WineXpert Sediments in red wine

[Joel81]

I have done several Winexpert kits. The white wines are usually cleared fast and I can bottle directly and get no sediment after storing.
My red wines are however usually a different story. I follow recipe and add both bentonite, kiselsol and chitosan, all in quite high quantities compared to the amount of wine. Then after 6 weeks I rack the wine into another damejeanne and leave it for 3 months and then rack it again for another 3 months until I bottle it. However even after giving red wines 6 months extra clearing when I flip a bottle I have stored I can see there is a layer of sediment stuck on the inside of the bottle glass.
I'm thinking what is the best way to deal with clearing red wine? I'm not really a fan of bentonite since it creates alot of sediment which reduces the amount of wine I get after racking. Is there a better way of dealing with this like skipping bentonite, let the wine clear itself for like 6 months and then add the kiselsol and chitosan and leave it for another 3-6 months? Or is just minor sediment to be expected from kit wines? I.e. it will not affect the quality of the wine in a big way?

 

[Ohio Bob]

So you let the wine bulk age for 12 months and still get sediment in the bottle?

You also say you added bentonite and the K&C. Together? That could be a reason. They are two separate methods to get lees to drop out. Fining agents work by having a charge and binding with oppositely charged lees. If you added the agents together they might have bound to each other leaving the sediment unaffected.

Similarly, K&C might work differently if you change the order of the addition. I’ve seen conflicting directions about the order too.

I would let 9 months of aging occur before making any decision. At 9 months, if you think you need fining agents then do so, letting the wine sit for another month at the least, before bottling. What is too much sediment is subjective. I bulk age red wines for 12 months and usually do not get appreciable sediment. Even if I did it wouldn’t worry me. My wines are for everyday enjoyment.

 

[Joel81]

So you let the wine bulk age for 12 months and still get sediment in the bottle?

You also say you added bentonite and the K&C. Together? That could be a reason. They are two separate methods to get lees to drop out. Fining agents work by having a charge and binding with oppositely charged lees. If you added the agents together they might have bound to each other leaving the sediment unaffected.

Similarly, K&C might work differently if you change the order of the addition. I’ve seen conflicting directions about the order too.

I would let 9 months of aging occur before making any decision. At 9 months, if you think you need fining agents then do so, letting the wine sit for another month at the least, before bottling. What is too much sediment is subjective. I bulk age red wines for 12 months and usually do not get appreciable sediment. Even if I did it wouldn’t worry me. My wines are for everyday enjoyment.

I follow recipe, i.e. I add bentonite at start then kiselsol after fermentation and chitosan the day after. After this I bulk age 5-6 month extra. According to recipe you can bottle directly.
My thinking is if wine is somewhat cleared itself by time it might be better to add k&c after lets say 6 months then to add it directly, since it might be less particles after the wine has cleared itself.

 

[winemaker81]

When racking, do you drop the racking cane all the way to the bottom of the carboy? If so, you're getting a dirty racking each time, sucking up sediment.

I describe how I limit wine loss during racking in the following post. You may find my ideas helpful.

https://wine.bkfazekas.com/reducing-wine-loss/