wine 101

How is wine made? It starts with the grapes in the vineyard, this can get very detailed, but for simplicity sake, lets leave that to: when the acid levels and the sugar levels are right, you pick the grapes. The grapes are taken to the winery, and in Vivác's winery, hand sorted (removing any poor grapes and leaves). The grapes are then sent through the crusher/destemmer (which breaks open the berries and separates it from the stem) and, if they are white grapes, sent to the presses. At Vivác, these are 2 traditional basket, hand presses. The pulp is removed from the juice and white wines sit in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks immediately to ferment. Red wines ferment with the skins and seeds in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks for 9-12 days (depending on the varietal). During fermentation the "cap" of skins and seeds is "punched down" in an effort to keep the juice in contact with the skins and seeds, drawing color and tannin from them. The red wine is then pressed and sent to oak barrels, we believe in 100% French Oak barriques at Vivác because of the sweet spices they release into the wine, think aromas of caramel, vanilla, cinnamon or butterscotch. Wines spend time in both new and old oak barrels prior to bottling. The bottle aging is important so that the wine can again become an integrated experience when you drink it. It is the details and the science behind each of these steps that differentiate one winery from another, imagine a city or town of restaurants with excellent chefs, each one might be serving a chicken dish and a stake dish, but none of them will taste the exact same. Your job as the consumer is to find the wine-maker or "chef" that suits your palate. -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!