Wine making process red wines

The most important difference between the wine making process for white and rosé compared to red, is simply in the fact that for red wine the fermentation step happens before the pressing of the grapes. This is necessary to extract colour from the skins to deepen the colour of the wine. With white we want to avoid this so pressing will happen before fermentation. Rosé will have a little bit of colour extraction, enough to create pale or darker salmon pink, before getting fermented. 

When the grapes are ripe, they get picked in the vineyard. This can be done either by hand or machine  harvest. After the grapes arrive in the winery, they get destemmed and bruised. Even though we do search for tannin in red wine, the tannin coming from the stems will be much too bitter and green, so removing them is advised. The grapes are placed in a large tank, where the grapes can crush each other so colour gets extracted. Mostly this stage will be done in open tanks, to reach a level of oxidation. For some styles, like Beaujolais, the fermentation will happen in a closed off tank, so fruity aromas can be preserved. 

After this stage of fermentation, the wine will usually be aged on oak. It depends on the desired wine, how long this aging will take and if it will be aged on new or used oak. With new oak the influence of tannin will be greater. After the needed length of aging, the wine is ready to be bottled and enjoyed! Note that some red wines, especially coming from the old world, still benefit from aging in the bottle. Some countries, like Spain even have laws stated that certain wines need have a length of bottle aging before they can be released onto the market.