Viognier Chile Juice

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.

dvizz

Junior
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
My first shot at making white wine as I have previously fermented and bottled several different red grape wines over the years. After I transferred the juice from the primary fermentation pails to the two carboys I am amazed how the juice resembles grape fruit juice. I plan on letting the wine ferment for approx. 11-12 months as that has been my MO for the red wine I have bottled with good success. Any ideas on the clarifying of the white wine during the fermentation and bottling process. I have read some people will filter the white wine to further clarify it. Is that necessary, or will it become clearer through fermentation and racking.
Thanks
 
Ferment or age? Most of the fermentation should be done within a couple of weeks. Generally, a good starting point for getting the wine clear would be to let the sediment drop out over time.

For a white, cold stabilizing is typically a good idea since they tend to be served cold. Let it age, and keep the sulfites up and you should be fine. Filtering is a choice, but it can do a good deal to make a wine really nice and clear. But, for most purposes time and a fining agent such as superklear typically do the trick.
 
Well, things like superklear tend to work pretty quickly. But, I would wait until it is nearing ready to bottle that way you can make sure most of the CO2 is out of suspension.
 
So you will:
-Ferment to dry
-Rack off of the gross lees
-Stabilize with kmeta
-Bulk age until co2 is gone
-That may be long enough to clear your wine naturally; if not, add Superkleer then rack off the compacted fine lees
-Bottle

If your wine will be back sweetened, you will need sorbate.

Good luck!

Heather
 
Back
Top