White Wine Goes Cloudy Upon Chilling

[Boatboy24]

Yesterday, I bottled my 2019 Virginia Viognier after filtering it w/ a 1micron filter. Brought a couple bottles over to my parents' today and left one w/ Dad and one with my sister. She asked if she could drink it tonight and I told her about bottle shock, but that I'd chill down a sacrificial bottle to test and let her know. It was wonderfully clear upon bottling, but clouded up after I chilled it. I'm a little upset I went through the trouble of filtering. Any thoughts on what would cause this? Granted, I did do a 'quick chill' - about 40 minutes in the freezer. The nose and flavor profile don't seem to be affected.

 

[Boatboy24]

No ideas? Hmm. I'm going to take another bottle and chill it 'normally' in the fridge to see if I can repeat the cloudiness. I've quick-chilled many a bottle in the freezer though and never had this happen.

 

[stickman]

If you didn't cold stabilize before bottling then it is possible to be tartrates. It is also possible to be a protein haze if bentonite wasn't used before bottling.

 

[Boatboy24]

Thanks @stickman. Hadn't thought about protein haze. Would that be brought about from chilling? If I were to dump back into a carboy and add pectic enzyme, would that help?

 

[cmason1957]

Thanks @stickman. Hadn't thought about protein haze. Would that be brought about from chilling? If I were to dump back into a carboy and add pectic enzyme, would that help?

Pectic enzyme won't help a protein haze. Bentonite might.

 

[Boatboy24]

Seems strange to me that the 'haze' doesn't appear until chilled. Is that normal w/ protein?

@mainshipfred : you made wine from these same grapes. Any issues upon chilling?

 

[cmason1957]

It is also called a chill haze and can be cleared up with bentonite.

 

[mainshipfred]

I have yet to open a bottle so I can't help right now. I can say in the bottle at 55 degrees the wine is clear. Not that it makes any difference but I didn't back sweetened it either. I'll open a bottle this evening.

 

[montanarick]

have to agree with stickman and cmason

 

[stickman]

Here's a research paper on the use of bentonite with Virginia wine noting the typical difficulty of protein stabilization.

"Protein instability is a widespread issue in Virginia white and Rosé wines. Bentonite is commonly used to improve protein stability, and nearly every manufacturer has one or several bentonite products for sale. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the range of differences among bentonite products. Each bentonite was tested for its ability to stabilize the same barrel-fermented Viognier wine in two rounds of benchtop heat tests.

 

[joeswine]

If you allow the wine to come up to room temperature does it go away over a little time.
Then it's pectin in the wine crystizing ,time in the cold should drop it out.

 

[Boatboy24]

If you allow the wine to come up to room temperature does it go away over a little time.
Then it's pectin in the wine crystizing ,time in the cold should drop it out.

I'll give that a try.

 

[mainshipfred]

Seems strange to me that the 'haze' doesn't appear until chilled. Is that normal w/ protein?

@mainshipfred : you made wine from these same grapes. Any issues upon chilling?

How cloudy was it? I opened a bottle yesterday and it might not be the clearest wine I have but certainly not what I would consider cloudy.

On another note, my initial reaction was I wasn't crazy about it but I almost polished of the bottle when it normally takes me 2 1/2 to 3 days to finish a bottle of wine.

 

[joeswine]

All's not lost

 

[Boatboy24]

How cloudy was it? I opened a bottle yesterday and it might not be the clearest wine I have but certainly not what I would consider cloudy.

On another note, my initial reaction was I wasn't crazy about it but I almost polished of the bottle when it normally takes me 2 1/2 to 3 days to finish a bottle of wine.

It's cloudy enough that it's really bothering me. The other bottle I put in the fridge hasn't settled, but is still cloudy. I enjoy drinking it, but would hesitate to give any away. I'm thinking about dumping 3 gallons back into a carboy and hitting with bentonite. To me, this wine is good enough that I'd like to share it, but would want to have some that is clear. FWIW, the Petite Manseng, also from VA grapes, has remained crystal clear after chilling.

 

[joeswine]

Well there's always that, I've recleared before to be sure , remember it's your process you control it,it works for you.
I was watching a dvd last night about winemakers in bourdour france and they were drinking there young vintage straight out of the barrel talk about cloudy.
But that was just tasting

 

[DizzyIzzy]

If you didn't cold stabilize before bottling then it is possible to be tartrates. It is also possible to be a protein haze if bentonite wasn't used before bottling.

Stickman, how much Bentonite would you use, and would that be added to the secondary?............................Dizzy

 

[stickman]

In my case, the few times I used bentonite were for Riesling and Gewürztraminer wines from Washington. I waited for fermentation to stop, the wine was racked SO2 added and allowed to settle for a couple of months, the bentonite was added at 2g/gal, everything was suspended and allowed to settle clear, then racked again. I'm not saying this is correct procedure for everyone, but this is what I did at the time. I think 2g/gal is a mid-range dose, but the actual amount needed is a mystery, and bench trials are always recommended. I've always been too lazy for full blown trials. In the end the wine was clear, I filtered at .2 micron nominal and back sweetened, and the wine has remained clear in bottles, but did drop tartrate crystals as I bulk stored the wine at 58F and never really cold stabilized.

 

[joeswine]

Bentonite in the beginning as always, about a teaspoon in warm water, not in the secondary wait till all chems have been add then process with sparkoloid or super kleer. #15 @19 are the same wine.

 

[cmason1957]

I'm with Joe here, with all my wines (Kits, from grapes, fruit) I add about 1-2 heaping teaspoons to the wine. Someone asked why add something that is normally added in the clearing phase at the start. If you mix it well, and I almost always put mine in a blender with lots of water and give it a good whirl, until the bentonite is well integrated. It starts the clearing process, removing excess proteins, in the primary.

These words come from the morewinemaking site on the page selling bentonite: "When making a wine kit from concentrate you will often add the bentonite on the first day. This happens for a few reasons. It is used as a nucleation sites for the removal of CO2. Additionally, the bentonite is moved all around the wine by the CO2 and thus less can be used more efficiently in a shorter time period. "