Making Wine

Harvesting the grapes is just as tricky. Around August, the grapevines start adding sweetness to their grapes. Grapes usually do this to attract birds to their vines to eat the grapes to spread their seeds, like most types of fruits. At this point, WillowCroft starts testing their grapes for a balance of acidity and sugar content. With too much acidity, the wine will be too bitter. If the grapes have too much sugar, the wine will be too sweet and be more like a dessert wine and not what WillowCroft wants. WillowCroft attempts to wait until the acidity and sugar content are at the balance they want. This is, of course, if the weather doesn’t cooperate. If heavy rain is on the weather forecast, WillowCroft will harvest the grapes early to make sure they get the best flavor.

Winemaking is part luck, part science, and part artistry. The winemaker

Making Wine

knows how to pick the grapes correctly, what type of yeast to use, and what kind of enzymes to use to make the yeast work properly. WillowCroft first crushes up the grapes and presses them to get the juices out of them to make the wine. The grapes for red wine are left in with their skin, as this helps create the red coloring in red wine. The grape juice is then put in large steel vates where the yeast is added. The yeast consumes the sugar in the grape juice and helps it fermate to create the alcohol and wine taste. WillowCroft also handpicks enzymes to help the yeast work and enhance flavor. Each type of wine is different for how long it is meant to ferment with the yeast. For example, white wine tends to have a more extended fermentation time than red wine. The wine is then left to sit for a few months to increase its flavoring. Then it is bottled with no air inside. If air is left inside the bottle, it causes the wine to go sour and stale. Wine has no expiration date and can stay in the bottle as long as the bottle is not opened. The longer wine remains in the bottle, the more it will taste different, as wine still changes even if left alone. Not opening a bottle of wine for a few years is said to make it taste better, but that is not always true.

Wine

Willowcroft primarily sells non-blend wines or wine with a majority of one type of grape. This is how wine was made in the past, and they are sticking to that. This doesn’t mean they don’t have blends, but most of the time, Willowcroft sells non-blended wines. The wine that hasn’t been made into a blend can be named after the grape.