Wine fermentation is much more complex than the simple
transformation of must sugars into ethanol and CO2. Many biological,
chemical and physical processes occur simultaneously, yielding
small amounts of hundreds of compounds that define most of
the final organoleptic characteristics of the wine. Moreover, wine
fermentation tanks are large; therefore temperature and concentration
gradients can be significant. We believe that most troublesome
fermentations are caused by extreme temperatures within
the fermentation tank due to a poor temperature control system.
Such problems can be reduced, for example, by using wine fermentation
models, which are useful tools to assure wine quality and
reproducibility among batches. Unfortunately, little progress has
been made in this direction.