Marsannay Wine - Vineyard - Wine Making and Aging - Red Wine Making

Red Wine Making

The grape harvest is done when the grapes are ripe and is done manually or mechanically. The manual harvest is for the most part sorted, either at the vineyard or at the cellar with a sorting table, thereby removing the rotten grapes or insufficiently mature ones. The manual harvest is usually broken and then placed in vats. Cold pre-fermentation maceration is sometimes carried out. The fermentation can now begin, usually after the application of yeast. Then begins the work of extracting the polyphenols (tannins, anthocyanins) and other qualitative aspects of the grape (polysaccharides etc.). The extraction is done by pigeage, an operation which consists in punching the cap into the fermenting juice using a wooden tool or nowadays a hydraulic system. More commonly, the extraction is conducted by reassemblies, an operation which involves pumping the juice from the bottom of the tank to water the cap and thus wash away the qualitative components of the grapes. The fermentation temperature may be higher or lower depending on the practices of each winemaker with an average of 28° to 35° at fermentation peak. Chaptalization is carried out if the natural alcohol content is not enough: this process is regulated. The alcoholic fermentation is followed by racking which produces free-run wine and press wine. The malolactic fermentation takes place after, but it is temperature-dependent. The wine is racked and placed in barrels or tanks for maturing. The maturing continues for several months (12 to 24 months) and the wine is refined, filtered and bottled.