Practical Guide to White and Rosé Winemaking | Claude Gros, Stéphane Yerle

The particularity of white winemaking is the absence of maceration. The crushed harvest is immediately pressed to avoid prolonged contact between the must and the grape skins. This is the most delicate operation for this type of wine. Rosé wines are obtained from black grapes with colorless or lightly colored juice, to which either white winemaking or an intermediate winemaking process between white and red wine is applied, consisting of a very light maceration of the harvest. After presenting the different possible technologies and the phenomena that occur during fermentation, the author describes the suitability of these conditions to the characteristics of the grape. Several factors come into play: the assessment of grape quality and ripeness state using reliable and rapid methods, determining the harvest date based on the desired product and predicted weather conditions, adapting winemaking conditions to the grape characteristics, and predicting the wine's balance. These topics are addressed concretely in this book, which aims to be practical and useful for winemakers.