🍷 Pasteurisation of wine
Brief heating of wine to stop spoilage, first devised by Pasteur.
Pasteurisation of wine is a short heating of wine to kill microbes that can spoil it. The method is linked to the French scientist Louis Pasteur. In the 1860s he studied why wine turns sour and found that microorganisms were to blame. He suggested briefly heating the wine.
The idea is simple: the wine is kept at a raised temperature for a short time and then cooled. Microbes die, and taste suffers little if the heating was brief. Pasteur described his findings in the book "Studies on Wine". Later the same technique was applied to milk, and the word "pasteurisation" became familiar in dairying.
For wine the method is not used everywhere. Many winemakers prefer other ways: filtration and adding sulphur dioxide. Pasteurisation is more often used for simple wines and juices, and expensive wines usually do not undergo it. Rules and permitted practices are described in the international code of the OIV. So a discovery in winemaking also helped the dairy industry.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Pasteurisation of wine → kind of → 🍷 Winemaking → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Louis Pasteur
- Previous step
- 🍷 Études sur le vin
- Part of
- 🍷 Winemaking
- Wine and milk
- 🌡️ Pasteurization
Frequently asked questions
What is wine pasteurisation?
A short heating of wine to kill microbes that could spoil it.
Who invented pasteurisation?
The French scientist Louis Pasteur, who studied wine spoilage in the 1860s.
Are expensive wines pasteurised?
Usually not; it is more often done for simple wines.
What to read next
- 🌡️ Pasteurization — 72–76 °C for 15–20 seconds: kills pathogens; keeps ~5–10 days chilled.
- 🍷 Louis Pasteur — A French scientist who studied wine diseases, proved the role of microbes and invented pasteurisation.
- 🍷 Études sur le vin — Pasteur's 1866 book on wine diseases and heating to prevent them.
Similar
🍷 Sorting table · 🍷 Must · 🍷 Acidification · 🍷 Deacidification · 🍷 Fortification · 🍷 Dealcoholisation