Page 22 - Grapevine July-Aug 2020
P. 22
In The Winery
Other Helpful Tips:
Winemaking Consultant Make sure the wines or juices are low in Carbon
Thomas J. Payette Dioxide gas since the bubbles may attach to the
“Winemaker of the Year” bentonite preventing it from settling in the tank or
lab beaker.
Over 25 Years Experience
PH affects the rate of settling – lower pH wines
Tom Payette, a premier generally settle faster in almost all
hands on and analytical cases.
winemaking consultant,
serves clients throughout The bentonite protein reaction is a positive nega-
the United States. tive charge reaction – and then settling allows sep-
aration from the reacted bentonite.
From the construction
of your business to the
cork in your bottle to Most winemakers leave the bentonite in the wine
your consumers. tank to settle roughly 20 days. Anything past 30
days may result in the proteins sloughing off the
Call Thomas or check bentonite since the positive /negative charge may
his website for more weaken.
information...
The ultimate goal of a fining trial is to use the
least amount of fining agent possible to achieve the
Phone: 540-672-0387 stability desired for the wine.
www.winemakingconsultant.com
Use pipettes to accurately measure the fining
agents. Serological pipettes offer nice results with
inspect, under a bright light source, for any sed- incremental additions. Think of how you can per-
iment or haze that may have formed in the test form fining trials in your lab and set aside future
tubes of wine. Compare to the control sample as time to work with your plan. You will be amazed
well. Re-examine the following day to see if other at how much refining can be done to wine and
changes have taken place with a flocculate forma- how easy it really is. Make this a part of your work
tion or haze. Most winemakers may use eyesight improvement schedule for the year to come!
while others trust the Nephelometer listed above.
(I have always just used eyesight) Summary: Recall this is only one task to perform
on white / rose wines wines generally prior to bot-
Determine what fining level gives the wine the tling. Often three months from bottling is a time
desired protein/heat stability. to look at the blends to perform finings and other
stabilities before bottling. Bentonite finings in
Once you have determined what amount of ben- the cellar should settle 20 days, roughly, to avoid
tonite is necessary to make the wine protein/heat heavy racking losses. Don’t forget aroma trials also
stable then perform the fining in the tank at that before adding bentonite. Copper additions before
same rate. For example if you find two pounds per adding bentonite may help remove any excess cop-
1000 gallons remained clear in the testing after per after reaction. Cold/tartrate stability actions
heating then you have determined that rate should are typically taken after achieving protein stability.
be used in the cellar after proper rehydration of Those wineries still going “unfined and unfiltered”
the bentonite. Once the wine is racked off the fin- may look at their products with the above tests just
ing agent and collected in a clean tank you should to make sure they are comfortable with the possi-
perform another heat test, without the trials as a ble results.
pass / fail test only, to determine if the wine per-
formed in the tank as the trial predicted. Always
double check the results after performing the fining
in the tank.
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