The white grapes are pressed directly after picking.
(See also: Picking Grapes)

This is to avoid any excess extraction of polyphenols and the wines are more elegant and fruitful as a result.

79KB	A picture of the grape must, after crushing and de-stemming, is shown on the left. The grapes get crushed in order to free the juice before pressing. The crushing of the grape cells liberates enzymes (mainly pectolitic enzymes) which start the decomposition of pectins. These are essential for pressing and clarification.
29KB	The Press we use for our white grapes.
46KB	View into the Press from the top, with door open. These grapes are about 50% pressed.
34KB	The freshly pressed must is shown in the cylinder on the left of the picture. The right cylinder shows the same must 10 hours later. This natural clarification is called Settling. The settled must will then be racked into another tank and the Lees will be filtered.
34KB	The Lees Filter which clarifies the sediment from the Settling tank. Once filtered, it is added back to the main tank.
15KB	Now we can determine the correct density of the must. To do this we use a Hydrometer. Once the density is known we can estimate the sugar content and on this basis can calculate the future alcohol content. In the ‘wine world' there are many units used to express density. Here in Germany we use the unit ‘°Oechsle' named after the pharmacist Ferdinand Oechsle (1774-1852). In America, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, they use the unit ‘°Brix'. The scale is calibrated to indicate percentage by weight of sucrose when immersed in solutions of sucrose. To translate Brix into Oechsle use the following formula: (°Oe + 5,0908)/4,5522
15KB 22KB	Next, we determine the pH and Titratable acidity (expressed as g/L Tartaric acid). (See also: Determination of Titratale acidity in must or wine)
32KB 24KB	We ferment our white wines in Stainless Steel tanks. All our tanks are by Rieger, a leading manufacturer of wine tanks. We have many different tank sizes so that we are able to store all our wines 100% separately. The picture underneath shows our most common tank size – 2500 litres. When the settled must is racked to a tank the yeast population begins to multiply and starts to ferment the grape sugar into alcohol. LINGENFELDER uses only natural yeasts from the vineyard, We do not inoculate with cultured yeasts. We are convinced that using natural yeasts leads to a more complex and multi- dimentional wine.
34KB	Here is a fermentation lock. It is a closure for a wine tank which allows the fermentation gas (CO2) to escape but prevents the entrance of air by means of the water in the lock. When the fermentation gas is bubbling out a characteristic sound is heard. Hear 10 seconds of different types or stages of fermation (each 216 KB): Vigorous fermentation Normal fermentation End of fermentation Malolactic fermentation (See also: Control of malolactic fermentation)
28KB	During the fermentation we taste the wine each day. We are also monitoring daily the change of grape sugar into alcohol by measuring the specific density of the wine with a Hydrometer (see above). The graph on the left shows an ideal fermentation curve, according to the LINGENFELDER philosophy, of a 1998 Scheurebe.