Making White Wines From Fresh Grapes

Learning how to make white wine is easy, particularly if you’ve already been making red wines.
The main difference is the grape variety being used. You’ll obviously be using a white grape instead of a red grape, otherwise the best you could hope for would be a blush wine.
But beyond this distinction there is another intricacy that has to do with how you will need to process these white grapes.
When making a red wine the grapes are put through a grape crusher and left in the juice (also called must) during the first few days of fermentation. On around the fifth or sixth day the skins and pulp is taken out of the must and then pressed to extract the juice, and then it is discarded.
When making a white wine the grapes are put through the grape crusher and then pressed before the fermentation even starts. Only the white grape juice is in the fermentation. The pulp and skins never see the fermentation. They are put through a wine press and discarded up front.
You may want to take a look at the article Wine Making With Grapes that is on our website. It goes over in better detail the process of making wine from grapes.
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.