Wine cloudier after racking!?

[xzarfna]

Hey there!
I have been making a bunch of "unusual" wines recently. These are the flavors I have on the go:
Banana
Kiwi
Cherry
Prune
Elderflower
Tropical

Now - before racking, 2 of these wines were amazingly clear - the Banana and Kiwi, You could just about read print through them. So, in order to make them perfect i racked them with some bentonite thrown in.
The results are as follows:
Cherry: Was Opaque, now looks like a perfect Red Wine
Prune: Was Opaque - now nearly clear
Banana: Was nearly perfect - now hazy
Kiwi: As Banana
Tropical: Was Opaque, now hazy but transparent.

What could have caused this unusual (Maybe - I'm kinda a rookie) behavior?

All wines were made using 2 litres of juice/pulp mixed, 1kg of sugar and topped up to 4.5l in the demijohn with Cold Water. Champagne yeast was added once the must reached room temp as usual.

 

[Arne]

I imagine you picked up some of the lees when you racked. That and the bentonite could of clouded the wine a bit. Let it sit and it should clear right up. Arne.

 

[jamesngalveston]

you made prune wine...how does it taste...i like prunes

 

[Turock]

Bentonite will make them really cloudy for several weeks---just let them sit and clarify. If you get all the bentonite racked off and they're still somewhat cloudy, refrigerating them for a couple more weeks will often assist them in completely clearing.

 

[JohnT]

I agree with the above, you picked up some lees when you racked. This will settle out on its own over time. You can then rack the wine again.

Most rack wine several times.

 

[xzarfna]

Actually tasted a bit of the prune while i was racking it. Oddly enough tastes like a Cream Sherry, very nice!

If you want to give it a go, it was 1 litre of Prune juice, and 1 litre of red grape.
Boil the juice with 1kg of sugar and a couple of teabags instead of tannin (Tea flavor is actually intentional for this one)
Add to Demijohn and add Cold water to 4.5l and leave until room temp (You know all this )
then just add the yeast (i used a sachet of lalvin champagne yeast, re-hydrated as per instructions on the back) and nutrient.

Then just leave to ferment and treat like any basic wine in terms of racking etc

I actually like the wine already but i can understand if someone might want to add citric acid to taste


Also, as an Update, the wines are all now nearly perfectly clear, yesterday the haze began to flocculate and today there is only a very slight amount visible, but text is perfectly readable through the wine! - apart from the cherry and prune of course, as they are very dark.

 

[FABulousWines]

It is always a thrill for me to watch wine clear. I am glad to hear you are making progress. Remember, time is the best ingredient in wine making.

 

[Turock]

Even tho they appear to be clear NOW, I'd let them sit a while longer to be sure all sediment is out,especially since you added bentonite. Sometimes you can be fooled into thinking they're clear, then you bottle and they become cloudy again. This is because they still have micro sediment in them--proteins and the like.

 

[Elmer]

I know you answered this already, but
Prunes?
Really?
Prunes?
Seriously?
Prunes?

 

[jamesngalveston]

morning turock....what about filtering at that point..would that be a plus, for clearing are not.

 

[FABulousWines]

I am interested in hearing Turock's answer too James, but I always like to filter when I get to what I think is a clear wine. Otherwise you may go through a number of filters before you get to a truly clear wine. I am always amazed at how much stuff is still in my wine when I thought it was clear.

The best solution in all things wine is time.

 

[JohnT]

I know you answered this already, but
Prunes?
Really?
Prunes?
Seriously?
Prunes?

Beats Welches (seriously, I am going to hell for this one)

 

[Turock]

Oh, you could filter if you want once you're sure you've got it as clear as possible.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Filtering is a good option. But keep in mind filtering, like turock said, is not meant to clear wine but rather give a polished finished