# Sediment in bottle



## Ted (Feb 19, 2010)

I have been making wine for a number of years. I start with the juice from a local provider. I seems that no matter how hard I try. I some times get some "floaters" particularly in my white wines a year or so after they have been bottled. I use a clarifying agent. I cold stabilize and before bottling I use an electric filtering pump. I am very particular about the look of the wine in the bottle. What could prevent this?


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## Torch404 (Feb 19, 2010)

I'd wait for one of the experts to chime in but could it be poor quality corks?

If not filtering might be an option.


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## cpfan (Feb 19, 2010)

Ted:

Tough question to answer. Got any pictures? Might help. Plus what does "juice from a local provider" really mean?

Steve


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## Runningwolf (Feb 19, 2010)

Are your floaters crystal like? Like Steve said a picture would help. With your bottles upright for some time, are they truly floating on top of the bottle or sediment on the bottom?


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## Sacalait (Feb 19, 2010)

I have experienced that with muscadine and blackberry wine. After clearing (at least I considered it clear) and filtering with a #2 buon filter the wine sparkled. A year later I found sediment in the bottle but no floaties. It appears or seems that color or pigment has fallen out, just my guess. Wine that looks clear in a carboy may be deceptive so don't rush into bottling.


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## Wade E (Feb 19, 2010)

There are products tohelp keep the color from falling out made by Scott labs called Stabavin. Ted, how long do you usuall bulk age your wines?


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## Midwest Vintner (Feb 20, 2010)

never really had issues with sediment unless we rushed a wine. we don't filter or cold stabalize.

wondering what's the case here. we don't do grape wines, except a recent concord (in bottle for less than a week now).

very interested in what is causing this.


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## Wade E (Feb 21, 2010)

Some of the deeper red wines can drop out color over time. It is an instability issue with the heavier red grape wines. It really takes some time for this to start happening though as Ive seen this happen to people who bulk age for a year or more.


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## Midwest Vintner (Feb 21, 2010)

the only sediment i've had in the bottle from wine was the eldeberry i put in the fridge i forgot about made the "ice crystals" from acid. 

maybe the concord we made will have some kind of sediment over time? dunno, but we didn't cold stabalize or bulk age it. needed a carboy for the mango, so something had to be bottled and it was the only thing ready.


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## rawlus (Feb 21, 2010)

"floaters" in white wines that have been cold stablized does not sound like tartrate crystals to me. 
the word floaters actually is a bit disturbing to me. as that is something usually much different from sediment. floaters reminds me of infections/contaminations.

cloudiness in white wine could be from lack of heat stabilization/protein haze.

we would need to know more about the type of wine the OP is having issues with and their winemaking protocol start to finish to really come up with some guesses as to the cause.


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## Wade E (Feb 21, 2010)

I agree with rawlus about floaters, sounds to me like someone used campden tablets which if not properly dissolved can do that as the compounds used to keep these tablets are not as easily dissloved so thse fillers can stay in solid form. Another thing is if you filtered and dint run water through the filter first the filter can leave fine particles in the wine.


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