Sorbate and Cloudy Wine

[Jesse Brown]

I had peach wine and bronze muscadine wine that I kept for 6 months in large 5 gallon carboys. It was absolutely perfectly clear. I added some sorbate and back sweetened. I bottled 2 days later and used a 1 micron filter. After 6 months of aging in the bottle, there's some "stuff" at the bottom of the bottle. It's like a thin film. When you shake the bottle, it breaks up and makes the wine cloudy, and now there's little floating things.

What happened? It was absolutely perfectly clear before I bottled it. I even filtered it before bottling. I'm wondering if the sorbate put something in it that needed to come out. It tastes great, but looks terrible if you shake the bottle just a little before pouring. if you are careful, you can pour, and the film stays at the bottom.

 

[salcoco]

the sorbate is not the issue. I would guess you are seeing protein sediment. especially if it the peach wine. you can decant the clear wine into a carboy and rebottle. take the cloudy part into another carboy add a fining agent like Super Kleer to remove the sediment. in future add bentonite in the pre fermentation juice or must. it will flocculate the proteins in the wine during fermentation and help clearing wine later.

 

[Jesse Brown]

Protein sediment. OK. I figured all of the settling would be over by 6 months, but apparently, that's not right. Can bentonite be added later (like during bulk storage) or does it need to be added during fermentation.

 

[Johnd]

Protein sediment. OK. I figured all of the settling would be over by 6 months, but apparently, that's not right. Can bentonite be added later (like during bulk storage) or does it need to be added during fermentation.

It can be added later, though the dosage needs to be higher post fermentation than if you add it during fermentation.