Definition: Work

This process can be heard by placing your ear to the opening of a barrel or vat. The crackling sound of fermentation is amplified by resonance. Once fermentation is complete, the wine is referred to as still wine. Before malolactic fermentation was identified, people used to say that "the wine is working", meaning that it had started fermenting again after alcoholic fermentation. Today, a still wine that is working after being bottled is considered to be faulty, as secondary fermentation can cause the bottle to burst.