Examples

• A winemaker ferments Sauvignon Blanc juice at a cool 12–14 °C in stainless steel so that alcoholic fermentation preserves fresh, fruity aromas and produces a dry, crisp wine.
• During red wine production, alcoholic fermentation takes place with skins and seeds in the vat, allowing color and tannins to be extracted as yeast convert sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
• To make an off-dry Riesling, the cellar team chills the tank and adds sulfur dioxide to stop alcoholic fermentation before all sugars are consumed, leaving some residual sweetness and lower alcohol.

Etymology

The expression "alcoholic fermentation" combines "alcoholic" and "fermentation." "Alcoholic" derives from "alcohol" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ic"; "alcohol" entered English via Medieval Latin from Arabic "al-kuḥl," originally meaning a fine powder and later the distilled spirit, then the class of compounds we call alcohols (in wine, specifically ethanol). "Fermentation" comes from Latin "fermentum" (leaven, yeast, leavening agent), from "fervere" meaning "to boil" or "to seethe," a reference to the bubbling appearance of actively fermenting must. The modern scientific understanding of alcoholic fermentation as a biological process carried out by yeast was established in the 18th–19th centuries by chemists like Lavoisier and microbiologists like Pasteur, after which the term became standard in oenology.

Usage Notes

In wine contexts, "alcoholic fermentation" refers specifically to the yeast-driven conversion of grape sugars to alcohol and CO₂, not to malolactic or other secondary fermentations. It is often shortened to "fermentation" in casual discussion, but technical texts and regulations use the full term to distinguish it from bottle refermentation (for sparkling wines) or bacterial fermentations.