The art of vinification

Wine has been made for several thousand years - at least, red wine has. Indeed, the first recorded wine in Bordeaux was produced by the Roman poet Ausonius at what is now Chateau Ausone in St Emilion, which produces some of the world's finest (and most expensive - £14,000 a case for the 2003 vintage) red wine. White wine, though, is far harder to make and really only made its debut in the 20th century; indeed, until the 1960s it was not very good except in tiny areas of Burgundy. Remember that bottle of semi-sweet white Graves Granny always kept for the vicar?

Making good wine falls into two parts – growing the grapes ('viticulture') and then turning those grapes into wine ('vinification').

Viticulture is really market gardening: well-tended vines, grown on the right terroir (poor soil which makes vines struggle and produce less but more concentrated fruit) produce the 'good grapes' without which it is not possible to make great, or even good, wine.

White grapes are much more delicate than red and prone to a much greater risk of disease in the vineyard. But with the best viticultural practices white