This comprehensive guide explores the techniques of wine production in the vineyard and winery, and considers their impact upon the taste, style and quality of wine in the bottle.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Wine Production
• Viticulture – the basics
• The grape vine
• Grape varieties
• The structure of the grape berry
• Stalks
• Skins
• Yeasts
• Pulp
• Pips
• Crossings, hybrids, clonal and massal selection
• Crossings
• Hybrids
• Clones and massal selection
• Grafting
• Phylloxera vastatrix
• Rootstocks
• The life of the vine
• Climate
• World climate classifications
• Climatic requirements of the grape vine
• Sunshine
• Warmth
• Cold winter
• Rainfall
• Climatic enemies of the grape vine
• Frost
• Hail
• Strong winds
• Excessive heat
• Drought
• Mesoclimate and microclimate
• Water
• Altitude
• Aspect
• Woods and trees
• The concept of degree days
• Impact of climate
• Weather
• Climate change
• Soil
• Soil requirements of the grape vine
• Good drainage
• Fertility
• Nutrients and minerals
• Influence of soils upon wine style and quality
• Soil types suitable for viticulture
• Limestone
• Chalk
• Clay
• Marl
• Granite
• Gravel
• Greywacke
• Sand
• Schist
• Slate
• Basalt and other volcanic soils
• Soil compatibility
• Terroir
• The vineyard
• Vineyard location and site selection
• Density of planting of vines
• Training systems
• Main types of vine training
• Other training systems
• Pruning methods and canopy management
• Pruning methods
• Canopy management
• Irrigation
• The vineyard cycle and work in the vineyard
• Winter
• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Grape-berry development
• Pests and diseases
• Important vineyard pests
• Insects, mites and worms
• Animals and birds
• Diseases
• Fungal diseases
• Bacterial diseases
• Virus diseases
• Prevention and treatments
• Environmentally sensitive vineyard practices
• Conventional viticulture
• IPM
• Organic viticulture
• Biodynamic viticulture
• Rudolf Steiner
• Biodynamic preparations
• Certification
• Natural wine
• The harvest
• Grape ripeness and the timing of picking
• Harvesting methods
• Hand picking
• Machine picking
• Style and quality
• Vinification and winery design
• Basic principles of vinification
• Winery location and design
• Winery equipment
• Fermentation vats
• Red winemaking
• Sorting, destemming and crushing
• Must analysis
• Must preparation
• Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
• Must enrichment (chaptalisation)
• Acidification
• De-acidification
• Yeast
• Yeast nutrients
• Tannin
• Fermentation, temperature control and extraction
• Fermentation
• Temperature control
• Extraction
• Fermentation monitoring
• Maceration
• Racking
• Pressing
• Malolactic fermentation
• Blending
• Maturation
• Dry white winemaking
• Crushing and pressing
• Crushing
• Pressing
• Must preparation
• Fermentation
• MLF
• Lees ageing
• Maturation
• Red and white winemaking – detailed processes
• Must concentration
• Must concentrators and reverse osmosis
• Cryoextraction
• Methods of extraction
• Cold soaking (pre-fermentation maceration)
• Pump overs – remontage
• Rack and return (délestage)
• Punching down – pigeage
• Rotary vinifiers
• Thermo-vinification – heat extraction
• Flash détente
• Whole grape fermentation, carbonic and semi-carbonic maceration
• Fixing colour
• Post-fermentation maceration
• Macro-, micro- and hyper-oxygenation
• Hyper-oxygenation
• Macro-oxygenation
• Micro-oxygenation
• Fermenting high-density musts to dryness
• Destemming
• The choice of natural or cultured yeasts
• Removal of excess alcohol
• Wine presses and pressing
• Continuous press
• Batch press
• Horizontal pneumatic press
• Vertical basket press
• Technology and the return to tradition
• Barrel maturation and oak treatments
• History of barrel usage
• Oak and oaking
• The influence of the barrel
• Size of the barrel
• Type and origin of oak (or other wood)
• Manufacturing techniques including toasting
• Stave thickness
• Amount of time spent in barrel
• Where barrels are stored
• Oak treatments
• Preparing wine for bottling
• Fining
• Filtration
• Traditional methods in common use
• Sheet filtration (sometimes called plate filtration)
• Membrane filtration and other methods of achieving biological stability
• Stabilisation
• Adjustment of sulfur dioxide levels
• Choice of bottle closures
• Making other types of still wine
• Medium-sweet and sweet wines
• Medium-sweet wines
• Sweet wines
• Rosé wines
• Blending
• Skin contact
• Saignée
• Fortified (liqueur) wines
• Sherry production
• Port production
• Other well-known fortified wines
• Sparkling wines
• Fermentation in a sealed tank
• Second fermentation in bottle
• Traditional method
• Pressing
• Débourbage
• First fermentation
• Assemblage
• Addition of liqueur de tirage
• Second fermentation
• Maturation
• Rémuage
• Stacking sur pointes
• Dégorgement
• Dosage (liqueur d'expedition)
• Corking and finishing
• Styles
• Wine Quality
• Wine tasting
• Wine tasting and laboratory analysis
• What makes a good wine taster?
