtration home-made wine in a small amount is most easily produced by passing the wine through a white blotting (filter) paper folded with a pound and placed in a glass funnel. But such straining is very baggy and time consuming. Moreover, at the same time, it is strongly exhaled, because a lot of alcohol evaporates from it, which makes it weaker, and therefore less durable for storage.

Therefore, it is best to filter the wine through a flannel or tissue paper, but always with asbestos wool *.

* Previously, asbestos was used to filter wine. Asbestos has now been proven to be a carcinogen. Kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) and other substances are used to clarify wine. Special filters are also used. - Approx. ed.

Filtering is done like this. A conical bag is sewn from flannel or canvas and hung from the goats or to the four legs of an overturned stool, and a bucket or bowl is placed under it. Then they take another bucket, pour half of the wine into it, add a handful of asbestos and stir everything well with a stick. After stirring, the wine, along with asbestos, is immediately poured into a bag. The still cloudy wine that has passed through the bag is poured back into the bag and this is done until a dense layer of asbestos forms inside the bag and the wine begins to be filtered completely clean, to complete transparency. To the next portions of wine, they add quite a bit (a pinch) of asbestos. But all the time you need to watch that the bag is always full and not emptied, because otherwise, with a new infusion of wine into it, the asbestos layer will be washed off and deteriorated and it will have to be formed again. This filtration achieves complete transparency of the wine.

But sometimes the wine, despite the fact that it is fully ripe, still remains cloudy. This is often observed in wines made from many fruits and berries (pears, plums, cloudberries) and depends on the fact that the dead yeast has broken down into tiny particles, so small that they cannot settle. In such cases, it is necessary to pre-purify the wine, which is called clarification, or pasting guilt.

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Containers are filled with homemade wine to the neck, closed with a water seal and placed in a cool (10-12 degrees) place for a secondary, quiet fermentation of homemade wine.

After the first pouring, homemade wine is still not completely transparent. Some of the yeast and a small amount of sugar remained in it, which did not decompose during the storm. In addition, from contact with air during pouring, protein substances dissolved in it begin to precipitate from homemade wine, which must be removed, otherwise the wine may become cloudy and will not be strong.

Therefore, a period of quiet fermentation, also called the post-fermentation of homemade wine, is necessary. It lasts 3-4 months and ends usually by the spring of the next year. Outwardly, quiet fermentation is manifested only in the fact that at first - 1-2 months - bubbles of carbon dioxide are occasionally released - one every 5-10 minutes or more. Gradually, the release of gas decreases and finally stops.

At the same time, a thin brown layer of powdery sediment settles at the bottom, the wine becomes more and more transparent, its rough taste is replaced by a pleasant one, and a bouquet begins to develop in it. During this fermentation, the temperature should be monitored and the wine should be poured frequently. The temperature in the room should be constant, without sharp fluctuations and kept at 10-12 degrees.

At home, one has to be not too demanding in this regard and be content with what is available on the farm. For fermentation, you can put the wine, for example, in an unheated, in a dry underground, in a dry cellar or cellar, if they are not too cold. In a very cold underground, the wine will keep well, but its maturation will last longer. In the room where the wine is fermented, the air must be clean, without the smell of pickles and pickles, because the wine can absorb their smell.

Pouring and airing homemade wine.

Pouring of wine during fermentation is carried out to clean the wine from sediment settling on the bottom of the dish, which could give the wine bitterness, and to ventilate the wine. The latter is very important, because it accelerates the precipitation of substances dissolved in wine, which can subsequently cloud it.

The more often the wine is poured and aired, the more it is refined and becomes transparent. If the wine is prepared in wooden utensils (barrels), then it is always in it in light contact with the air passing through the pores of the tree, so it has to be ventilated less often - after about 2 months. If glassware is used, pouring and airing should be done after 1 month and even more often.

The more transfusions are made, the better the wine will ripen, the sediment will fall out of it faster. In this case, transfusions are made in a way, and the wine should be poured in a thin, long, strongly splashing stream for better ventilation. The wine drained during pouring is poured into a cleanly washed dish, and if possible, it is poured so that the space between the cork and the wine does not exceed 1-1.5 cm.

