True Italian Taste 2020 - Cheese & Wine Guidebook (English Edition)

HISTORY OF CHEESE&WINE MAKING OF WINE Throughout this journey, we have discovered the history of wine, but how is this delicious drink made?

After cultivating the grapes from the vine tree, is all starts with the Vendemmia, the Italian word for grape harvesting in the vineyards. This is an operation all carried out by hands, although nowadays it can be mechanized. The manual harvesting, however, guarantees greater accuracy in the selection of the bunches. The harvest takes place in fall, between August and October, depending on the right degree of maturation of each type of grape, while for some late fermented grapes such as raisin wines it can go up to November.

Some good rules when harvesting grapes are not to pick wet grapes to prevent water from affecting the quality of the must, not to harvest during the hottest hours of the day to prevent unwanted fermentations and to spend as little time as possible between the harvest and the pressing to avoid the deterioration of the grapes, since the whole bunches are the premise for having a good wine.

After collecting the grapes, the fruit is gathered in a big container, usually in wood, called Tino, where the pressing process can take place. Even the pressing was traditionally done by hand or even feet! This method consolidated a joyful tradition among peasant families, whose members would gather to jump inside the large containers in which grapes were collected. However, today the pressing is carried out with the aid of machinery. The grapes are squeezed and the must obtained, corrected for acidity and purified from impurities and bacteria, is then collected in large vats.

And in some case the eliminations of stalks, pips and seed take place at this part of the process. The press must be soft, squeezing the juice without excessively deterioThe pressing was traditionally done by hand or even feet! rating the skins.

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