What is it that winemakers don’t want you to know?

 The role of a winemaker is to romanticize the mood and the environment for experiencing relaxation and yet cheer up. Wine is to conjure up images for daily wine tastings, schmoozing and presenting it with VIPs, and visiting tranquil vineyards. But the truth is that Hawkes Bay winemakers always deal with many variables and uncertainty while producing the wine to get it served in your glass.

So, here is what winemakers don’t tell you about making wine. What kind of Winery defines your role? Firstly, the process of wine making does not just have size to fit all professions. There are different types of the winery that have a lot to do with this job.

Estate Winery: These wines are made only with grapes directly imported from vineyards. The winery generally owns the wine-making business, and the production of wine takes place entirely on the winery’s property.

Winery Cooperative: These are produced by local growers who always sell their grapes to a regional winery. Then, the winery produces and markets it and then sells the wine. These are very common in regions that have smaller vineyard sizes and lower wine prices as well.

Custom Crush: These are generally the winery that offers a contract for wine making services to all of their clients. Services may include processing the fruit, cella ring, blending, bottling, and laboratory analysis.

So, now that the fact is evident as the sky about where these winemakers might work and, accordingly, what their produced wine costs in the market.

Process of a Winemaker to decide the time for its Harvest

The decision to pick up the grapes when ready is essentially one of the winemaker’s most important and referable decisions. Picking up too early and the acidity must be too high, the sugar level is not high enough, and then tannins are too green, leading to a waste of wine.

All New Zealand winemakers have their approach different from one another to making up the picking decision. Some might rely on science, others rely on their senses, and others might rely on both.

At a winery, a winemaker has always got a luxurious walk through their vineyards every day leading up to their harvest. As they look at it and touch it to taste the grapes while considering the following factors that are necessary for harvesting:

• Thickness and toughness of their skins
• Color of the seeds: green indicates an unripe fruit, and brown indicates that the grapes are ready for the harvest
• Taste of the grapes: tart or sweet, and in both, the grapes taste good

Doing this every day gives them a firm reference to make a more educated and efficient picking for their harvest decision. An analysis is also based on the grapes' Brix, pH, and acidity levels providing data for this decision.