Ice Wine Clearing

Dec 06, 2004 2 Replies

Hello fellow winemakers, I am new to winemaking having only made a couple of batches. Recently I decided to make ice wine. The problem is that shorty after I did the second racking and the wine was just starting to clear (the wine was clear about one third of the way down the glass carboy) I had to move. During the move the sediment became suspended again and now it seems to be very slow to clear. I am wondering if it is ok to just let it sit until it clears again or will this affect the wine? Should I be adding some clearing agents again? Is it O.K to let it sit longer when according to the instructions I should be bottling it by now? My apologies if this has been asked and answered many times but I did a google search and could not find the answers i need. Any help would be greatly aprreciated.



Regards, Alan


Alan,

Provided the wine is in a glass or stainless steel vessel and is topped up (little or no air in the vessel), it is highly preferable to let it sit for as long as you can tolerate (up to probably a maximum of a year for a kit wine) and let it clear on its own. The timeframes given for kits are generally minimums and assume that the person making it wants instant(ish) gratification. Better wine can be made by substitution patience for much of the chemicals provided in the typical wine kit, but I won't get into that here as there have been many many posts about that topic on this newsgroup over the last few years.

Good Luck!

Richard

Alan Ruether wrote:

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