Fining for Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fining
Put isinglass into a quart jug with one pint of wine.
Stir it twice or thrice a day until it dissolves.
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Fine the wine
Add the fining to a cask of twenty gallons of wine, stirring gently without disturbing the lees.
If necessary, fill up the cask and seal it; the wine will be ready for bottling in a week.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Isinglass
- Fining agent that binds suspended haze particles so they settle out, clearing the wine.
- Wine
- The liquid being clarified; its haze is removed as the fining settles.
The step that matters
Stirring gently when adding the fining to the cask. Vigorous stirring or disturbing the lees resuspends the sediment, clouding the wine again and preventing the fining from carrying particles down to settle.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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