The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 34 – “Fining Agents and Why They Help”

What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?

Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂

Fining Agents and Why They Help

Fining agents can help your wine in a variety of ways, both improving on appearance and flavor. A fining agent is added to the wine to remove an undesirable compound, typically by having the opposite electron charge.  There are a myriad of fining agents and each has its own specific ability to help remove an undesirable characteristic within wine.  Here are a list of some of the most popular fining agents:

Bentonite: A negatively charged clay that attached to positively charged proteins  and will eliminate protein haze in white wines.

PVPP: A synthetic polymer that helps get rid of reductive compounds,  often caused by oxidation.

Gelatin: Made of animal bones, it has a negative charge that will attach to proteins and surplus tannins, creating rounder mouthfeel and less astringent wine.

Reduless: A form of inactivated yeast fortified with minerals to help removes sulfur defects such as hydrogen disulfide and other phenolic defects.

SuperKleer: Tandem packets of Kieselsol and Chitosan that will work to eliminate haze in wine.

Noblesse: An inactivated yeast derivative nutrient that aids in reducing bitter flavors in wines as well as the burning effect from high alcohol wines.

We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.