Filtering Wine That Has Been Bottled

[Mike Parisi]

A buddy has just finished his first wine kit, a WE Pinot Noir, 8 week kit. He actually didn't bottle until about 12 weeks after starting it and almost 10 weeks after fermentation finished. He has sampled it, says it tastes good, but says it has a lot of suspended particles that won't filter out using a coffee filter. He lives in another city, so I haven't been able to look at it to see what is going on. Here is what I have told him so far:

Take thw bottle out of the rack carefully and let it stand upright for a couple of hours before opening.
Pour it carefully and stop before any sediment is picked up or decant it without picking up sediment, then let it rest
Put a bottle upright in the refrigerator to see if the particles settle out.

Are there any other steps he can take? Or is there a filter that will take care of particles that are too fine for a coffee filter?

Thasnks for any help

 

[cmason1957]

A coffee filter really isn't a filter. it keeps big chunks of things out, but only just barely. My guess is the wine isn't fully degassed and was holding suspended particles in it, so even setting it upright isn't really going to help those fall out. But that's always a first try, upright for a few hours or days before serving and if the fall out decant into something else.

 

[Mike Parisi]

Thanks. Hadn't thought it might not be fully degassed. If refrigerating it didn't help (he will know tonight, it has been in the refrigerator for a couple of days), Should I have him shake the bottle after removing the cork (finger over the top, of course) to see if there is a pop? And would that allow enough gas to be removed to allow settling?

 

[KCCam]

A coffee filter really isn't a filter. it keeps big chunks of things out, but only just barely. My guess is the wine isn't fully degassed and was holding suspended particles in it, so even setting it upright isn't really going to help those fall out. But that's always a first try, upright for a few hours or days before serving and if the fall out decant into something else.

And a filter fine enough to take out the particles will immediately plug up. Filters (5 or 1 micron) should only be used to polish an already clear wine, never use them to try to clear a cloudy wine. I know, hounddawg filters everything he racks, every time, but he ages everything. My bet is his wine is clear before it gets racked the first time.

 

[bstnh1]

Ahhhhh ....... that little line near the bottom of all wine kit instructions: "Never bottle cloudy wine."

 

[JohnT]

I would uncork, decant them into a carboy, add k-meta, and wait for the wine to clear before re-bottling. another thing to do is to simply let the wine clear in the bottle, then decant before drinking.

 

[Mike Parisi]

Ahhhhh ....... that little line near the bottom of all wine kit instructions: "Never bottle cloudy wine."

Although I wasn't there to see, he said the wine was clear before he bottled it. If it is co2 holding particles in suspension, could he get rid of those by shaking the bottle, with then neck covered, after opening it? Naturally, then letting it sit to let the particles sink.

 

[bstnh1]

Although I wasn't there to see, he said the wine was clear before he bottled it. If it is co2 holding particles in suspension, could he get rid of those by shaking the bottle, with then neck covered, after opening it? Naturally, then letting it sit to let the particles sink.

I suppose you could do that IF it's CO2 that's causing the particles to be suspended. But with particles that fine, it would take quite a while for the bottle to clear. I agree with John T - the best thing to do is to pour them back into a carboy, degas, add K-Meta, let it clear and rebottle it.

 

[Mike Parisi]

That would be 1/4 tsp of K-Meta for the 6 gallons (acutally now probably down to closer to 5 gallons? He has had a bottle in the refrigerator for 4-5 days and will take it out tonight to see how it is. Hopefully everything will have settled and it is no longer a problem.

 

[hounddawg]

i bulk age every thing, different lengths of time depending on the wine, tons & tons of patience, that is my biggest reason for skeeter pee, patience is easy when you're sitting on a big stash of skeeter pee or DDDB, keeps me out of my long term wines, i agree, i believe it would benefit from a while in a carboy, both in clearness as well as taste.
Dawg