In white wine production following
fermentation and
racking, the wine is cold stabilised to reduce tartrate
crystals
appearing when finished white wine is refrigerated. These
'wine
crystals' or 'wine diamonds' are removed by dropping the
temperature to minus 2 degrees Celsius for 1
hour and
seeding the wine with cream of
tartar. This causes the crystals to separate from the wine
and
settle to the bottom of the tank. The wine is then transferred to a new
tank leaving the tartrates behind.
White wine is also heat stabilised removing unstable proteins by adding bentonite. The bentonite binds with the proteins while in tank causing them to precipitate. The wine is then transferred to a new tank leaving the precipitate behind. This is to prevent your wine from going cloudy when it is heated in the boot of your car on a hot summer afternoon!
White wine is also heat stabilised removing unstable proteins by adding bentonite. The bentonite binds with the proteins while in tank causing them to precipitate. The wine is then transferred to a new tank leaving the precipitate behind. This is to prevent your wine from going cloudy when it is heated in the boot of your car on a hot summer afternoon!
Storage in Tanks
 From left: Variable Tanks,
Fixed Volume Tanks, Transfering the wine for filtering
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In red wine production, secondary
fermentation and ageing takes anywhere from 6 - 24 months.
Malolactic bacterial culture is
added and malic acid is converted into the milder lactic acid.
Throughout the period, wine is kept under an airlock to
protect
the wine from oxidation. Proteins from the grapes bind with
the tannin from the oak barrels
and the remaining yeast cells and other fine particles settle to the
bottom gradually clearing the wine. 'Racking' transfers the
wine
off of the lees to new clean tanks or barrels.
Storage in Barrels
 From left:
Wine into barrels, Barrels, Lees from the barrels
|
The secondary fermentation and ageing
can occur
either in stainless steel tanks or in oak barrels depending on the
goals of the winemaker.
Filtering
 From left: Pad Filter, Tank
transfer, Checking filtered wine
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Both red and white wines are filtered
prior to bottle to 'clean' and 'polish' the wine.
Filtration can be done using a pad filter as pictured above where wine is forced through a series of filter pads.
Filtration can be done using a pad filter as pictured above where wine is forced through a series of filter pads.
 Earth Filter
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Filtration can also be done using an
earth filter where wine is passed through a cake of diatomaceous earth.