1. Home
  2. Winemaking Craft Forum
  3. Clinitest on dry reds

Clinitest on dry reds

As I wrestle with my '04 cabernet sauvignon to bring primary fermentation to completion, I thought I'd ask the group for opinions on Clinitest results in dry red wines. In particular, I'm curious if there's a practical threshold you look for to feel reasonably comfortable that a dry wine will not be at risk for microbial spoilage due to RS? Secondly, does anthocyanin concentration affect the assay?

My current cab hasn't tested below 0.5% RS but has no perceptable RS (at least not to me). It does happen to be very deeply pigmented. Perhaps Pasteur Red is a poor closer? Opinions on other appropriate yeasts for this type of wine is appreciated.

Thanks RD

Reply to
rddamiani
Loading thread data ...

RD, Dry, red fermentations often contain from 0.1 to 0.2 percent of unfermentable sugar. So, many winemakers assume that red wines showing 0.2% or less sugar are dry and reasonably stable. Anthocyanin pigments do not affect the assay significantly, but Clinitest results tend to be too high (true values are less than the measured values). I have never found Pasteur Red to be a poor closer, but I prefer EC-1118 yeast for most red wines. Lum Del Mar, California, USA

Reply to
Lum

Thanks for your thoughts, Lum. Sorry this post appears twice in slightly different forms - this first attempt appeared to be unsuccessful so I resubmitted a few days later. Both you and Tom S have expressed similar opinions on Pasteur Red's ability and reasonable 'dryness'. It seems early pressing is likely to be my problem. By the way, your book has been a terrific help to me.

RD

Reply to
rddamiani

Lum

I am not sure if you saw the post that I did a few weeks ago. It seems that Bayer is no longer going to make - or has already stopped making - Clinitest. We have used the newer product - Multistix Pro Reagent Strip - and it seems to work fine, but I have heard few comments about their accuracy in wine. I have used them and compared them with enzymatic reducing sugar results, but this is a one dog study.

Comments?

Regards

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry DeAngelis

Lum is right about the definition of a dry red being less than or equal to

0.2%. But I would not call a 0.5% red a semi sweet either. If it tastes like you want it, great! But do not worry about microbial infection. No pathogens live in wine. There is a slight chance that it may start fermenting again if you do not stabilize it but I doubt that 0.5% would cause a danger of burst bottles. If you are worried about infection, then use a standard dose of Sulfite. But you should be using sulfite to prevent oxidation anyway and that would be enough. If you are worried about refermentation, give it a dose of Sorbase as well. If you let it bulk age for at least a year and it is perfectly clear, I would not worry about refementation.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.