Wine #1 Cloudy when chilled

[robbo79]

Hi all, Simple wine#1 make up crystal clear after finings, once chilled in fridge goes cloudy. Whats the best way to stop this happening. Any thing else other than bentonite?

[NorthernWiner]

It's called (appropriately) "chill haze" and is caused by potassium bitartrate dropping out of solution. The only way to prevent it is to cold stabilise your wine at 4 C or lower for 2-3 weeks before bottling. Most of the tartrate will collect as crystals on the bottom of the DJ. Just rack off the crystals before you bottle.

[mcblades]

I'm not sure it's that simple. If you made up the wine #1 with citric acid as opposed to tartaric then, unless you had better quality grape juice than I've been using (apart from yours brian ) I doubt you would have had much tartaric acid in the wine to drop out. If it is, as Steve says, chill haze then leaving the wine in the fridge for a few weeks should see it drop out as a fine sediment of white crystals. In my reds, I bottle and then winter in the garage knocks out loads of large red crystals of "wine diamonds". As I know what to expect, i can filter the dregs through my teeth

I have had a problem with chill haze in an apple & quince wine I made and never got to the bottom of it. I steam juiced the quince and apple and think the haze was more likely pectin (though I added a load of pectolase). Did you use cloudy apple juice in the wine #1 ?

Other than the cosmetic appearance the wine should at least taste fine.

[NorthernWiner]

Trust me. At least 50% of the acid makeup in grape juice is tartaric. It doesn't matter if you've added citric or not. If grape juice was one of the ingredients used, then tartaric acid is present, and tartaric is unstable in solution at low temperatures.

[mcblades]

I stand corrected.

[krakowmike]

I've had similar problems. Noticed it more with rose#1 vs wine #1. Tastes fine but the appearance casts doubt if its ruined.

[Cellar_Rat]

I have some cascade ale which is fantastic in taste, cloudy isn't the word foggy would be more apt.

Appearance is only part of the story. Use all your senses to evaluate it. If it smells okay, move on to tasting. The worst you can do is spit it out