As you're probably well aware of by now, wine comes from grapes. The juice pressed out of the berries, the must, is fermented to produce alcohol. That's the macro view. If we zoom in, literally into the microscopic view, you might find that something less appealing is happening to your grape juice.
At the heart of wine making is the yeast, a creature so tiny (8/25,000ths of an inch in size) you'll wonder how it can turn juice into wine. This wee, one-celled, living thing is not a miracle worker; by simply existing, this fungus can singlehandedly make or break a winemaker.
Wine is created when the yeast feeds on the sugar in the must. In a simplistic sense, the yeast digests the sugar and eliminates the wastes of its feeding, which are alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some scientists have a perfectly acceptable, scientific explanation: it's the enzymes that yeast cells produce which transforms the sugar in the fruit juice into wine.
Whatever the process or however it may go, there's still one star in the winemaking show: the yeast.
Use the Best Yeast to Turn Fruit Juice into Wine
In the beginning, there was neither science nor art in wine making. Man, as a matter of fact, stumbled upon it quite by accident. After a late night, some fortunate soul must have left out some grape juice in the open. Wild yeasts came and ate the sugar. The forgotten juice must've been found later, smelling sour; but loath to waste food, man consumed it anyway. He didn't die from the experience; in fact, he must have found it a pleasant one and from that time on, he was preserving grape juice in this novel way.
These days, man has evolved wine making into an art and a science. Science, because he has identified and isolated the best type of yeast to use in making wines; and art, because he has discovered the ways and means to tweaking the process to produce a superior wine.
There are about 15 known genera of yeasts that are perfect for wine making. The best genus is the Saccharomyces, which is used for making alcoholic beverages like beer and wine, and for making bread. Of the 7 species in this genus, the cervisiae strain is the vintner's best friend.
Cervisiae is at its best when the temperature is around 30°C. At this level, they begin multiplying and feeding on all the oxygen and nutrients found in the must, thereby producing alcohol. The cervisiae colony soon plateaus or dies, and the wine is almost done. There are some strains though that can keep on feeding on the remaining nutrients and oxygen, eventually ruining the wine.
Winemakers make sure that cervisiae dominates the fermentation process with the addition of sulfite to the freshly-crushed grape. They may also cut off the supply of oxygen in the vats, lower temperatures, or stabilize the wine to weaken undesirable yeasts.
Pasteurization remains to be the best way to kill off unwanted yeasts but winemakers eschew the process as it ruins the must. Instead, wild yeasts found in their vineyards are left to act on the must and they just fiddle with it during the fermentation.
There is much value, though, to using cultured yeasts. Wine making has become accessible to the neophyte vintner who doesn't have large tracts of vineyards and huge stainless steel vats. She/he can now produce wine right off the kitchen. What's best, she/he can decide on the wine's character, color, or flavor, among other things.
Romantic process or not, veteran vintner or newbie, one thing still remains: the yeast is still the ultimate winemaker. Anything or anyone else is an 'add on'.
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