This paper presents a new control strategy for the wine fermentation process based on fermentation rate control. A kinetic model of white wine fermentation has been constructed with the objective of testing the control procedure. The model only depends on very few quality parameters of the original must and can be executed in real-time, thus it can be used in real-time model-based control. A control methodology based on fermentation rate has therefore been developed, and a fuzzy multivariable controller was implemented. Further studies using different values for fermentation rate are discussed.