The grapes are immediately taken to the winery and weighed for sugar content - in America they are weighed at the 'sugar shack', a large weighing scale for the trailers to be placed on. The next few steps involve different choices depending on the style of wine. First stop is the destemer and/or crusher where the grapes. Reds are usually crushed with all parts together and they then go straight to fermentation - the skin and seeds are important to impart tannins, bitterness and astringency. White wine however is only briefly in contact with the crushed skin and the seeds because tannins are not required - they are pressed, which is the process of draining the liquid from the solid. White wine then goes to be fermented - either in barrels or tanks. Because white wine is just liquid it is easy to barrel ferment and most often, highly beneficial to the ultimate flavor of the wine. Oak barrels bestow vanilla flavors, a highly fashionable and desirable characteristic in whites, particularly Chardonnay. This fermentation can take from 10-30 days. Red wine on the other hand cannot be fermented in barrels because of the bulky skins and seeds - so they are fermented in enormous open top tanks. The skin and seeds rise to the top, developing the cap, cap management is a full time job during fermentation time - the cap and juice must be mixed together every day to help the extraction of color and tannins. The process is quicker than for white wine - about 4 to 12 days - this is because red wine can be fermented at a higher temperature, white wine must be slower and cooler because there are less nutrients and so this maximizes the fruity flavors. Although the process is quicker for reds, they stay with the cap for 10-30 days to increase tannins.
