Question:
The basics of sterilization, pressing of the grapes and fermentation are followed but without the use of yeast or sugar. V.M.
They may not be "adding" yeast and sugar, but they are using them. The chemical process of converting the sugar to alcohol cannot be bypassed. The fruit juice has fructose in it and there are yeast spores in the air. You have to "catch" the yeast. Some breadmakers use a similar method of rising the dough with no additional yeast. There is enough hanging around on the walls and in the air in some places to give the desired affect. Bakers have carried sours with them from Europe and brought them here and continue to use them for decades. I’m sure similar results can be had with wine fermentation. Ed http://pages.cthome.net/edhome
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The chemical process of converting the sugar to alcohol cannot be bypassed. The fruit juice has fructose in it and there are yeast spores in the air. You have to "catch" the yeast.
Actually, the yeast has already been "caught" by the grapes themselves. That whitish, waxy stuff on the grapes that rubs off easily is called the "bloom". That’s where most of the wild yeast resides, as well as other airborne things – some good, some bad. For the surest process control, it’s best to strongly overwhelm all of it with known yeast and bacterial cultures. Natural fermentations will work, but you can easily end up with a dominant strain that produces high concentrations of undesirable side products, such as V.A. – and worse. The big wineries that use "native" yeast probably cheat a little; they make several starter batches, using no added yeast, and select the batch(es) that ferment cleanly to inoculate the main lot. That way, they can honestly claim that the wine was fermented on its own yeast, but they have the benefit of good process control. It makes sense to do it that way, but why bother? It just boils down to a lot of extra hassle for the sake of some airy-fairy marketing B.S. they can put on the label. As far as I’m concerned, winemaking is hard enough work, doing it the _easy_ way! Tom S
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Tom, you are 100% correct!< <<
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I have seen many wine recipes in books and on the net and all seem to involve adding sugar, yeast etc. I know many old world Italians and French wine makers who add little or nothing to their wine. The basics of sterilization, pressing of the grapes and fermentation are followed but without the use of yeast or sugar. Can someone explain or perhaps point me in the direction of making wine without additives. Thanks, V.M.
They’re not making it "without the use of yeast", as that’s not possible. What they are doing is allowing the yeasts which have colonized the grape skins in the vineyard perform the fermentation, as opposed to adding a cultured yeast specially selected for the job. Depending on your source of grapes, this is a crap shoot at best. Dan
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Vince: Sugar, yeast & sulphites all naturally occur as either part of the bio-organic elements of the grape (sugar & yeast) or as a result of the NATURAL chemical processes of fermentation (yeasts produce about 20 ppm bisulfite as they reduce the sulfate in the grape juice). Therefore; one could very easily argue that the addition of these elements by a winemaker does not deprive a wine of its "all natural" makeup. Indeed this practice may be seen as a simple extension or furtherance of existing natural processes. Thus; sugar, yeast, and bisulfites are not really "additives" at all, as all of these things are there to begin with (but usually of insufficient quantity [sugar & bisulfites] or insufficient quality [yeast] to produce a high quality, long-lived wine). However; if you want to make wines without these things, it can be done very easily. Simply follow standard instruction, be sure that your sanitation is impecable, & make sure that you make wine in quantities small enough that it can all be consumed quickly. One final word of warning – you will need to grow your own grapes to do this properly. All of the grapes you can buy (even from very small growers) have been grown with the use of fungicides & (often, but not always) pesticides. Even grapes grown in commercial "organic" vineyards are dusted with hugh amounts of copper & sulpher to protect them from fungi. This is clearly not a "natural" process. Therefore, to get a truly "organic" (as in, completely without chemical intervention) product you will need to either grow grapes native to your area, or grow traditional wine grapes and cope with very small yields. Hope this Helps; -Ed — "Wine is sunlight, held together by water…" -Louis Pasteur – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have seen many wine recipes in books and on the net and all seem to involve adding sugar, yeast etc. I know many old world Italians and French wine makers who add little or nothing to their wine. The basics of sterilization, pressing of the grapes and fermentation are followed but without the use of yeast or sugar. Can someone explain or perhaps point me in the direction of making wine without additives. Thanks, V.M.
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If you have the "perfect" grape where everything is in balance then you can do this (no addition of anything) but even then you stand the risk of spoilage organisms. A couple of years ago, I was intent on making wine without adding sulphites – after a couple of ruined batches and learning that sulphites have been used for hundreds of years, I now add sulphites, sugar, acid, and anything else that is necessary to balance the must. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have seen many wine recipes in books and on the net and all seem to involve adding sugar, yeast etc. I know many old world Italians and French wine makers who add little or nothing to their wine. The basics of sterilization, pressing of the grapes and fermentation are followed but without the use of yeast or sugar. Can someone explain or perhaps point me in the direction of making wine without additives. Thanks, V.M.
Response:
I have seen many wine recipes in books and on the net and all seem to involve adding sugar, yeast etc. I know many old world Italians and French wine makers who add little or nothing to their wine. The basics of sterilization, pressing of the grapes and fermentation are followed but without the use of yeast or sugar. Can someone explain or perhaps point me in the direction of making wine without additives. Thanks, V.M.
Response:
Yes, the direction of wine made without additives is the vinegar section at the supermarket. Just kidding. Actually it’s unlikely to consistently make good wine at home without the use of any additives. It’s also not true that "nothing was added". In many situations, barrels used to be turned bung hole down and sulpher burned in the opening. This coated the inside of barrels with sulphur and was the old equivilent of today’s use of sulphite. As you can imagine there was no way to accurately control the amounts being added unlike the use of sulphite today. Do you have any basis on which to conclude that the wines made without additives are actually better than the ones made with? I here lots of stories about people whose fathers did that etc., but every time I drink the wines they make, well, I’m glad I use sulphite. Paul
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