white wine won't fine

Have you sulfited it yet? That will tend to bleach the color.

There appears to be a

Sounds to me like you're rushing things. Let it sit, topped up and sulfited, for a few months. It should spontaneously clarify pretty well on its own. Then you can hit it with Bentonite and Kieselsohl to heat stabilize it, and chill it to cold stabilize it and tamp down the lees. It should be quite clear after that.

You're too impatient if you're hitting it with fining agents so soon after fermentation. All that suspended matter is too much of a load for finings to work effectively on. Fining is not primarily for clarification; that's frequently one result of fining, but it's a _side_ benefit. Fining is mostly about stability and flavor improvement.

Tom S

Thanks Tom,

Yes I have sulfited and it is in good stable condition. Its just that I've never seen such opaque wine after fermentation. Fermentation was complete more than a month ago and still the wine is opaque (for a white of course). I'll wait a while.

If it clears to mildly tubid, can I re-stir the finings or are they spent?

Dan

You'll need to rack and fine again. It would be a good idea to do some bench trials to determine what to fine with.

Frankly, it worries me that the wine is brown after fermentation and sulfiting. A young Chardonnay should have a distinctly perceptible greenish cast to it - even if it has been fermented in the presence of wood. Maybe it'll look more normal after it settles out.

Tom S

My Chardonay looked green after it was done fermenting. I thought something was wrong with it. over a month in the garage with oak, it is turning yellow now.

It is clear as can be, with no added finning

I don't have much volume to do bench trials, only three gallons! I'm concerned about the color too. I have a smaller volume in a one litre bottle in the fridge that I am saving for topping. It's color is better after cold stabilization.

This is my first white wine from grapes. I pressed pretty hard with an Idrophore press. One press pass and then a break up of the pomace and a second press. Maybe I pressed too hard and got high tannins?

The numbers were:

Brix 24.5 T.A. 7.2 gm/l Don't have a pH recorded but I recall it was OK.

Fermented cool at around 55 degrees with EC1118. It was slow.

I don't know how this will turn out. I guess I'll wait and see. It is stable and can sit as long as necessary.

Thanks for your comments.

Dan