Every bottle begins with a bunch of grapes. Scroll and follow the story.
All summer long the sun ripens the grapes: the berries grow sweeter, the acidity drops and the skins take on colour. The winegrower tastes them often and measures the sugar.
The riper the grape, the more sugar – and later, the more alcohol.
The harvest usually runs from September to October. In many places the bunches are picked by hand so they are not damaged – often at cool dawn, so the grapes reach the winery fresh.
One bottle of wine takes roughly 1–1.5 kg of grapes.
In the winery the berries are inspected: rotten or unripe ones drop out, and the stems are removed because they would add a bitter taste.
Wine can only be as good as the grapes.
The grapes are pressed to release their juice. For red wine the dark skins stay in – that is what gives the wine its colour.
Tiny yeast cells turn the sugar in the grapes into alcohol. CO₂ bubbles rise as the juice becomes wine. It takes 1–3 weeks.
Stainless steel adds no flavour to the wine and lets no air through, so the grape’s own fresh, fruity character is kept.
Cool and sealed – the secret of fresh white and rosé wines.
A little air reaches the wine through the tiny pores of the oak, which makes it softer. The barrel also adds flavour and aroma. It takes months, sometimes years.
Used mostly for red wines and full-bodied whites.
French oak is fine and silky, American oak gives strong vanilla and coconut, and Hungarian (Zemplén) oak sits in between: spicy and elegant.
It also matters whether the barrel is new (strong flavour) or old (adds almost no flavour, only lets the wine breathe), and how heavily it was toasted inside.
Why it matters: the barrel shapes the wine’s taste, aroma and price.
The finished wine is filtered, bottled and corked. Some bottles rest a little longer before they reach the table.
Enjoy every sip.