We returned from Washington and Oregon to find our peach wine and Sauvignon Blanc clearing nicely. However the directions for the Sauvignon Blanc had us stir the wine including the sediment. During this stirring there was a lot of dissolved carbon dioxide that foamed up. When we made our less than a gallon of Niagara wine two years ago I never stirred it. Perhaps that was the reason it is slightly carbonated in the bottle.
To the Sauvignon Blanc I added 4 g of potassium metabisulphite and 5.5 grams of potassium sorbate. I am not a fan of the sorbate and I hope the Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t develop a kit wine taste something I dislike and consider a fault. I also added chitosan. The sorbate and metabisulphite should stop the yeast from reproducing. The chitosan should help clarify the wine. After I added these products the wine was cloudy from the stirring. Within a day, there were noticeable deposits on the bottom of the carboy. By the end of two days the cloudiness began to clear. I’ll let the suspended particles settle to the bottom for another six days then rack the wine into another carboy.
My plan is to also rack the peach wine at the same time and add potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate at that time. I’m not as worried about adding the sorbate to the peach wine because we plan to back sweeten it. The sugar has a tendency of masking the effect of the sorbate taste.
Cheers,
Terry
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