Racking, Collage and filtration of wine …

When finishing wine after fermentation step, the new wine is aged in tanks, vats or barrels.
This young wine is not yet complete: there is still a little hard and its color is not completely stable.

Several steps of the still separate bottling. The techniques for drawing, collage and filtration processes are used to update the wines and prepare them for consumption.

At the end of vinification and after completion of alcoholic and malolactic fermentation the wine retains a certain hardness, it is still responsible for many particles, it is cloudy and it is not completely stable. The wine is then a juvenile character.

At his farm – and aging – the wine becomes clearer and loses astringency. The suspended particles settle to the bottom of the tank and it is then easy to separate the wine “clean”.
This traditional separation technique called racking. It allows, in addition to refine the wine, to eliminate microorganisms that can cause damage (bacteria and yeast as in larger quantities in the lees).

To obtain a clear wine and good quality will be more withdrawals made during wine aging. The risk of this technique, if done to excess, will include wine to oxidize (loss of fresh flavor) or even the “skinny” (loss of power aromatic).

Another technique used to prepare the wine for consumption.
It is an ancient method that aids the deposition of particles in suspension while maintaining the stability of wine (avoid deposits in the bottle) and allowing a relaxation of the tannic structure.

This technique is commonly called “bonding”.
He should know – to understand the usefulness of this technique – that the wine contains many elements that may cause deposits in the bottle.
The principle of collage will cause the precipitation of these elements before bottling.
To be more precise, the adhesives are combined with the elements to be eliminated. The molecules formed are heavier and settle easily in the bottom of the tank. Then made a withdrawal (called “lifting glue”) that separates the lees (containing the glue and the elements to be eliminated) own wine.

We use – as appropriate – the “glue” different animal protein (gelatin, egg white, milk casein), vegetable protein (peas), clay (bentonite) …
A priori, none of these substances not found in the wine because they are eliminated during the “lifting of glue. We are talking about additive and non additive.
However, because of the risk of allergies, the law will soon require mention of some of these adjuvants on your bottle. This is the case of adhesives based on milk (casein) and egg (albumin). So you can see from the January 2011 ‘contains traces of milk “or” contains traces of egg “on your labels.

But do not worry: the wine is a product composed entirely of grapes and, as I said at the beginning of this section, the collages (especially egg white) is an ancient technique for clarification of wine …

Another important step in the preparation of wines will be filtered.
It performs a filtering primarily to give clarity of the wine (removing suspended particles) but also to remove the yeasts and bacteria (which can cause damage).
The disadvantage of filtration is that it can also eliminate undesirable elements in the wine. It depends on the fineness of filtration. For example, to remove microorganisms filtration “tight” will be necessary. The risk of this type of filtration is losing power aromatic.

This is why some winemakers do not filter their wines. With much of the risk of deterioration in bottles …
Note that if the winemaker has worked well (and if the wine has some features) these alterations will never appear and the wine can be kept for many years …

Now you know everything (or almost) on extraction techniques, collage and filtration.
You understand that these techniques require a great expertise to ensure the stability of wine, while avoiding any loss in quality. This is the hard work of the winemaker: finding the best compromise for obtaining a great wine.
But the most important thing to understand is that these steps will give the maturity to our precious nectar.

According to his profile, it shook so ready to be enjoyed in the freshness of his youth, or be stored for many years to reach full maturity …