Filtering your Wine

I make sure that I really do a great job in fining wines. In case you wondered what fining is, i'll explain it to you. Clear wine has had all residual "total dissolved solids" removed. To do this one needs to rack the wine several times and as well add fining agents to help the TDS to fall to the bottom of the carboy. You then rack (siphon) the clear wine leaving the TDS behind.

You can find fining agents at your homebrew store. But what if you wanted to make your wine sparkle. Well then you'll need to filter it as well.

There are several types of wine filters out there. I use the Vinimat 8 inch disc filter. I attach a large vacuum pump which ends up sucking the wine through the filter. It works really well.

Health Benefits of Wine

This pic is a repost from my Facebook account. I'm not the author or creator of it, but it's worth reading.

Wine is Healthy

Did you know that alcoholic beverages (such as wine) have the 13 nutrients necessary for human life?

Make your own wine and drink it wisely.

Here's to your health!

Did You Know?

Did you know that white wine can be produced from white and red grapes, whereas red wine can only be made from red grapes?

Carboy Headspace or Ullage

Once wine hits the carboy for some aging one has to watch how much headspace or Ullage there us. In case you were wondering what Ullage is, it's the air space between the wine and the airlock. Too much Ullage and your wine can oxidize.

The problem we winemakers encounter is having the right sized carboy to reduce the Ullage. One way to do this is to have enough similar wine on hand to top up your carboy. But sometimes the size of carboy doesn't match the amount of wine. What do you do then?

I have solved this problem by buying 3 and 4 liter used wine bottles. The openings to these bottles are large enough to accept a bung and airlock.

Check out the pics below to see what bottles I use to reduce carboy headspace or Ullage.

Savouring the 1996 Chambertin

My son was able to get a hold of 3 great wines from a friend of his. Don't worry it was all legit no gun fire or thievery involved. One of these wine was a 1996 Chambertin.

I tried to find out more information on this wine with a little success. This Chambertin is a full bodied red burgundy wine. It's vintage is well known. The pricing of it on the Internet ranged up to $556.00. I checked at a local BC Liquor store and the closest vintage with a price they carried was $115.00. However this was not the exact same wine as mine.

We (my wife, son and myself) savoured this wine with beef and mushroom sauce. It definitely tasted mature in that it had more tannin than most wine we drink, plus the oak was evident but not overly powerful. It was a dry wine and as it remained open to the air it became more likable.

My son wasn't overly impressed with it, my wife and I enjoyed the fact that it was a nice wine, different from what we usually drank. I liked that fact that it survived so many years and was a pleasing wine to drink.

In my future posts I'll cover the opening of the 2 other wines my son gave me. These are from California and from the mid 1990's.

My Zinfandel Wine

My Zinfandel wine has gone from the primary fermenter to the wine press and now to the carboy.

Before I put the wine in the carboy I still added a small amount of yeast nutrient to make sure the primary fermentation comes complete.

In about 4 to 7 days I'll rack the wine off of the rest of the solids. No matter how careful you are in the transferring of the wine from the press you'll have some solids as well. It's best not to let the wine sit with those solids for too long because it might pick up some "off" tastes.

I used 4 boxes of Zinfandel Grapes each weighing 36 pounds. As far as I can figure out I've got about 39 liters of wine after the pressing. With my next racking off the solids I will have a little less wine.

My Zinfandel wine to date has a nice dark colour and a wonderful aroma. Stay tuned for more on this wine.