Michael Brill wrote:
> Yes, sort of. Actually a lot of the wine went directly from the
> fermentor to barrel without a stopover in the press. This was done to
> minimize oxygen contact and was accomplished by pushing a pasta
> strainer down into the must and then taking the wine out of the pasta
> strainer! So while there were no seeds or skins, I'm sure there's

Maybe I'm not following your procedure properly, but wouldn't this
method (with the strainer) introduce *more* oxygen than simply racking
directly? Why not just wait till the cap rises fully, rack (and press)
to another vessel, wait for particulate settling, then rack to barrel?

> Haven't really thought about fining. Again, I've just been reading
> what pinot pros do and it seems like the higher end produces don't
> fine or filter. BTW, why bentonite and not egg whites or some other
> fining material?

I would say a lot of those pros don't fine in good years when they
have (access to) excellent quality fruit. Bentonite is used for
protein stability, egg whites are used to reduce astringency - they
have different functions. Pinot is particularly susceptible to protein
haze due to its low tannin content. Egg white fining can be
particularly useful for fruit that's perhaps from a worse off year or
that has been slightly over extracted, pulling back a little on the
excess astringency there.

Tom S wrote:
> > Also, I've noticed that bentoniting tends to bring the fruit more to the
> > fore in Pinot Noir - most noticeably in the nose. Don't ask me why. I
> > can't rationalize that observation. It's just something I noticed.

Interesting observation Tom. I don't doubt it really. Isinglass is
widely reputed to give brighter fruit, and I'd incline to agree with
that from experience too.

Ben