Filled bottles are immediately corked with corks, then the surface and corks are wiped dry and filled with melted sealing wax, paraffin or wax. Wine can also be poured into glass jars, rolling them with boiled lids. Each bottle of homemade wine, especially for long-term storage, should be labeled with the variety, production time and bottling time. Subsequently, it will be easier to find the desired variety.

Storage of bottled house wine.

Bottled wine should be stored in a cool place at a temperature not exceeding 10 degrees. In the basement, cellar or underground. Wine bottles should be stored horizontally so that the corks do not dry out. If wine is intended for long-term storage, then bottles of wine are buried in the ground in a dry cellar or underground.

To do this, a hole with a depth of 75-100 cm. Bottles are laid horizontally there (no more than 4 rows), they are layered with straw and the gaps in the rows are covered with fine sand. The earth is poured on top. Such storage ensures a constant temperature, which has a positive effect on the quality of homemade wine.

Based on the materials of the book “Production of wine, moonshine, liqueurs and tinctures. Cooking technology, equipment, formulation, storage and use.
The team of authors.

After the complete end of the secondary fermentation, which, I repeat, you will determine by the liquid swaying back in the blocker or the retracted rubber glove, strain the wine with a siphon hose into a clean glass or plastic bottle (this process is called "decantation"), where it will be further aged. Wait a week or so after the end of fermentation for a coarse sediment to fall out: this way you will kill two birds with one stone - at the same time you will remove the wine from the sediment and pour it for further storage and aging. When pouring wine with a siphon hose, place the end of the hose into the neck of the receiving bottle so that it is turned slightly to the side so that the wine flows down the wall and does not foam under the stream. As the wine foams, air collects in the foam bubbles, and while some air is even helpful during the primary fermentation period, it will now only spoil the wine and oxidize it. Try to minimize the ingress of air into the wine during pouring. This is especially important for white wines!

After pouring, instead of plugging the bottle with a strong stopper, I usually install an air blocker. If the wine is undergoing natural lactic acid fermentation (NML), or gas formation and gas release occur for any other reason, the gas will escape through the air blocker completely unhindered. Do not forget to pour fresh pyrosulfite solution into the blockers. Then I send the cylinders to the cellar and forget about them for a couple of months, until the time comes for the next transfusion before long storage or bottling.
In principle, it is possible to bottle wine after two or three months, but I do not recommend doing this unless there are good reasons: the wine is too light, cannot be stored, it tastes ready (totally suits you) or you urgently need it for other reasons. reasons. 😉 At this stage, white wine will be only six months old. It may taste quite decent, but over time it will get even better. Light red wine or young wine that is drunk young, like Beaujolais, can be bottled even now, but even such a wine will only benefit from aging for at least six months or a year after.

Now the wine will probably be a little cloudy - not very cloudy, but still not quite transparent. By the way, nothing causes more suspicion in homemade wine than suspension or haze. The turbidity is most likely caused by spent yeast particles, and if the wine is bottled now, the gradual decomposition of dead cells in the wine will inevitably add extraneous flavors and smells to it. Usually all cloudiness and suspension will settle on their own, except in cases of persistent colloidal haze, or they can be removed by doing the same steps that usually precede bottling wine - clarification and / or filtration, which I will discuss later.

Here transfusion schedule which I advise you to stick to:

First: within a month after the end of secondary fermentation.
This usually happens in November.
Second: two or three months after the first. The standard time for this is from the end of December through all of January.
Third: in three months. The standard period is mid-March - April.

How long should wine be aged?

How long should wine be aged before bottling? Ultimately, this will be up to you, but there are general guidelines to help you make a sound decision:

Velvety, dense red wines: I would say that they should be aged for at least a year, even two, before being bottled. Drinking them while they're young and unseasoned is like eating bun dough before they're baked. For those who haven’t eaten muffins, or as one of my good friends says, “I didn’t eat anything sweeter than a carrot”, 🙂 and the dough may even seem too attractive, but a more experienced person knows perfectly well that the dough cannot be compared with a well-baked muffin .

