How Wine is made Clear Articles | Home Winemaking

By: Homemade Vino

People always wonder how wine can be made so clear. If you’re one of those who make their own wine, you will be aware of fermentation through which wine is made but during which bits of debris tend to collate at the bottom of the wine. For winemakers, this factor is purely natural and acceptable as a part of the entire process but consumers prefer their wine clear. They don’t want to see debris floating inside their wine. Because of these factors, after the fermentation process has been completed, the winemaker will usually clean out the wine before he starts with the process of aging the wine. This cleaning process also tends to have other advantages as well since it increases the shelf life of the wine too.

However, not all is rosy and this process has its disadvantages at the same time. The removal of the floating bits in the wine tends to affect the bouquet of the wine. Despite this and other facts, these bits should be removed in order to make the wine something which can be sold easily. People who make their wine at home also want to make it into something that has a welcoming and inviting appearance.

Several processes are employed in order to make wine as clear as it is in stores. The oldest of these methods is known as racking. This is usually achieved by pouring the wine directly into another bottle and leaving the sediments behind. Bits are usually different things which may be anything from dead yeast, to cellulose, to pieces of skin or stem. It all depends on how well the first racking process goes and you may have to continue this procedure more than once. Red wine tends to be easier to clear out than white wine, red wines may need only a single round of racking before they can be bottled for sale.

Another well known method of cleaning out wine is referred to as fining. If you add a fining instrument to the wine, it starts off the cleaning process. The cleaning agent tends to be a lot heavier than alcohol and water and as such it doesn’t dissolve but it sinks to the bottom. It also attracts the floating debris to stick to it. The process must be carried out very carefully because it tends to disturb the bouquet as well as the flavor of the wine and the ageing process. Fining is a very delicate procedure and it should only be carried out by people who are conversant with the technique and not by people who have no experience with this sort of thing. Different fining instruments can be used in the wine cleaning procedure and they include gelatin, egg white, blood or milk.

Other options exist for people who wish to clear their wine and one of these options is filtering. You filter the wine through something that leaves the wine bits at the bottom. It sounds relatively easy but it must be handled with care as filtering wrongly may leave a clear but tasteless wine behind.