reasons for winemaking 428

I spent a few years living-working in south west france and during one of these years i followed and participated in the process from pruning the vine to picking grapes, then they went into this large round wooden press and the juice ran out down a concrete trough into a large concrete pit where the juice stayed for a while. Later the juice was run off into oak barrels these having been swilled out with water and then a sulphur taper was lit and left to burn a while in the barrel. After the appropriate time of fermenting in the barrel the bottles were swilled with water and lined up to be filled from the barrels. Then the bottles were corked with dry corks without any sulphite soaking etc, using an old floor corker. This was a small scale operation for the use of the family living there and of course i enjoyed this wine everyday. My point is that at no time during this process was any particular care taken about cleanliness etc and the end result was excellent. I am off to open a bottle now, at 50 pence a bottle it is well worth the effort. Hic!