Wine Making

Did you know it is strictly forbidden to mix red and white wine in order to make a rose wine? Except when pink Champagne is being made, then they mix red and white wine before the second fermentation “sur lie”.

It is, however, perfectly legal and practice to mix red and white grapes and make wine from them together. German Schillerwein is an example of this.

There are several ways to make a sweet dessert-type wine. All of them try to influence the sugar content. Some affect the grape juice (most), other the fermentation process.

• stop fermentation early and leave “rest sugar”

• stop fermentation by adding alcohol (>15% yeast cells die)

• use grapes affected by “noble rot”

• use extra sweet grapes (by reducing water content)

• add concentrated most to raise sugar levels

• add sugar to fortified wines

• add alcohol to unfermented most