Une brève histoire du vin et comment il est élaboré

The history of wine also has disasters. In France, phylloxera was reported in 1863, and it spread quickly. This parasite attacks the roots. It killed the vines and ruined many winegrowers. The first “remedies” failed. Fear moved faster than solutions. A lasting solution came with grafting: people grafted the vines onto resistant rootstocks, a practice still used around the world today.

Science has also changed wine—especially hygiene and regularity. In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur studied wine diseases and fermentation problems. He linked microbes to the problems, and he encouraged cleaner practices. Later, cleanliness and temperature control reduced wines that go bad. Today, cellars measure sugar, acidity, and temperature with special tools. These tools do not replace taste, but they avoid unnecessary failures.

To understand winemaking, imagine a whole year in the vineyard. In spring, the buds open and the young shoots grow quickly. The flowers become small grapes. In summer, the berries swell, soften, and change color. The sugar rises, the acidity drops, and the flavors develop slowly. The winegrowers watch the heat, the rain, and diseases, because each factor changes the ripeness. Their goal is balance—not only sugar or a lot of alcohol.

Harvest time—especially the harvest date—is one of the most important decisions of the year. If you harvest too early, the wine can be acidic, light, or “green”. If you harvest too late, it can seem heavy and tired. Some vineyards harvest by hand, in small boxes, to protect the grapes. Others harvest by machine, often at night when the air is cooler. In all cases, the grapes must arrive quickly at the cellar to stay fresh.

Then a calm but serious routine begins. We sort the grapes: we remove the leaves, we remove the rotten grapes, and we remove the damaged bunches. Depending on the style, the grapes can be crushed or pressed whole. Pressing separates the juice from the skins and the seeds, and this choice changes the bitterness, the texture, and the aromas. A gentle pressing often gives cleaner flavors than a hard and fast pressing. The winemakers adapt the method to the grapes in front of them.

Contact with the skins is the big difference between red wines and white wines. Most red wines ferment with the skins: over time, we extract the color and the tannins. Most white wines separate the skins very early and ferment a clearer juice to keep freshness. Even red grapes often give a pale juice at the beginning, because the color is in the skins. In red wine, the skins go up and form a “cap”. We stir it or push it down to keep it wet, to extract better, and to protect the fermentation. It looks simple. It is not. The right moment changes everything.

Fermentation is the living heart of the cellar. It is the moment when grape juice is no longer “just juice” and starts to become wine. In a tank, the yeast wakes up and starts to work. It eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol and gas. This gas can make bubbles or foam on the surface, like a small boil.