During storage, the wine will "calm down". Aromas will become more subtle and refined. Tart and bitter aftertastes will disappear: tannins will ripen and transform. Foreign odors and flavors of young, unaged wine will be smoothed out during aging. The turbidity characteristic of young wines will dissipate completely, and you can do without the clarification procedure. Such a moment: when aged in large containers and in large quantities, the wine becomes softer and more refined than if it was aged in individual bottles. Wine, for various reasons, ages faster in small containers than in a 20-liter bottle. After the third pouring (decantation), such wine can be left in the cellar for years.

Light red wines: one year is enough, but in general, you can limit yourself to six months. These wines are best fresh and should be drunk between one and two years of aging.

Rich, aromatic white wines: First of all, I'm talking, of course, about Chardonnay, Bianca and others, for which the grapes scored 22 ... 23 Brie and above. The minimum aging period is from six months to a year after the third pouring.

Light white wines with fruity aromas: three to six months of aging after the third decantation is sufficient.

Storage and holding conditions

The main requirement is that the room where the wine is stored should be cool. The ideal temperature is 13 ... 14 0 C, suitable from 10 to 16 ° C. In a warm room at around 25°C the wine will age twice as fast as at 13°C if it is stable enough not to go bad at all. The wine storage area should be dark. Exposed to the light, especially to the sun, the wine loses its quality very quickly. This should remind you that when you leave the cellar or basement, you need to put out the light. After all, wine bottles are made of dark glass to keep the wine out of the light. Try to create the same conditions for wine in your cellar. And finally, find a place to store your wine where there are no vibrations that shake the wine (I hope your cellar is not under a tram line? :)), and where there are no frequent temperature fluctuations. I will not exaggerate and convince you that in the room where the wine stands, you cannot even raise your voice, but a quiet place that is not affected by vanity and noise is still preferable. Wine is a very delicate material. Quite a lot has been said about the “disease of moving”, characteristic of wine. Shaking in a train, car or plane is unlikely to benefit guilt. If you have to transport wine from place to place, you need to leave it to stand in the cellar for a month or at least a couple of weeks before opening the bottle. It often happens that the wine that you brought with you when visiting distant friends fails to surprise them, it is not at all the same as it was when you poured it in your cellar. This is due to the disease of moving.
The ideal place for storage is a closet, or cellar, protected from sudden changes in temperature. At the very least, the place should be dark and cool.

Cryostabilization, or cold stabilization

Winemaking in areas where winter temperatures are low has its advantages, especially when it comes to cryostabilization - the process of short-term aging of wine at a low temperature. New, freshly filled cylinders descend into the basement. This happens between the end of October and December, depending on how long the secondary fermentation took. In a standard basement, the temperature at this time is only ten to fifteen degrees Celsius, but in January it can drop to five or zero degrees or lower, and stay at this level until the end of February. This cold period has a very beneficial effect on wine. Solid particles dispersed in the wine settle, which makes the wine more transparent in these two to three months, in addition, the wine stabilizes under the influence of cold. Cryostabilization helps to remove bitartrate - creamy or cream of tartar - from the wine and the crystalline components settle to the bottom, forming a hard crust on the sediment layer. This significantly clarifies the wine and facilitates the third pouring of the wine, which should be done in March-April, or three to four months after the second pouring.
The sediment that is present in the wine before the first or second decantation is loose, easily rises from the bottom and enters the siphon tube. At the third pouring, after cryostabilization, the sediment is already quite tightly compacted and does not hang around the whole bottle. True, all the same, it is not recommended to shake the bottle. 🙂
If you don’t have a basement where, depending on the weather outside, the temperature can naturally drop to zero degrees and stay at that level for two months, I would suggest that you splurge on a used refrigerator in which a cylinder will fit perfectly, if you remove the shelves from it. Two to three weeks in a refrigerator with a temperature of about zero degrees Celsius will be enough for the cream of tartar to fall out. If you have made a large batch of wine that is too big for such a refrigerator, and if there is no corner in your house where it is cold enough, you can ask the owners of an industrial refrigerator to let you keep your bottles there for a while. If you don’t have such acquaintances or you don’t want to get involved with this, it’s better for you to quit the cryostabilization idea altogether. Potassium bitartrate in dissolved form does not harm wine - it does not need to be exterminated by hook or by crook.

And, undoubtedly, the wine becomes softer and less acidic - excess acid falls out along with the tartar (potassium bitartrate is its salt). If after that the acidity of the wine is increased, you can use, for example, potassium bicarbonate (kalinat). To reduce the total acidity by 1 g / l, it is necessary to add 67 g / 100 l of Kalinat.

