Home Wine Making Supplies
Napa Valley, San Francisco North Bay, Ca. USA

Winemaking, or vinification, is the process of wine production, from the selection of grapes to the bottling of finished wine.

Home wine making is the same process. A winemaker (AKA a vintner) is a person engaged in making wine. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:

Cooperating with viticulturists
Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to determine the correct time for harvest
Crushing and pressing grapes
Monitoring the settling of juice and the fermentation of grape material
Filtering the wine to remove remaining solids
Testing the quality of wine by tasting
Placing filtered wine in casks or tanks for storage and maturation
Preparing plans for bottling wine once it has matured
Making sure that quality is maintained when the wine is bottled.

Today, these duties require an increasing amount of scientific knowledge, since laboratory tests are gradually supplementing or replacing traditional methods. Hence the vast majority of winemakers have, or are studying for, a Bachelor of Science degree (or similar) majoring in oenology. Winemakers can also be referred to as oenologists as they study oenology - the science of wine.