Cellar Craft Fining agents

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

patc

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2009
Messages
209
Reaction score
0
Has anyone tried clearing CC kits with just time as opposed to using the clarifiers? If so were you successful? I know that Mosti clears excellent on it's own from experience but was wondering about CC.
 
I think any wine kit or wine from scratch will clear on it's own given enough time. I think the kits add the clarifiers just to ensure that the kits come out clear within the time frame they have set to be able to bottle on time.

BOB
 
BOB, I used to think the same thing, but have found that some whites just don't seem to want to clear on their own. I've never HAD to use the clarifiers on my reds (the darkness probably masks a lot of protein haze), but did have to use the clarifiers on my riesling and gewurtztraminer, after several months of patiently waiting for them to clear on their own. To respond to the original question, though, neither of those were CC kits, so I can't answer that directly.
 
I recently bottled a CC Red Mountain Cab and it cleared perfectly fine with time and no clarifiers. Then again, you're asking a relative question - my version of a short amount of time may not be in line with others, which is why Bob's statement is so great - if you don't have the time, clarify.


- Jim
 
I'm a newbie; do the clarifiers affect the taste or cause any other adverse results?
 
Generally the clarifiers don't affect the final product to any great degree, but too much of anything can affect flavors a bit. For instance too much bentonite can cause a bit of chalkiness in the wine, but none at all in a white and you may have haze. I use it if I need to and don't if it clears well without it.
 
I am in the process of bulk aging a red mountain cab and BTW it is amazing already but i used the fining agent. but the next two reds that i am going to do i will leave it out as i like to bulk age for a while, my thought on this is i have to think that there has to be more body and flavor with not fining as opposed to fining? I have never done a side by side taste comparison but my feeling is if you do not have to use it then leave it out. Is this more of an opinion type of decision? does anybody have more info?
 
If you are going to leave it on the less for some time then it will add some more complexity and very little body.
 
I've had the CC Amarone and CC Rosso Fortissimo clear on their own. I bulk aged for 1.5 years each one and racked at 3 months, then at 9 months and once more before filtering and bottling. I did not use any fining agents on those wines. I'd say they took about a good 6 or 7 months to get nice and clear, but still threw sediment after that.
 
Dean, did you add sulfites at 3 month intervals on these two?
 
Dean one more thing, did you use the sorbate as well? if so did you use it at stabiizing or did you use it at bottling?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top