During Antiquity

The oldest tinctures of vine stock have been revealed in Caucasia side, more precisely inside the present frontiers of Georgia, more 7000 years ago. Shadows of vine and wine, from 5000 to 5600 before Christ  have been discovered in the village of Shoulaveris Gora. However the oldest process of wine making was found in Egypt and date from 2500 years before Christ.
From 1500 to 500 before Christ, Phoenicians and Greeks, 2 traveling peoples, embedded vine all around Mediterranean Sea. So vine arrived in Italy and Romans developed it as well as wine industry. It was on 600 before Christ that Phoceans, creating Masilia which now became Marseille, begin to plant vine and develop vineyard in Gaule (France). Romans march along the Rhodesian corridor and on the west towards Languedoc expanded vine growing and at the wine industry. Narbonne became one of the most important center for wine production.
Though, as the region of Narbone used to become a tough competitor for Italian wines notably thanks to its quality, Domatien the emperor command in 92 the lifting of half of Mediterranean vineyard. This interdict revoked 2 centuries after, Bordeaux, Languedoc and Rhônes vineyard experienced a quick expansion accelerated by Jules Cesar. Vine was even planted around Paris which stayed during a long period the biggest production wine region. Thanks to Roman policy, Gaule developed vine and improved the wine production process introducing for example the oak barrel. In 476 Roman Empire collapse sopped the Gaul vineyard growth.

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The Middle Age

From the 4 or 5th century, Christians replaced Romans in wine evolution. The Eucharist celebration has been the motor of vine tradition maintaining. But the Middle Age will bring a new impulse to wine. Whereas before wines were mixed with water and embellished with natural aromas and herbs, in the Middle age wine as we drink it nowadays appears thanks to the oenologic progress mainly brought by Christian domains and the monks. The Catholic Church originated new quality vineyards still existing known like the Burgundy vineyard.  During all this period the development of the Christian civilisation will have a very positive impact on viticulture. 
At the en of the 12th century, Bordeaux, the only viticole region independent from the Catholic Church begin to grow. The Grand Duché d’Aquitaine, jointed to the English Kingdom used to fill in the vessels of the British navy with clairet.
Little by little, taste changed and consumers began to tend towards lighter wines rather than heavy ones. Regions and vineyards are competing to produce the best quality and if it is difficult to know what the taste of the Middle Age wines was, we can assume that they were close to wines produced nowadays. Moreover, a Cru classification of 1224 named about the same vineyards as recent classification.  

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Modern Times and Nowadays

Colonization will generate a very quick expansion of vine by the implantation of it in the colonized countries. For example, traces of vine from 1659 have been discovered in the province of The Cap in South Africa. South America and Mexican conquest will bring vine culture in these regions. In Chile and and Argentina, grape from Bordeaux region have been introduced as soon as the 16th century.

In North America, vine already existed at a wild stage, specially in East part, in Virginia but also in Canada. This variety named Vitis Riparia used to generate a fruit which did not fit wine production. Missionary Congregation in Canada, tried during 1 century to make wine with this grape for their own consumption but had to give up. So in 17th century some European seedlings were imported but they soon died due to the local diseases.  In the 18 century, attempts to implant European grape will be more successful in California where vineyard is growing rapidly and in the Canadian lakes region. The massive wine production of North America in the 1çth century will be stopped by the Prohibition in 1917. Wine production restart in 1933 and from this period, American producers decide to tend towards more qualitative wines. To improve the quality, they introduce adapted hybrids of french grapes and in 1939, Frank Schoonmaker launched the concept of grape wines which is going to make the reputation of Californian wine and what we called now new world wines.    

In Arabian countries, suffering from starvation, the Islamic guide decide to ban wine to develop the culture of cereals more important for alimentation in the 17th century.
The situation is different in Europe where vineyard keeps expanding. From the 17th century, wine sees the arrival of some competition with tea, coffee beer and running water. But the invention of the bottle which facilitated the transportation of wine and enable its aging and keeping will allow wine to preserve its position. First wines you can keep and let mature made from selection in the harvest appeared like the Château Haut Brion and this qualitative vision had a very good impact on the consumption. In 1731, Louis XV prohibited new plantation of vine to limit the production of low quality wines and favoured terroirs able to produce quality wines. The French Revolution liberated back vine expansion and vine culture will soon become the main economic activity in the country. It will be the case all other South of Europe and for example in Italy wine will occupied 80% of the active population at this period. In the 19th century, the development of transport will make wine carriage easier and will established the South European wines supremacy.
But in 1865, Philoxera imported from US will immerse European vine and producers in a real nightmare. In some years vineyard is destructed expect grapes implanted on sand ground. But 30 years of research allowed to save the European production by grafting original grape on american plants.

On the 20th century, technical and scientific progress as well as investments to improve wine production will bring what can be considered as the wine “technology”: oenology. We will not speak of science because on many aspects, wine stays a Mystery.

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  How Red Wine is Made ?

There are 2 methods to make a red wine.

