VITICULTURE

Viticulture denotes the method of cultivation of vine. An overworked vineyard

without compensatory treatment or a neglected vineyard will only produce
second-rate wine, so the farming of the vineyard is of great importance. It
involves:

 Vine selection;
 keeping the vineyard healthy;
 ploughing to aerate the soil;
 weeding;
 fertilising;
 pruning to regulate quality;
 training the vines;
 spraying to combat diseases;
 harvesting.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GRAPE

The grape is made up of stalk, skin, pips and pulp and its respective roles
are as follows:
 Stalk: The stalk imparts tannic acid to wine. It is mostly used in the
making of big, flavoursome heavy bodied red wine and is not used when
making white and light bodied wines. Tannin acts as a preservative and
antioxidant. If over-used, it makes the wine astringent and nasty. It is
recognized on the palate by its tongue-furring properties.
 Skin: The outer skin or cuticle has a whitish cloudy coat called bloom.
This waxy substance contains wild yeasts and wine yeasts, which
contribute to the fermentation process. It also contains other
microorganisms such as bacteria acetobacter that is a potential danger to
wine. If uncontrolled, it turns wine into vinegar. The inside of the skin
imparts colour that is extracted during fermentation.
 Pips: Crushed pips impart tannic acid, oils and water. They do not
contribute to vinification, if left uncrushed.
 Pulp: The flesh of the grape provides the juice called must, which is
essential for fermentation. The must contains 78-80% water; 10-25%
sugar and 5-6% acids. Water makes up the bulk. Sugar is formed in the
grape by sunlight and is of two kinds: grape sugar (dextrose and glucose)
and fruit juice (laevulose and fructose). They are found in about equal
quantities. Tartaric, malic, tannic and citric acids in the must help to
preserve and keep the wine fresh and brilliant. It gives it a proper
balance. Esters are formed when the acids come in contact with alcohol
and it gives the wine its aroma or bouquet. The must (unfermented
grape juice) also has trace elements of nitrogenous compounds such as
albumen, peptones, amides, ammonium salts and nitrates, as well as
potassium, phosphoric acid and calcium, all of which have an influence
on the eventual taste of the wine.
 YEAST AND FERMENTATION

There are two main categories of yeast:

NATURAL YEASTS

The natural yeasts, moulds and bacteria that hover and float in the air, eventually
set onto ripe grapes. Many insects including the fruit fly drosophila help in this
process of settling down of natural yeasts. It is known that a single grape before
fermentation will harbor on its skin (cuticle) 1,00,000 wine yeasts; 1,00,000
moulds and up to ten million wild yeast. They adhere to the Purina a waxy
substance formed on the grape skin. This dull whitish haze of yeasts and
microorganisms is known, as 'bloom' is wine language.

CULTURED YEASTS

These are pedigree strains of natural yeasts cultivated in a laboratory. They are
efficienct in converting sugar into alcohol as compared to natural yeasts and are
less susceptible to sulphur in the fermenting process. Sometimes, they are
selected to do a specific job or are used in situations where natural yeasts have
been washed away by heavy rain or when some of the yeasts have been brushed
off in transit. There are up to a thousand varieties of cultured yeast, but the
name is normally associated with a type of unicellular fungi called
Saccharomyces. Two varieties of Sacharomyces are important in producing
alcohol in wines:

1. Saccbaromyces apiculatus: These are also called 'wild yeasts' or

'starter yeasts'. These yeasts start the fermentation, but they are
feeble fermenters and are killed when the alcohol concentration
reaches 4% by volume. The wine yeasts take over the fermentation
after this stage. Normally, wild yeasts are aerobic i.e they work only
in the presence of oxygen and hence there is always a risk of
acetification. They impart an 'off-flavour' and delay the action of the
true wine yeasts. As they have only limited tolerance to sulphur
dioxide (SO2), a strictly controlled quantity of SO2 is added to the
 grape juice before fermentation. In modern wine-making they are
usually dispensed with.

2. Saccharomyces ellipsoideus: This is the true wine yeast. It is much

more tolerant to SO2 and is also anaerobic i.e it is able to work in
the absence of oxygen. There are many varieties of the species, each
suited to its native wine district or region. Most wine regions have
yeasts that cling to each other and the fermenting vessel, and this
clinging property assists the wine-maker to clear the wine and make
it star bright. Champagne yeasts, on the other hand, do not cling to
each other or the containing vessel, which facilitates the operation
known as remuage prior to disgorging the exhausted yeast to clear
the wine. Depending on the amount of sugar in the grape juice, wine
yeasts are rapid workers fermenting quickly up to 13% alcohol and
then more slowly up to 16% alcohol. At that concentration, they are
destroyed by the very alcohol they have worked so hard to produce.
Thus, types of yeast used during fermentation affects the quality of
wine.