On Feb 22, 4:59 pm, Wayne Harris wrote:
On Feb 22, 11:16 am, "Robert Lewis" wrote:



Jim,

Howdy. My thought is that if you're gonna let it sit anyway, you might as
well just let it settle naturally. Then you can do a final racking right
before bottling.

Alternately, if you can find room in your refrigerator, you can put the
carboy in there for a week or so. That'll expedite settling as well as cold
stabilize.

Robert

"jim" wrote in message

...
Hi, I started a red wine made from my father in law's grapes. There's
only a gallon of it, but it is rich and dense, almost black in
colour. I think it will be pretty good when it is finished,
especially since it came from a fairly random grape vine which wasn't
sold with wine in mind. I tasted it on second racking and it was
better than the bottled french burgandy I was drinking the day
before...

I usually use a laser pointer and a strong torch to ascertain the
clarity of my 1 gallon and sometimes 5 gallon wines. It usually gives
a pretty good indication of how clear or otherwise a white, rosé or
clear red wine is. However, for a rich red grape wine, or elderberry
wine, the laser just can't penetrate more than 1/8th of an inch until
it is clear - or close to.

The wine was started on the 1st of September last year. I expect it
to be September 2009 before we drink it. My question though, is
should I leave it to clear naturally, however long that takes. Or,
would I be better off fining it at some point and then continuing the
again process after that?

I am keen to let it clear naturally if it isn't likely to result in
off flavours or other damage to the wine. If I do need to fine it,
what would be recommended, bentonite?

I am sure it is a 'how long is a piece of string' kind of question and
surely doesn't justify the length of my post Any help though is
gratefully received as always.

Best wishes to you all, Jim

how cold can wine be "cold stabilized" at?
Its 20-ish deg F in my garage right now.......

Thanks Robert. As long as no off-flavours are likely to result then I
am happy doing so.

Interesting question Wayne. It's between 4C (38F) and 9C (49F) where
I live at the moment. I could happily move the wine to the garage -
good idea Robert thanks!

Jim