Ross,
Others have effectively answered your freezer inquiry, so I will give
my opinion on the fining/filter issue. The proper use of fining materials
many times will enhance a wine and not strip it. Other times (such as
excessively Tannic wines fined with Gelatin) stripping is desired to give
you a more balanced wine. But if not used properly some certainly can strip
wines of flavor,color and character. On the issue of filtering I filter and
other times I dont. Once again if done properly it generally will not harm
the wine in any way, and will make it more asthetically pleasing by
polishing it. Either last year, or the year before I attended a seminar in
Missouri that dealt specifically with filtering or not (commercial
applications). The consensus and results of blind tasting showed that no one
could reliably tell the difference between the filtered/non. For commercial
applications the extra "insurance" that filtering provides in my opinion,
and the lecturer's was definitely worth it and outweighed any arguments
against it.
That having been said- on a home wine making scale filtering is a
luxury that is not needed, and if done improperly can have devastating
consequences. I have had a lot of good wines that were never filter, so dont
take everything you hear as the end all. HTH
John Dixon

"Ross Reid" wrote in message
s.com...
(Ned) wrote:

I need some more details after reading about usinf a freezer to help
clear wines. I don't want to go through the expense and steps of
fineing and filtering since I also heard how they strip FLAVOR. It's
seems a natural alternative.

Can people share their details? For one, when I went to buy a small
chest freezer I found they can't go higher than like 20 degrees but
thought you had to keep the wine JUST freezing. So what temperatues?
How long is average.

I have time and don't plan on drink these wines for a year or more,
many of them fruit wines...

NNed

If you install an external controller you can regulate the temperature
of the freezer in whatever range you desire.

Ross.