A Clearer Understanding of Fining Agents - WineMaker Magazine

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1. Home2.3. Clarify and Filtration4.5. Oct/Nov 2007

A Clearer Understanding of Fining AgentsAuthor: Jeff Chorniak Issue: Oct/Nov 2007
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The first thing you notice when someone hands you a glass of wine is its color and clarity. We all expect wine to look clear and appealing and there are many ways toimprove the clarity of a wine, the most straightforward of which is fining. Fining is the act of adding a product to wine to remove suspended solids. For many homewinemakers, it is what gives their finished wine its high polish.

Some home winemakers prefer not to fine their wines. Grape wine will often fall clear on its own if you bulk age it over several months. After fermentation, if the wine iscold stabilized for a period of months, many suspended solids will precipitate. Even so, after you bottle your wine and lay it down, sediment may continue to fall out and itmay have to be decanted when you pour it.

Even if clarifying your wine is not an issue, some fining agents also reduce astringency or bitterness, remove off-odors, and strip out browning caused by oxidation. Thus,the condition of your must before and after fermentation will determine whether you want, or need, to fine it. With some fining agents there is a trade-off; while removingsuspended solids and doing the job they were intended for, they may also strip or remove some color, body, taste and aroma from the wine. The bottom line is, knowingwhat fining agent to add and when to add it, all depends on what you want to accomplish in your wine.

To help you make an informed decision, this article will describe how fining agents work, and provide an alphabetical list of the main fining agents and their qualitiesavailable to home winemakers.

How Fining Agents Work

Fining agents are extracted from many strange sources and elements you would never think of putting in your wine. They are composed of proteins, minerals, or elementstaken from a variety of unlikely places, like the swim bladders of fish, seaweed, fossils, activated charcoal, clay, egg whites, etc. Some fining agents are simply enzymesthat break down molecules to remove haze. The majority of fining agents work in two specific ways:

1. Most of the suspended solids in your must or wine have an electrical charge. Some have a positive charge while others have a negative charge. Many fining agents alsohave a positive or negative electrical charge. When fining agents are added to your must or wine, they will attract and bind like a magnet to particles of the oppositeelectrical charge, then become heavy and sink to the bottom of the wine as sediment, leaving the wine clearer. 2. The other way that some fining agents work is throughabsorption. The agent may have no electrical charge at all, but has sponge-like qualities allowing it to bind with elements in the wine, and settle to the bottom.

Fining agents can be applied to the wine 1) before fermentation begins, 2) after the wine has stabilized, and 3) just before bottling. There is no single fining agent that doeseverything to the must or wine. Not all remove suspended solids. Some have no charge at all, and only remove odors or color. Sometimes it is necessary to apply twofining agents together, or to add fining agents at different stages of the wines development. The key is in knowing what you wish to correct in your must or wine, andknowing what fining agent(s) to use for the job.

Fining Agents

Bentonite (negative charge): Probably the most common fining agent for home winemakers, especially in North America, Bentonite is a type of volcanic clay firstdiscovered in the 19th Century in Fort Benton, Wyoming. What makes it unique from any other clay is that it is made from volcanic ash. It has very high water absorption

properties that allow it to expand to almost 20 times its original size when hydrated.

Since Bentonite has a negative charge, it will attract positively-charged suspended solids in your wine, and swell to a huge size, and sediment out.

Bentonite is unique in that it can be added to your wine either before or after fermentation. Most kit wines include Bentonite in the add pack, with instructions on how tomix it into the must before adding yeast. If you just dump the dry Bentonite into the must or wine, it will instantly turn into a clump of white mud and go straight to the

bottom. It needs to be hydrated in a cup of hot water, and whipped into a slurry preferably with a blender and stirred into the must.


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wine. Not really considered as a clarifier. Rather, PVPP is sometimes used in place of gelatine when reducing tannins in white wines. It works well in reducing or removingoxidative odors and reduces browning from wine. When all fruit comes in contact with oxygen, enzymes are activated that begin turning the fruit dark. PVPP works byremoving the portion of the enzyme that causes oxidation. PVPP is most effective when used in conjunction with carbon to remove off-flavors, and can also be used withBentonite to help compact the sediment.

Sparkalloid (positive charge): Sparkalloid is a popular brand name of a fining agent developed by Scott Labs. The agent is made from a blend of polysaccharides anddiatomaceous earth the fossilized skeletons of hard shelled algae. It is available as a powder for a hot mix or cold mix. The hot mix is recommended for fining wine; thecold mix is for juices. Sparkalloid has a reputation for creating brilliant wine, and does not strip character if used moderately. As the hot mix name implies, it is firstdissolved in hot water before being added to the wine while still warm. The preparation instructions are very easy to follow. Sparkalloid takes time to settle out and should

be applied at least a month before bottling.

Letting a wine clear naturally or fining it to promote clarity are two common options chosen by home winemakers, especially those new to the hobby. Another option is tofilter your wine. Filtration works well at cleaning up wines, but a filtration setup costs much more than a bag of Bentonite. For home winemakers with a filration setup, acombination of fining and filtration may be pursued. For example, a fining agent may be added to clear a heavy haze, then the basically clear wine may be given a filtration

pass to make it brilliantly clear. Just as with fining agents, filtration may remove desirable compounds from your wine along with the haze particles.

After considering the fining agents above, clearly (no pun intended) knowing when and how to fine your wine is determined by a number of factors. Home winemakingretailers are likely to carry most of the above fining agents (except for the milk and eggs) in various commercial names each with their own slightly different dosagerecommendations.

Jeff Chorniak is a frequent contributor to WineMaker magazine. He wrote about preparing for harvest in the August-September 2007 issue.

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