Clear wine in a week?

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.

bowhunter32

Junior
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
20
Reaction score
1
Okay so I've made a few hundred bottles of wine for my upcoming wedding. I have 2 batches (peach, strawberry peach) that I used boiled down juices to backsweetening. I used a 2 part clarifier on them immediately after backsweetening 3 weeks ago. They are still not clear. Wedding is in 2 weeks. Any thoughts for clearing them in a week? Use 2 part clarifier again? Use a different clarifier? Basement is at 50° where they are currently.
 
Change the wedding date - That wine is never going to be clear enough to serve by then unless you spend a bundle on filters and even then it's a long shot.

Or serve the wine in opaque glasses.
 
Yes, I would try the 2 part clarifier again along with a another dose of pectin enzyme. I've had to do this in the past with my peach batches. Funny to me how apple clears so quickly and easily and peach is such a problem child.
 
I agree with @bkisel - rack off of the first round of SuperKleer (if you haven't already), hit with pectic first, then the SuperKleer again.
 
Even at warmer temps (65-75 )Pectic Enzyme is going to take longer than a week really work.

When was the fermentation completed? Chances are that if the wine hasn't been aging for at least 4-5 months it's going to have a sharp edge to it

Filtering starting with course filters and working down to the finest may give some benefit but it would not completely clear the wine. ]

Using more fining agents runs the very strong risk of stripping out colors and taste. Most of those agents would require at least a week to work at a minimum with the wine already at a warmer temp.

Have you already bottled the wine? You make the comment "They are still not clear. Wedding is in 2 weeks. Any thoughts for clearing them in a week? "

I hate to rain on wedding plans but this doesn't sound like there is any path to success that is obtainable within 2 weeks time.
 
How much time do you wait between the enzyme and the SuperKleer? Thanx.

In this case I'd go a week. Normally I'd wait longer than that but I'm not in a hurry like the OP is. Keller cites 4-5 days to clear a pectic haze. He also gives the method for testing for pectic haze using methylated spirits. I've never done this test but in this case it might be worthwhile, because if the test is negative, then OP won't waste a week waiting for the pectic enzyme to fail to work.

There is also a test for starch haze which might be worth doing, see the Keller link above. Desparate times call for desparate measures...
 
How do they taste? If they taste good, maybe look for frosted wine glasses - nobody will even notice the haze. :)
 
Will be interesting to see if we hear from Bowhunter about this soon. Given his timeline he's about 4 days away from the wedding (?)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top