You can also take bottles of wine outside in winter, but I would not recommend it: you need to exclude strong temperature fluctuations. The wine should spend a couple of weeks in the cold, and what will happen to the weather at this time - only God knows. Unless in an unheated room such as a barn or veranda, the temperature in which you can somehow control. I do not recommend cooling the wine below -4 0 C. Ice crystals may fall out in it, and after they melt, the wine will taste diluted with water. And if it happens that it cools down to this temperature or lower, in no case do not open the cork of the bottle (bottle) in which it is located until it warms up again to 0 0 C! If this is done, the wine will instantly turn into ice porridge.

There are many of my colleagues who experiment with freezing wine, but I don't do it and therefore can't recommend it to you. If you want, try at your own risk. Between the first and second transfers, I keep the wine in a poorly heated winery for a couple of winter months, where I maintain a temperature of +5 ... 6 0 C. As a rule, this is enough to precipitate the tartar and significantly clarify the wine.

If wine that has not undergone cryostabilization is then bottled and then placed in the cold, almost frost, the crystals will settle directly in the bottle. This is not a defect in the wine and does not affect the taste at all. But cryostabilization has its advantages in any case: it helps to get rid of crystal particles in wine, which, in general, is not bad for aesthetic purposes. And, I repeat, cryostabilization reduces acidity and softens the taste of wine.

Well, before serving, pour yours into bottles. It is both convenient and aesthetically pleasing. You can come up with and make your own label, or a gift one for a friend's birthday, you can pick up fancy bottles, in general, experiment! 🙂 The surroundings of wine consumption are no less important than the quality of the wine itself.

Well, that's all that is minimally enough to get a decent homemade wine. Later I will talk about clarification, filtering, and on oak (using oak chips). But I don’t even know if this will be considered home winemaking, or will it be necessary to smoothly move to the author’s winemaking section, or garage winemaking? I have repeatedly heard reviews that even the operations that I describe here are for a “simple home winemaker” and so are higher mathematics. What do you think? 🙂

It is believed that the older the wine, the better it is. In fact, long-term exposure does not always improve the taste, and for some species, for example, the French Beaujolais, it is completely fatal. Wine can be compared to a living organism: it matures, becomes mature, then begins to age and, ultimately, dies. The length of the life cycle depends on many factors.

In Antiquity, wine was considered the best immediately after fermentation. This is due to its rapid souring. In those days, there were no containers that reliably protected the drink from contact with air; as a result, nothing inhibited the development of acetic bacteria. Before a new batch, merchants sold their stocks for next to nothing. Only some wines were stored for several years in tightly closed clay vessels (amphoras) or barrels filled to the top. But this was the exception to the rule.

The situation changed only at the beginning of the 18th century, when glass bottles and corks appeared, and barrels began to be fumigated with sulfur. New technologies have made it possible to store wines for years, gradually improving the quality. A new era of winemaking has begun, in which proper aging is valued no less than the skill of caring for a plantation, blending grape varieties and fermentation.

wine aging- this is the process of storing a fermented drink under conditions (temperature, humidity, light, air access) that improve its quality. During aging, poorly understood chemical processes take place, in which organic acids are converted into esters and other substances that change color, smell and taste.

Young red wines develop a yellowish tint, after a few years their color resembles tiles or bricks. White wines darken noticeably and are usually not aged longer than 4-5 years as this does not improve the organoleptic properties. Interestingly, old red and white wines are usually the same color, they are yellow or brown.

The sharp primary smells, dependent on grapes, are replaced by soft fruity and floral tones. Aging for 10 years or more reveals a third wave of aromas, mostly animal, that make the drink unique. After 2-3 years, the level of tannins in young wines decreases, due to which their astringency disappears. The taste becomes soft and balanced.

