Wine fermentation – the process of turning grape juice into alcohol – has changed considerably over the last two decades.
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Most big wineries utilise giant stainless steel tanks, with sophisticated built-in devices to vary the temperature.
But at Calabria Family Wines, the old-fashion manual process of fermenting wines in smaller concrete tanks is still used for the premium brands.
As Griffith’s wine season kicks off, owner Bill Calabria explained the process.
“This is the process of picking the grapes, crushing them and turning into alcohol”.
“Once the grapes are crushed, we separate the stalks. And then, we pump all the juice and the skins in … we pump the juice from underneath, try to soak the skins from the top, to extract more colour and flavour,” he said.
“The wine is being fermented, so the sugar turns into alcohol”.
Mr Calabria demonstrates using shiraz grapes; which have a dense, purple colour.
The process is repeated twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, half an hour each time.
While the procedure is far-more time consuming than using the big stainless steel tanks, Mr Calabria said it gives winemakers far more control over the consistency and quality of their product.
“We’re a family-owned winery, and the customers know me. If something’s not up to scratch, they’ll say ‘Hey, Bill, what’s going on?’ So we need to focus on quality”.
Mr Calabria said his winery is the last in Griffith that still ferments manually, but thinks it may be coming back into fashion.
“In France, they stopped doing this about eight years ago. But now some of the wineries have started to go back to it… because they want a better product”.
Mr Calabria said enhancing quality has been also been a concerted focus of Griffith wineries.
“Say 25 years ago, hardly anyone was talking about us. And if they did, it was in a negative way. But now, things have changed dramatically. You can see all the awards being won here”.
Calabria Family Wines were established by Bill’s parents Francesco and Elisabetta Calabria in 1945. Bill’s son Andrew is now president of the Riverina Winemakers Association.