Wine Filtration

General wine production process

Clarification is the main filtration step in the winemaking process.

-Yeast and other impurities from the fermentation process are removed to reduce turbidity and reduce pressure for the following filtration step.

– Lees at the bottom of the juice tank, fermenter or fine filter. Recovering wine and juice from lees is one of the most difficult forms of filtration that wineries face

 – After initial processing, stabilization and maturation, impurities, crystals, colloids and bacteria can still exist in the wine. Fine filtration follows to remove impurities to produce brighter wines and improve filtration for further processing.

Protein stabilization and clarification are two important steps in creating high quality wine products. Stabilization is the step that removes heat-sensitive proteins, clarification is the step that removes suspended solids

Filtration before bottling is important to ensure the removal of particles and microorganisms that can lead to re-fermentation, turbidity and off-flavors after bottling.