How is Wine Made?

  • Date Posted: 1 August 2025

Winemaking... It's a bit of a journey, but it's one we love! From vine to glass, there's a lot that makes a fantastic bottle. We get tons of questions about it, and while we've got a few of our own Tulloch secrets, we thought we'd give you a simple taste of the process. It's a mix of careful planning, a bit of science, and a whole lot of passion. Think of this as your backstage pass to how we turn those tiny grapes into the wines you enjoy. We're excited to pull back the curtain and show you the basics.

Vintage- the harvesting of grapes

Let's begin with the harvest, or "vintage" as we like to call it. It's an important step in making the wine you love. First things first, we've got to figure out when those grapes are just right. We're looking for that ideal spot where the grape sugars and varietal flavours are perfectly balanced. 

Here in the Hunter, our white grapes are picked first. At Tulloch, Verdelho is the first to be picked, followed by Semillon, Chardonnay and finally Shiraz. Our vintage period is one of the most concentrated in Australia, so we've got to be quick! 

To ensure the fruit moves as quickly as possible from the vineyard to the winery, we primarily use machine harvesters in the cool of the morning (often before sunrise). However, if we experience too much summer rain, we rely on our team of handpickers to work their way through the vineyard. This can be a tricky time for us in the Hunter; however, with 130 years of winemaking under our belt, we are confident we can retain the quality created in the vineyard, ready to be transformed into the wines you know and love. 

Fermentation Process

Once the fruit arrives at the winery, it is weighed and transferred to the ‘crusher-destemmer’, which does what the name suggests. This removes the berries from the stalks and crushes the fruit to release the juice. For white varieties, we pump the free-run juice into a tank and transfer the skins into the airbag press and press until the skins are dry (this is called marc). The ‘pressings’ of the whites are kept separately from the free-run juice, with yeast added to both tanks to start the fermentation process. The yeast is responsible for converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide in a temperature-controlled environment. For red varieties, we actually need the skins of the red grapes to make the wine red, so from the crusher destemmer, both juice and skins are pumped into a tank and yeast is added to start the fermentation process. The skins naturally float to the top of the tank, which won't help with colour and tannin extraction, so we need to make sure the ‘cap’ is always wet. This process is called a pump-over, or in some instances, the cap is hand plunged back down under the juice to ensure we maximise colour.

Fermentation time is typically anywhere from 5 to 15 days, after which the whites receive a fining agent to help separate any particles that you do not want in your bottle. The reds, however, often have the juice (now wine) transferred to oak barrels for aging, and the skins that were used to impart colour and flavour are pressed in the airbag press and also transferred to oak barrels for maturation. This is where the art of winemaking occurs as we need to achieve a balance of flavour, retain varietal and regional definition and make sure the wine that goes into each bottle is delicious to drink.

 

 

Time to Mature 

So, after fermentation, what's next? Well, some wines, particularly our aromatic white varieties, are ready to go straight to the bottle, with our Chardonnay needing a little time in oak. For our reds, they all spend time in French oak barrels for an average of 6 to 9 months. 

From Tank/Barrel to Bottle

Finally, we get ready to bottle. However, before bottling, we clarify the wine, a process called fining, and then filter the wine on its way to the bottling line. This is to ensure there are no unwanted bits floating around. Then, it's into the bottle, screw it up and voila (it's a tad more complicated than this, but perhaps that’s a story for another time!). 

Harvesting, or ‘Vintage’ for the Hunter Valley, commences mid to late January and is wrapped up in most years by Valentine's Day. Our ripening period is quite short in this climate, so the buzz in the Hunter during these weeks is quite electric, and if you happen to be visiting at this time, please expect to be stuck behind a tractor towing bins of fruit to the winery ready to create the wines you know and love.

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