OK might be a stupid question but eh I'll ask it anyways. I am making a blueberry pomegranate. racked to the carboy last night at 1.006. When filtering do i treat this as a red and use a 5 micron filter or should i use my 1???
It's VERY early to be worrying about this.i do add fining agents. in the primary i always ad benonite. then i racked in to the carboy. after about a week when it is completely dry i add k-meta, sorbate and sparkloid. let that sit for another 2 weeks and rack again leaving the sediment behind. that is when i bottle. really clear after that but i figured filtering wouldnt hurt.
right now, 1 day in the carboy, it looks just like tomato soup.
There are two main reasons why filtering of wine has become so popular.
1. Commercial wineries that make lower grade wines want to get the wine into the bottle as quickly as they can.....so that they can sell it.
2. Kit makers want to get it into the bottle quickly too, but also realize that novice winemakers have more of a chance to contaminate the wine the longer the time before bottling.
In both of these cases, they are trying to get rid of any sediment at the bottom of the bottle which can be a turn off to the wine drinker. Time is money and time can allow for more contamination, so the filter gets rid of the this sediment.
Most good and great wineries are more concerned with the final taste of the wine. Bulk ageing gives the wine uniform exposure to the chemicals produced (phenols, aldehydes, etc.), proper oaking, etc. and only think of bottling the wine when it is ready to be bottled. Many of these wineries don't even use fining agents, realizing that the sediment will eventually settle and the wine will clear without them, and for every fining agent used there is some negatives to the wines. Since they are bulk ageing for long periods of time, why use the fining agents at all?
Most home wine makers forget about, and most cheap wine makers don't care about the three major rules of wine making. 1. Patience, 2. Patience, and 3. Patience. For the home winemaker, getting it into your mouth as early as possible can override what is necessary to make a really good wine.
OK...so where am I going with this. The best wines are made by letting them do their thing, and clearing is one of those things that they will do on their own if left alone. I'm not saying don't use finings or filter, I'm just saying to realize the effects that either will have on your wine. The best compromise is to let the wine clear, then filter it to remove any goobers that you might have stirred up during the last racking. The need to use coarse filters means that either the wine isn't ready to be bottled yet, or that you have significant problems with the wine itself. The use of sterilization filters can have a great effect on the final wine, actually filtering out some of the long chain polysaccharides that contribute to mouthfeel and perceived sweetness.
Do like most of the good wineries do, let the wine clear on it's own, then as a safety blanket, use only a medium polishing filter to make sure that anything in the wine due to your lack of meticulous handling are eliminated. And also recognize that in reds, no matter what you do, some sediment in the bottle after ageing is normal.
A great winemaker (the father of the California wine industry) once told me to always remember "Patience is a virtue, but in making wine, it is all ten of the commandments rolled into one."
Bill
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