White Wine Goes Cloudy Upon Chilling

[joeswine]

It also allows the yeast that settles out a place to go then, re release back into the process.
It's a win,win.

 

[Johnd]

I agree with @joeswine and @cmason1957 on the timing, bentonite is much more effective in primary fermentation, and it takes a much smaller dose in primary to accomplish the goal.

 

[Boatboy24]

Thanks all. I've previously only used bentonite in kits and on my peach wine. Lesson learned. That's what's great about this hobby - always something you can learn.

I just dumped 3 gallons back into a carboy and am about to add some bentonite. Fingers crossed it works. If not, I've got some pretty nice Viognier that will just be cloudy when chilled.

 

[stickman]

Depending on your philosophy you can use bentonite at any time, no argument here. That's the reason I indicated that the late use of bentonite was just what I did at the time. I think the answer is, as always, it depends on the wine maker you talk to, some argue only using bentonite if needed, which means to use bentonite up front you would have to know from experience that proteins were going to be a problem later. Wine makers that prefer "less is more", will run heat stability tests on their wines to determine which ones will need bentonite treatment, and treat only those that need it. Kits are very clean and a different story, juice from grapes settled naturally has adequate particulate for nucleation without bentonite. Bentonite will strip nutrients at the juice stage, so with juice from grapes, proper nutrient addition after bentonite should be considered.

 

[mainshipfred]

Thanks all. I've previously only used bentonite in kits and on my peach wine. Lesson learned. That's what's great about this hobby - always something you can learn.

I just dumped 3 gallons back into a carboy and am about to add some bentonite. Fingers crossed it works. If not, I've got some pretty nice Viognier that will just be cloudy when chilled.

I hope it works as well. I just don't understand why yours is cloudy and mine is not being from the same grapes. Just so everyone knows in case it makes a difference. The timing for getting these grapes didn't work out for us to crush them ourselves. The winery crushed, pressed and added enzymes them put the juice in a stainless steel tank for some reason without adding yeast. We got pretty clean juice out of the tank. After typing this is makes it even more confusing why they turned out so different.

 

[Boatboy24]

I hope it works as well. I just don't understand why yours is cloudy and mine is not being from the same grapes. Just so everyone knows in case it makes a difference. The timing for getting these grapes didn't work out for us to crush them ourselves. The winery crushed, pressed and added enzymes them put the juice in a stainless steel tank for some reason without adding yeast. We got pretty clean juice out of the tank. After typing this is makes it even more confusing why they turned out so different.

We had rice hulls in there too, as I remember. Was nice only having to press though (or did we only press the Petite Manseng?). Regardless of the outcome, the wine smells and tastes good, and I'm happy with that. If we can do it again this year, I definitely will - will just tweak the process a bit based on what I've learned.

 

[stickman]

You would have to review all of the steps in the process to see what differences exist between yours and his.

 

[Boatboy24]

You would have to review all of the steps in the process to see what differences exist between yours and his.

We definitely took different approaches. Fred's was cool fermented, mine at ambient temps. His got some oak mine didn't. I don't recall exactly, but I think we used the same yeast. Beyond that, I'll have to go to my notes, which were sketchy for last fall.

 

[Boatboy24]

Well, it appears the bentonite treatment worked. I racked off the bentonite, filtered and bottled yesterday. Chilled a bottle overnight and it's still crystal clear. Thanks for the tips, all! I'll definitely be adding bentonite up front the next time.

 

[mainshipfred]

I'm going to bring this one back to life. Opened one of my last bottles of the 2019 Viognier. I have to admit the wine looked a bit oxidized in the bottle. Still clear unopened but the following day or even later that evening it took on the cloudiness. To top it off, there was no sediment in the bottle. No huge deal since I only have a few bottles left.

 

[Boatboy24]

I'm going to bring this one back to life. Opened one of my last bottles of the 2019 Viognier. I have to admit the wine looked a bit oxidized in the bottle. Still clear unopened but the following day or even later that evening it took on the cloudiness. To top it off, there was no sediment in the bottle. No huge deal since I only have a few bottles left.

I had the last of the bentonite treated bottles a few months back. Still have 2 or 3 of the untreated. It's still very enjoyable despite the cloudy appearance. Very pleased with that wine overall.