Fining Agents in Wine

Today, Mom received a call in the tasting room that made me think twice.  Someone was calling to ask if our wines were vegan.  Then she mentioned that we don’t use egg whites for our fining agents. This was a brand new term for me – I’ve actually never heard “fining agents” mentioned in the tasting room until today.  

This seemed like a case for Winston the Wine Dog, so I decided to nose out a few facts about this part of wine making process.  That way, all of us can understand it better!  

Basically, fining agents are added to wine while still in the barrel to help remove unwanted materials.  These unwanted materials of the wine, called colloids, are not quite big enough to see. Colloids consist of elements that are already found in wine, but when they are not in the right quantity, the wine may become cloudy, bitter, or astringent.  

Colloids are positively charged, so they won’t bind together on their own.  They do eventually lose their charge, and some winemakers get around using fining agents by allowing the wine to rest and then periodically racking it to remove any colloids that have binded together.  Winemakers are able to fast forward this process by using fining agents. Because fining agents have a negative charge, they cause the colloids to bind together as soon as they are introduced to the wine.  Once binded, colloids are easy to remove.  

Bentonite, egg whites (or albumen), and casein are a few of the  “agents” most commonly used for this process. Bentonite is typically used in white wines and alumen in red wines, but our winemaker uses bentonite for nearly all of his fining (and ALL of the fining of our wines).

While some purists choose to leave colloids in their wine because they want to preserve all natural flavors and textures, removing colloids through the fining process leaves a wine that is more stable and less prone to spoilage.  

In France, where wineries go the more traditional route of using egg whites for their red wines, they usually have a favorite recipe or two that they keep on hand to use up all those extra egg yolks.  I found two that look especially delicious. (Click on the names below to link to their recipes.) If you make either of these, let us know! Better yet… bring us a taste!

Parisian Flan and Cannelés

From Veraison to Harvest

Vidal grapes and Cabernet Franc grapes growing side by side.

Right now is an exciting time at the vineyard, and you don’t have to look far to see the changes.  No, it’s not Wyatt that I am talking about. It’s pretty exciting to watch him grow, too, but you will have to wait until Friday for me to tell you more about that!  For the last blog, I wrote about veraison, which is the color change that indicates grapes are beginning to ripen. This week I am going to talk to you about the timeline as we move from veraison to harvest season.

During the weeks following veraison, you will notice the vines getting “woodier”.  This is another indicator that they are putting all of their energy into making the grapes sweeter instead of continuing to spread. The grapes are growing plumper by the minute (this is called engustment), but this plumpness slows down airflow in the some of the clusters.  As a result, our vineyard workers Gene and Jacob have to watch closely to make sure the grapes aren’t being attacked by any fungus or bug infestations.  

During this same time, they are taking samples from all different areas in each varietal lot to determine if the grapes are ready to harvest.  Because grapes ripen at different rates even on the same vine, they have to be sure to collect samples from all different rows, from different sides of the vines, and from different heights of the vine.  These samples are sent to Michael Shaps, our winemaker, so he can run tests to determine the levels of sugars (measured in brix), tannins, acids, and flavor compounds. He is waiting on the perfect combination of all of those factors to tell us that the grapes are ready to harvest. You can watch this informative video from Jordan Winery to see the entire process.

Meanwhile, we are also watching the weather very closely so we can choose to pick early if there are any threatening meteorological events that we need to schedule around.  Often, vineyards will choose to pick before a storm hits to keep their grapes from becoming damaged. We had to make this decision last year when Hurricane Florence was scheduled to dump several inches on us.  

Harvest season is often considered to be the most exciting time at a vineyard.  It is a time when the vineyard workers are able to see the fruits of their labors, when vintners are able to start their visions for next year’s wines, and when vineyard visitors are given a brief glimpse of all the work that goes on behind the scenes to produce their delicious favorites.