Thanks for the responses. Yes, I used the Bentonite up front. Yes, the wine was thoroughly degassed during 2 rackings (one from primary to secondary at about two weeks when fermentation was complete; I added finings at this point. I racked a second time to get the wine off the fine lees. UPDATE, I ordered Bentonite (LD CARLSON which is a sodium rich bentonite) I e-mailed Matt at Label Peelers. He called me and said that sometimes the K/C doesn't strip out the carbon. He recommended against using bentonite in this case and suggested racking again with K/C. He also suggested that we cancel myy order of Bentonite since he figures it wouldn't help much. As I said in my post, I've made several FWK whites and a rosé; none of them had this problem. This was the first FWK white for me that Bentonite was added prior to fermentation.
Exactly what I did...a second dose of K&C. My wine cleared after the second dose. At the suggestion of
@winemaker81, I became aware of the tastes involved with K&C. I have no doubt that a "normal" application pack overdoses the wine in the first place. I can now detect a slight bitter taste in the FWK Chard I made (two doses of K&C). I'm not doing that again!
I suggest considering adding a fairly low dose of bentonite first, waiting to see if it clears. If not, the second dose of K&C can be added at a later time.
The best recommendation I have learned about bentonite is to dose the wine at a rate of .25g/L to .5g/L. For a 23 Liter batch, that comes out to mixing ~5 grams to 11 grams of bentonite in water. I sprinkle the bentonite slowly in about 100 mL to 150 mL of cool DISTILLED water in a canning jar and shake very well. I'll shake the jar off and on for about 24 hours to effectively hydrate the bentonite, then add in to the wine. The recommendation comes from Techniques in Home Winemaking by Daniel Pambianchi, page 261. I put the cool water spin on the method with excellent success.
The reasons why I'm suggesting bentonite first, is because it places an electrostatic charge on the particles, clumps them together, then gravity does the rest. Any proteins are absorbed in the cellular structure of the bentonite.
On the other hand, K&C first places a positive charge on the particles. After 1 to 5 hours, when the second part is added, a negative charge is placed on other particles, clumps are formed and gravity takes over. K&C was already applied, and it didn't work.
(The low dosage of bentonite will not affect the taste as much as the second dose of K&C, so the lesser of two evils.)
So, bentonite was added pre-ferment, and you might ask why did it not work? Well, IMHO, the reason why is because of the lack of "proper" hydration and the way FWK's directions are written.
Reading Scott Labs' white paper, the first sentence in the paragraph under the heading of WATER PH, about 1/2 way down is plain as day: "If bentonite is prepared in an acidic solution or wine, it coagulates immediately and loses up to 50% of its efficacy." Here is the reference link:
https://scottlab.com/bentonite-clarification-heat-protein-stabilization . Last time I checked grape juice is pretty acidic, packed full of minerals, not to mention sugar.
I have no doubt the second dose of K&C will clear the wine as Matt suggests, but at what cost?
The above are specific reasons, documentation, and not a "just because I do it this way"
. Of course, it's your wine and your decision. Let us know how it turns out.
Best of luck,
Barry
