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Writer's pictureApu Winery

Apu High Altitude Wine- From Vine to Wine

Updated: May 22, 2021

Take a photo journey with us to learn about how we make our premium Peruvian wine.




Step 1: Harvest and Selection of Grapes




Our grapes are hand-harvested and selected, to ensure to only the best fruit goes into our wine.









Step 2: Destemming

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After selecting the best fruit, a portion of the stems are removed. This is necessary so the stalky, bitter flavors of the stems don't overpower the wine. The manual destemmer also lightly crushes the grapes.


About 15% of our stems are thrown back into the juice during fermentation of our Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. We feel it adds some sophisticated aromas, flavors and tannins to our wine.


We then do a prefermentation maceration to develop more aromas. After that, we add yeasts to activate fermentation.











Step 3: Fermentation

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Red grapes ferment with their skins to give the wine more intensity and tannins. White grapes are allowed a light maceration with the skins to add richness to the wine, but then they are removed after 1 day. Because of the lower oxygen levels at our high-altitude, it takes a little longer to ferment here at Apu Winery.





Step 4: Pressing

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It takes an average of 7-10 days to complete fermentation. For red wine, we press the grapes to remove the skins and seeds, collecting the wine in a well down below for aging.


White grapes will have been pressed at this point in the process.














Step 5: Aging

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The Sauvignon blanc wine is transferred to stainless steel tanks for aging. The red wines age in both stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels.








Step 6: Bottling and Labeling

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Sauvignon blanc ages for a few months, while our Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese age longer. When this process is complete, the flavors and aromas of the wines have melded and reached their peak quality.



The wine is filtered, bottled and labeled and then sent to Cusco, where it is distributed locally or send to Lima via plane.

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