Bentonite & Tartrate Crystals

Today Stephen worked on racking off some of our 2009 whites. First we took the wine off of the fine lees, which are the inactive yeast left in the wine. They fine lees settle down to the bottom of the stainless steel tanks and this way we are able to take just the wine out of the tank! After this was done Stephen added bentonite to the wine.

In Stephen's words bentonite is "an absorbent aluminum phyllosilicate." The way I understand it is that bentonite is put into the wine to absorb proteins from the wine.

After this has been done we are moving wine to a tank and then taking the temperature to 28 degrees! Apparently, the tank is going to be covered with ice in the near future, I'll be sure to take a picture and post it once that happens. By chilling the wine we are able to sort out the tartrate crystals before we bottle the wine. Tartrates are added to the wine to try and create a balanced wine, with the tartrates bringing up the acidity of the wine. Apparently, if we leave the tartrates in the wine it will form crystals in the wine and sometimes cause it to turn opaque when chilled. I guess it is a more a matter of vanity than taste!