I won't go into the process of growing grapes (that's a story by itself) and the harvesting (actual times vary with the climate, latitude and judgment of individual growers). When harvesting, some vineyards use mechanical harvesting techniques, but most hire workers to pick the grapes by hand. The grapes are then brought to the winery. Many wineries are located on or near the vineyards. If the wineries are far away, the grapes are shipped in refrigerated trucks. Once the grapes reach the winery, they get crushed. Inside the crusher, there is a perforated, rotating drum. The holes in the drum allow the juice and the skins of the grapes to pass through, but keep the stems inside the drum. The crushed grapes and juice are called must. What happens next depends on the type of grape. Red-grape must is sent directly to the fermentation tanks. White-grape must is sent first to a wine press, where the juice is separated from the skins, because white wines are fermented from skinless grapes. The must, whether from red grapes or pressed white grapes, is ultimately sent to the fermentation tanks. These tanks are airtight, made of stainless steel and can hold 1,500 or 3,000 gallons (5,678 or 11,356 liters). The tanks are cooled with glycol to maintain a temperature in the 40-F range (4-C range). The winemaker adds sugar and yeast to start the process of fermentation. The type of yeast and the amount of sugar added depends on the type of grape. The fermentation process takes about two to four weeks. During this time, the winemaker samples the fermenting must and measures the pH or acid levels to determine that the fermentation process is proceeding as it should. Once the fermentation process is completed, red wines are sent to the press to separate the skins from the wine. The red wines are then filtered to remove the yeast. White wines are allowed to settle and are filtered to remove the yeast. Once the yeasts are removed, the wines are stored in either stainless steel storage tanks or oak barrels (oak gives many wines a characteristic flavor) depending on the type of wine. In some red wines, a second type of fermentation, called malolactic fermentation, is undertaken while in storage. In malolactic fermentation, the winemaker adds a bacteria to the wine that breaks down malic acid, a byproduct of aerobic (oxygen-requiring) metabolism, into lactic acid, a byproduct of anaerobic (no oxygen) metabolism. Lactic acid is a milder acid than malic acid. The aging process can be anywhere from three months to three years. After the wine has aged sufficiently, as determined by the winemaker, it is time to bottle and package it for sale. The operator pumps the wine from the storage tank to the bottling machine. There, bottles are loaded by hand and a pre-measured amount of wine flows into each bottle. After each bottle is filled, the operator removes it and places it in the corking machine. The machine draws a vacuum inside the bottle that sucks the pre-loaded cork into the neck of the bottle. After the bottle is corked, the operator places the neck into the foil machine, which seals an aluminum foil wrapper over the cork. Next, the operator moves the bottle to the labelling machine, where the winery's self-adhesive label is placed on the bottle. Finally, the operator loads the bottle into a case for shipping and distribution. And there you have it, your bottle of wine. Cheers!