QAfter I stabilized my wine, I added French medium toast oak beans to the Chardonnay 3/4 cup (new beans), Sauvignon Blanc 1/3 cup (new beans), Ruisseau Blanc 3/4 cup (used beans), and French Colombard 3/4 cup (used beans). All the wines are 19 L. Only the Chardonnay turned milky, cloudy and hazy. I used Claro K.C. a fining mixture made up of kieselsol and gelatin. I mixed in the kieselsol and in 12 hours there was 1/2 inch of sediment that had collected on the bottom. I racked the wine before adding the clarifier or gelatin. After three days there was another 1/2 inch of white sediment. The wine is becoming very clear with that delicate straw color. Why did only the Chardonnay react while the others remained crystal clear? Robert A. Klaus Houston, Texas AYou present an interesting situation, one that is common to all winemakers: Why does one batch do something screwy when other batches, treated the same way, do not? The answer is that all wines are different and will react accordingly – or not. Wine will
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When a winemaker gets their hands on some highly coveted Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, he wants to make sure that the oak quality matches the grape. But he balks at the price tag of a new oak barrel. Get some tips for high-quality oak alternatives and ways to correct a raspberry wine with weird numbers.
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The second and perhaps the most important reason is that if you’re doing your final rinsing with an acid blend that contains malic acid, you’re potentially releasing a food source for various bacteria into your equipment and into your cellar’s environment (like drains).