LCBO Food & Drink Early Summer 2024

Winemaking 101 Winemaking is an art – a delicious masterpiece in a bottle. Ontario VQA winemakers and vintners bring their passion and dedication to every bottle they craft. Visit your favourite winery and book a tour today to see the transformation from grapes to wine first-hand.

Harvesting/Picking When the grapes are at optimal ripeness they are picked, often by hand, in order to choose the best clusters for the wine. Journey of a Table Wine Starts Here

Sorting/Crushing Harvested grapes are then sorted to remove leaves or damaged berries. The sorted grapes are gently crushed to break the skins of the grapes or left whole, depending on the wine style.

Pressing Red Wines : After fermentation is complete and the desired colour and flavours are achieved the wine is gently pressed to remove the skins, seeds and pulp. White Wines : Immediately after the de-stemming / crushing step the juice is gently pressed to remove the skins, seeds and pulp. Fermentation The fermentation process begins when yeast becomes active and starts to consume the natural sugars in the grape juice, and starts to convert them into alcohol. Depending on the wine style, this process may or may not include contact with grape skins.

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