Flakes in my wine!?!?

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jsbeckton

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So I made a 1G Wine Expert Cabernet in May (no skins), following the schedule and instructions pretty much as instructed. Only difference is that after fining with chitosan at room temp for 10 days I also chilled it down to about 30F for a few days to assist with the clearing. After a few weeks I racked to a bottling bucket leaving all sediment behind and bottled. It was very clear.

After about a month in the bottle curiosity got the best of me so I opened and drank one. It was still young of course but i was pleasantly surprised how good it was already....and beautifully clear.

Here I am a month later and when I hold a bottle up to the light I see these flakes settled out on the side that are now back in suspension from disturbing the bottle. What can this be if it was clear at 30 days then has flakes at 60 days?

I also have a 1 gallon batch of WE Merlot that I did pretty much the same just lagging a week behind this one and it has no flakes.

Any ideas what this is?
 
FYI, I have not yet opened one. Will do that later this week to see if there is any impact on taste.
 
They are most likely what some call "wine diamonds" (or potassium bitartrate). This is naturally occurring and is harmless (other than to clarity).

Many winemakers will perform a cold stabilization of their wine to encourage the formation of wine diamonds prior to bottling.

My advice... Do not worry. Just decant your wine into a carafe and enjoy.
 
Ok, I had heard about that which is why I dropped it to 30F to get that to drop out. I also thought that looked like sand/salt rather than these "flakes" in suspension.
 
So turns out those flakes turn to a cloud when pouring. So the result is really only noticeable in the last glass since it's a red but still not sure why this happened after fining and coolng for a few weeks before racking to bottle?
 
It is most likely wine diamonds, but it also could be other things too. Them dissolving into a cloud has me second guessing.

Any luck posting a photo?
 
I tried but given that it's a red in a dark green bottle the pictures didn't really capture it well. Then once I poured it was almost undetectable due to dispersion so again hard to capture. So much so that maybe they were there all along. I had thought that wine diamonds were from cool down but it had been anything but cool in my basement since making this!
 
jsbeckton said:
I tried but given that it's a red in a dark green bottle the pictures didn't really capture it well. Then once I poured it was almost undetectable due to dispersion so again hard to capture. So much so that maybe they were there all along. I had thought that wine diamonds were from cool down but it had been anything but cool in my basement since making this!
Click to expand...

Is the wine fizzy at all?
 
JohnT said:
Is the wine fizzy at all?
Click to expand...

Yeah...JohnT, I'm thinking CO2...either not degassed good and some stuff in suspension or it wasn't quite finished when bottled and JSB is seeing a bit of yeast.

For what it's worth JSB...I had a perfect clear plum wine, bottled, now has dust. Next plum wine, I racked two additional times...perfectly clear, bottled...guess what? Dust again...not nearly as much, but it's there. Just makes you want to scream...but that feeling passes after the second glass!
 
If the timeline is correct, it sounds like you bottled 2-3 months after starting the clearing process. In most of my wines, which are very clear in that same time frame, during the next racking 3 months later, there is still a dusting of sediment that has dropped out of the wine, some even 6 months later.

If that fine dusting occurs in your bottles it can compact into a very thin layer which could certainly be flaky when disturbed a bit, and turn back into a cloud of sediment when stirred up. I too have seen this in my early winemaking, but not again since aging longer before bottling. I still have some of my early wines with this characteristic.

All of the diamonds I have seen are more crystalline in nature and don't dissolve easily when the wine is jostled around a bit, but dissolve very quickly when water is added to the empty bottle.
 
Johnd said:
If the timeline is correct, it sounds like you bottled 2-3 months after starting the clearing process. In most of my wines, which are very clear in that same time frame, during the next racking 3 months later, there is still a dusting of sediment that has dropped out of the wine, some even 6 months later.

If that fine dusting occurs in your bottles it can compact into a very thin layer which could certainly be flaky when disturbed a bit, and turn back into a cloud of sediment when stirred up. I too have seen this in my early winemaking, but not again since aging longer before bottling. I still have some of my early wines with this characteristic.

All of the diamonds I have seen are more crystalline in nature and don't dissolve easily when the wine is jostled around a bit, but dissolve very quickly when water is added to the empty bottle.
Click to expand...


Yup,

Like johnD said, wine diamonds do not readily dissolve so I had second thoughts about it after reading the latest post.

If you wine is fizzy, then it could b that you wine warmed up a little and yeast may have become active again (especially if you had any residual sugar).
 
Nope, it was't the slightest bit fizzy and even when pouring hard to try to get sediment to come out on first pour there was no noticeable fizziness. I have been brewing beer for a long time and know that cooling down to 30F and adding gelatin will make it crystal clear but have no prior experience with wine clarifiers. Wine yeast must be w little more determined or the clarifiers work a little more slowly!

I plan to bulk age future wines longer. This was just my first 1G batch to see if I liked it. Well I now have 18 gallons going with another 12 waiting for space so I guess it's good to have learned this lesson now.
 
jsbeckton said:
I plan to bulk age future wines longer. QUOTE]

You're on the right track! It only took me a little while to figure it out too, IMO, sitting idly in a carboy or barrel is the best way to get 'em clear. Admittedly, when I do fruit wines, Island Mist type stuff, I don't wait long at all, but always run them through the BV Super Jet polishing filter before bottling. Higher end reds and whites, whether they be grapes or kits get the time treatment, 9 - 12 months is my minimum goal there.
Click to expand...
 

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