Wine & Brandy industry information

Selected red grapes, containing no diseases, are picked manually or mechanically at optimal ripeness, which may differ depending on the wine type or style.

The grapes are delivered at the cellar where it is destalked ...

... and the berries are crushed.

Additives like sulphur dioxide are added to the pomace to ensure a sound fermentation and wine. The pomace is inoculated with pure culture yeast to initiate alcoholic fermentation or left for spontaneous alcoholic fermentation. Skin contact is allowed during fermentation to extract sufficient colour and tannins from the skins. During the alcoholic fermentation the sugars in the juice are converted to alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat. In order to prevent excessive heat, which can lead to the evaporation of flavours cooling is applied during fermentation.

After sufficient colour and tannins have been removed the juice is separated from the skins and the skins are pressed to recover all the wine.

After the completion of alcoholic fermentation when all the sugars in the juice were converted the wine is left on its lees to enhance malolactic fermentation where malic acid is converted to lactic acid. After malolactic fermentation the wine is separated from the fermentation lees by racking and can also be clarified by a combination of fining agents and filtration. Sulphur dioxide is added again to ensure a sound wine.

The clarified young wine is matured in barrels or utilised as a unwooded wine. After the completion of fermentation and during maturation the wine must always been kept in full containers to prevent spoilage of the wine.

Different wines are blended to ensure consistency regarding the type, style and sweetness degree of the wine to be bottled. Sweetness degrees range from dry (without any sugar) to off dry, semi-sweet and sweet natural wines with increasing sugar concentrations. The blended wine is stabilised to prevent any colour, flavour and taste changes or precipitations before it is bottled.