The traditional process passes trough pre-fermentation maceration. In this case, red wine is obtained from juice and solid part of the grape fermentation. So the red colour and the nature of red wine comes from a phenomenon of infusion of tinting substances, tannins and aromatic material contained in the grape skin. It is why we also name pre fermentation maceration: skin contact maceration. The maceration last between 5 to 15 days according to the type of wine produced. Wines bound to age long need a longer maceration to extract a lot of substance.

The second way is more technical and consists in replace the maceration by a warm up of the grapes during a short period. This allows extracting more colour but less tanins. This method named “thermovinification” is more and more used to make new wines to be drink during the year like Beaujolais Nouveau for example.

After maceration or thermovinification, the fermentation begins and last 2 to 3 weeks. In the maceration process, the fermentation begins at the beginning of maceration.
When fermentation is nearly finished, juice is separated from rape. The rape is squeezed to obtain a juice more dense. These 2 juices are stocked separately during the end of the first fermentation and the eventual second fermentation called malolactic fermentation which is used to make the wine more supple in the case of maceration.  This operation can be made directly in oak barrel.
The 2 juices can be mixed or not and according to different proportions depending on the wished wine. Then the wine is socked in oak arils or vats. Before bottling in, the wine is most of the time filtered.

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 How White Wine is Made ?

White wine making is more complex and impositions are more restrictive. First to guarantee an harmonious wine, the grape must contain a good ratio sugar/acidity. To maintain this harmony, in South regions, the harvest can take place sometimes before the grape getting fully matured and in Northern regions, the grapes are sometimes gathered over matured. The optimum ratio sugar/acidity depends also on the grape variety: for example very aromatic and crisp grapes like SAUVIGNON can be gathered before full maturation.

When making white wines, the operations before fermentation are very important. Maceration as well as oxidation must be avoided. For this purpose, it is better to harvest intact grapes and to maintain them until the extraction of the rape. Of course transportation of the harvest must be carefully thought.
 
Before extracting the rape by pressing, we can process to a pre-pressing which consists in breaking the grape beans avoiding to damage stalks, skins and seeds or an operation named “Egrappage” consisting in separating the stakes from the grapes to void their contact with the rape. The Pressing is the most delicate operation for white wine making. The recent technology advance has been important to improve the equipments.

After pressing, there is particles in suspension which can give a bad taste to the wine. To separate them, we proceed to what e call in French “Débourbage” for which 2 ways exist. First is static and consists in letting lie the rape during a certain period and separate the deposits and second is dynamic by centrifuge. In the 2 case the rape must be protected from oxidation by addition of SO2.

The rape is ready for alcoholic fermentation. After 2 to 4 weeks, appears a young cloudy wine due to the sediments trapped by the CO2 of the fermentation.

According to the wine, it is stabilized or submitted to the malolactic fermentation. This fermentation is not completely controlled but can be caused. It conducts to obtain more complex wines releasing other aromas.

Finally the sediments are separated by oxygenation of the wine and for stabilisation and conservation SO2 is added in the bottling process.

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 How Rosé Wine is Made ?

Rosé wine have a lightly red robe but in term of wine making, aromas and characteristics they are close to white wines.
The colour is obtained by a very short maceration like for red. But sometimes, like in Anjou, the colour is the result of pressing. Another way to make Rosé consist in a flowing of a part of the rape in maceration since no more than 24 hours. Most of Rosé from Provence are made according to this process.

Besides the Rosé is submitted to the same process as white wine: alcoholic fermentation, débourbage to evacuate a part of sediments, stabilisation, oxidation to evacuate the rest of sediments and protection wit SO2 when bottling.

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 How Sparkling Wine is Made ?

By contrast to a still wine, a wine is named sparkling if it contains enough concentration of CO2 to create after opening the bottle, mousse and bubbles. The most famous sparkling wines are Champagnes, Crémant de Bourgogne, de Loire et d’Alsace.

There are 2 different methods to make a sparkling wine : the traditional method also named method from the Champaign area and the Deionise or Galician method.

Traditional method

First we make a still wine. Alcoholic fermentation made in vat or in oak barrel generates CO2 but it is not this process supplying CO2 for the sparkling wines. After some time of maturing, the wine is put on bottle. Inside each bottle it is added yeast and some sugar conducting to a second fermentation producing CO2 which is this time trapped in the bottle. This CO2 will produce the sparkling aspects. Once this second fermentation is finished the wine get matured all the time necessary and little by little, the yeast deposit is moved to the top of the bottle. Before sale, the deposit is evacuated, operation called “dégorgement”. The compensation of this volume reduction is made by addition of some sugar and a liqueur called “liqueur d’expédition”. The quantity of sugar added determine the type of sparkling wine from “extra brut” to moelleux, the most common staying “brut” and “demi brut”. Champaign as well as Crémant is produced according to this method.

Deionise or Galician method
The second method is the oldest one. It consists in putting the wine in bottle early, before the end of the alcoholic fermentation. So yeast and sugar in the bottle the fermentation is going to finish in the bottle, creating CO2 trapped in the bottle. This method is more simple and quicker because it does not need evacuation of yeast. La clairette de Die and some blanquettes de Limoux as well as Galician sparkling wines are produced this way.

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