• Where and when to taste – suitable conditions
• Appropriate equipment
• Tasting glasses
• Water
• Spittoons
• Tasting sheets
• Use of tasting software
• Tasting mats
• Tasting order
• Temperature of wines for tasting
• Tasting for specific purposes
• Structured tasting technique
• Appearance
• Nose
• Palate
• Conclusions
• The importance of keeping notes
• Appearance
• Clarity and brightness
• Intensity
• Colour
• White wines
• Rosé wines
• Red wines
• Rim/core
• Other observations
• Bubbles
• Legs
• Deposits
• Nose
• Condition
• Intensity
• Development
• Primary aromas
• Secondary aromas
• Tertiary aromas
• Aroma characteristics
• Palate
• Sweetness/bitterness/acidity/saltiness/umami
• Dryness/sweetness
• Acidity
• Tannin
• Alcohol
• Body
• Flavour intensity
• Flavour characteristics
• Other observations
• Finish
• Tasting conclusions
• Assessment of quality
• Quality level
• Reasons for assessment of quality
• Assessment of readiness for drinking/potential for ageing
• Level of readiness for drinking/potential for ageing
• Reasons for assessment
• The wine in context
• Origins/variety/theme
• Price category
• Grading wine – the award of points
• Grading on a 20-point scale
• Grading on a 100-point scale
• Blind tasting
• Why taste blind?
• Blind or sighted?
• Tasting for quality
• Practicalities
• Examination tastings
• Wine faults and flaws
• Chloroanisoles and bromoanisoles
• Fermentation in the bottle and bacterial spoilage
• Protein haze
• Oxidation
• Excessive volatile acidity
• Excessive sulfur dioxide
• Reductivity
• Brettanomyces
• Dekkera
• Geraniol
• Geosmin
• Ethyl acetate
• Excessive acetaldehyde
• Candida acetaldehyde
• Smoke taint
• Quality – assurances and guarantees
• Compliance with PDO and PGI legislation as an assurance of quality?
• The EU and third countries
• PDO, PGI and wine
• The concept of AOP (AC)
• Tasting competitions and critical scores as an assessment of quality?
• Classifications as an official assessment of quality?
• ISO 9001 certification as an assurance of quality?
• Established brands as a guarantee of quality?
• Price as an indication of quality?
• The natural factorsand a sense of place
• Conceptual styles
• Typicity and regionality
• The impact of climate upon quality wine production
• The role of soils
• Terroir
• The vintage factor
• Constraints upon quality wine production
• Financial
• Financial constraints upon the grower
• Financial constraints upon the winemaker
• Skills and diligence
• Legal
• Environmental
• Production of quality wines
• Yield in vineyard
• Density of planting
• Age of vines
• Winter pruning and vine balance
• Stressing the vines, vine and nutrient balance
• Green harvesting
• Harvesting
• Mechanical harvesting
• Hand picking
• Delivery of fruit
• Selection and sorting
• Use of pumps/gravity
• Control of fermentations and choice of fermentation vessel
• Use of gases
• Barrels
• Selection from vats or barrels
• Storage
• Selection by buyers
• Supermarket dominance
• Price point/margin
• Selecting wines for market and customer base
• Styles and individuality
• Continuity
• The place of individual wines in the range
• Exclusivity
• Specification
• Technical analysis
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Useful Websites
• Wine and vineyard & winery equipment exhibitions