During this mellowing process, any leftover sediment in the juice settles to the bottom of the barrels or tanks. Clarification is the final step in maturation and required before bottling takes place. The final step in wine making is the bottling process. Determining the perfect moment when a wine is ready for bottling requires much skill. But too much maturation can ruin the fruity flavor so valued in whites.
All major vineyards employ an automatic bottling line to bottle their wines.
Before entering the bottle, though, the wine must be pasteurized. Hot pasteurization was the most commonly used to sterilize for many years, but the heat increased the chances that the carefully developed wine flavor would be destroyed. Cold pasteurization has become more popular in recent years. Sterile wine bottles are filled with nitrogen. When the wine is introduced to the bottle, a nitrogen cushion is created between the wine and the cork, reducing chances of decay.