🍷 How Red Wine Is Made: The Rioja Winemaking Process
Red wine is perhaps the most beloved and versatile wine in the world. 🍇 But have you ever wondered how red wine is made? Let us walk you through the winemaking process at Bodegas Murillo Viteri—from vineyard to glass—in a simple and engaging way.
🍇 Harvest Time: Where It All Begins
The journey of a great Rioja red wine starts in the vineyard. At Bodegas Murillo Viteri, we hand-pic
k grapes exclusively from our own family vineyards and trusted growers. This careful grape harvest ensures that only the best fruit makes it to the winery.
“From good wickerwork, good baskets.”
Hand-harvesting preserves grape quality and is the first step toward a top-quality wine.
🛠️ Destemming: Getting to the Good Stuff
Once the best bunches arrive at the winery, we begin destemming—removing grapes from the woody stems. A traditional machine called a despalilladora gently separates the fruit from any unwanted parts like stems, leaves, or even the occasional pebble.
This step is key to ensure the purity of the must.
🌡️ Maceration & Fermentation: Magic in the Tanks
Next, the grapes go into stainless steel tanks where we macerate them at controlled temperatures. The must stays in contact with the grape skins to extract that deep red color, flavors, and tannins—thanks to compounds like anthocyanins and tannins.
Did you know? Grapes bring their own natural yeasts for fermentation! No need to add anything—Mother Nature handles it.
The process lasts 10 to 15 days, during which we regularly perform pumping over (remontado), a technique that enhances color and flavor by circulating the juice through the grape skins.
🥂 Draining & Pressing: Extracting Liquid Gold
After fermentation, we separate the young wine from the solids—a process called draining or devatting. At our winery, we use a traditional filtering method with vine shoot bundles (a process known as entarugar).
Then the leftover grape skins are gently pressed to extract more wine, and valuable yeast, all while avoiding crushing the seeds.
🔄 Malolactic Fermentation: Softening the Edges
Once pressed, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation, also known as secondary fermentation. This transforms harsh malic acid (like in green apples) into softer, creamier lactic acid (like in milk), giving the wine a smooth and round finish
🕰️ What Comes Next?
At this point, we have a delicious young wine. From here, we may choose to bottle it immediately or let it age into Crianza or Reserva wines. More on that in future posts!
Until then, all that’s left is to enjoy the aromas, the flavors, and the soul of a true Rioja red wine. Cheers! 🍷
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