Finishing the wine

Wine, which only left the fermentation vessel, not yet fit for consumption. There are processes, which are necessary at this stage and are so, the carrying out of which depends only on the winemaker choice, but they all round off the flavor, they make, that the wine becomes unique, often a taste characteristic of a vineyard.

Second bottom

First fermentation, carried out by wine yeast, leads to the formation of malic acid (pose, of course, with alcohol). Malic acid is quite sharp, characteristic and not particularly pleasant taste, therefore most wines undergo a second fermentation, which involves bacteria converting malic acid to lactic acid. After this treatment, the wine acquires an additional flavor note, referred to as sweet cream flavor. This is not a necessary procedure - it softens the taste of the wine, that is why many producers of cheaper wines use it, while the best wines tend to be unfermented a second time, to give the drinker the full range of flavors - but that is also not a rule.

Wine without aging cannot exist, however this, by what method and for how long the wine will mature, it is a very individual matter. Classic wines mature in oak barrels and it takes that 15-24 months. However, you can mature wines in steel barrels or directly in fermentation vats - then often quality oak flakes are added., to give the alcohol a woody and vanilla flavor, which is normally obtained from aging in wooden barrels. As for the barrels, to, depending on the type of wine, new or not new barrels are used - it is a permanent element of the recipe of a given type of wine.

Clarification and filtering

Certain processes take place during maturation in the vat or barrel, which may cause the wine to become cloudy or cause a deposit - if the wine is not perfectly clear, cannot be sold, therefore they are filtered and clarified before bottling. Only then does the wine end up in the bottles, but that doesn't mean yet, that it will be available in the store tomorrow: the best wines go on sale only a few years after bottling, because they are still gently matured in the bottles.

Additional cleaning or enrichment of the wine

Wine - if this is the recipe used, it can be double refined or enriched with fruit wines. These are sporadic treatments, which only concern low-end wines. In the case of better wines, vintages or varieties can be blended, but do not mix grape wine with fruit wine.

Coupage

Coupage, that is, mixing different vintages or varieties of wine is a process that allows the creation of a product with better taste properties, than the starting liquors have. The blending recipe is constant for a given type of wine from a given vineyard. One of the most famous coupages is the Spanish Rioja, but this process is also often used by less expensive producers, slightly worse wines. It is blended clean, clarified and filtered wines just before bottling the finished wine. Coupages are not marked with the year or strains on the labels, from which they arise. Coupage keeps a uniform flavor line throughout the production period, so it eliminates the effects of the so-called weaker season or allows worse vinification to be included in the process, less ripe grapes. Each vineyard has its own blending recipes: even Rioja, which is made from the same strains throughout the La Rioja area, it is blended in a different ratio of these grape varieties in successive vineyards. The traditional recipe is only an averaging of the actually applied blending recipes.