The aging period of wine ranges from six months to tens, and sometimes even hundreds of years, it depends on the following factors:

• alcohol and sugar content - the stronger and sweeter the wine, the longer it does not age;
• grape variety - wine from varieties with a high content of tannins, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon, is stored better than others;
• age of the vine - old low-yielding plantations give a richer wine, amenable to long aging;
• type of soil - good wine will not work on fertile soil, the vine must “suffer” on poor but well-drained soil;
• weather - with a lack of heat or light, the grapes ripen poorly, if they are harvested in rainy weather, the wine turns out to be watery;
• production technology - insisting the must on the pulp and fermentation in a barrel increase the content of tannins, increasing the exposure time;
• temperature - the lower, the longer the wine is stored;
• container volume - in small bottles, chemical processes proceed faster, leading to rapid aging.

Approximate aging times for different types of wines:

• canteens (white and red) - up to 3 years;
• light white - 4-5 years;
• light red dry - 5-8 years;
• noble whites - 10-20 years;
• saturated dry red - 15-35 years;
• the best reds of outstanding years - 80-100 years;
• strong and dessert wines - up to 150 years.

There are two ways of aging wine: in barrels and in bottles.

Barrel extract. Saturates the wine with tannins and oak tones. In most cases, it lasts from 4 weeks to 6 years or is not used at all. Barrels filled to the top are stored in special basements with an air temperature of 11-18°C and a humidity of 85%. A small amount of air enters through the pores of the wood, accelerating maturation. Through the same pores, 2-4.5% of wine evaporates every year, so you have to add wine of the same quality or better.

Barrels are made from a rare breed of oak growing in France. Each container serves an average of 30-50 years, after which it is used for cognac aging or disposed of.

Bottle excerpt. An obligatory stage for almost all wines, thanks to which optimal quality is achieved. Depending on the production technology, some wines are bottled after fermentation, others after barrel aging. It is very important to protect the drink from any contact with oxygen. To do this, the bottles are hermetically sealed with corks, leaving an air chamber with a volume of 1.5-3 cm³ inside. The cork is filled with sealing wax or other similar mixture.

Bottles are stored in a horizontal position (so that the wine wets the cork, preventing it from drying out) on special shelves in a dark room with a temperature of 10-16°C and a humidity of 83-86%. They are inspected twice a year for defects.

At home, bottles are sometimes stored in dry sandy soil in areas that do not flood melt and groundwater. First, they dig a hole 1.5-2 meters deep and cover it with straw. Then the bottles are laid in a horizontal position, filling the gap with dry sand. The pit is filled with dug earth. Regardless of the season, it will always have a stable temperature.

P.S. In old wineries with rich traditions, there are enoteca- stocks of long-term wines from different areas, vineyards, plantations, prototypes and foreign standards. They are of practical, scientific, and sometimes historical value. If possible, I advise you to go on an excursion to such a place, local guides will tell you a lot of interesting things.

Homemade wine is made according to different recipes, from different ingredients and often with the addition of others, such as cognac, liquor, white and red wines for blending. It is on the composition and recipe that the ripening period of the drink largely depends.

The most famous homeland of homemade wine is France, for many centuries the French have been making wine using their unique technologies.

Recipe features

There are various time frames for how long a wine must stand to ferment. For example, if you want to get a young wine, not very sparkling, then 10-15 days will be enough, provided that you see that almost all the gas bubbles have come out of the bottle.

homemade wine ingredients

The period of infusion of wine depends directly on its filling. For example, wine from rowan berries is aged for a whole year, from gooseberries - for six months, and the most "fast" options for wine material: currants and cherries. You can taste wines from these berries in 2 months.

Signs of wine readiness

One of the signs of wine readiness is its color. The wine should lighten, and all the cloudy sediment should remain at the bottom. The drink at least twice during the entire fermentation period will need to be carefully poured into another container so that the sediment remains in the old bottle. Experienced winemakers recommend draining wine regularly - once a month or two. The more often you pour a drink into a new bottle, leaving sediment in the old container, the better your wine will turn out, it will have an amazing light shade.

It is also important not to forget that during the period when the wine is infused, it must be placed in a dark room, preferably one where it is cool.

Do not forget that the longer the wine is infused, the more strong and tart taste it will have.

Many people use a rubber glove instead of a cork on the bottle, it is believed that if the glove no longer inflates, the wine is ready and all the bubbles have already come out. You can also make a hole in the cork and stick an ordinary drinking tube there, through which all gases will escape during the fermentation period.

If you follow these fairly simple rules, you will definitely be able to understand whether your wine is ready.