Posts Tagged ‘daniel pambianchi’

For me, learning about how to make wine just never stops. I can remember years ago, making my first wine from a kit and being amazed at the simplicity of home winemaking. Since those first days, I’ve gone on to make many different fruit wines, meads, and yes – the odd time I have made beer as well. My preference remains wine although a cold home brew is nice on a hot sunny summer day.

Today, I was browsing through Daniel Pambianchi’s book, Techniques in Home Winemaking, (my review of the book is here) when I came across a note I had made in it about bentonite. Daniel writes in his book:

“Bentonite inactivates enzymes, and specifically, it should not be used concurrently with lysozyme.”
~ Page 261

Up to this point in time, I’ve never used bentonite in any of the fruit wines I’ve made, but there could be a time when I will. This information was good to know because when you make wines from fruit that are high in pectin, you need to add pectic enzyme to the juice. As those who make jams and jellies will know, pectin is a gelling agent. It’s also present in fruit and when making wine, can cause a haze. Pectic enzyme therefore is used to breakdown pectin. It works quickly but often, a winemaker will add bentonite to the juice before beginning the fermentation process at about the same time pectic enzyme is added. So now we know that we should add the pectic enzyme first and wait a couple of days before the bentonite addition.

P.S. If you want to learn how to make wine other than simply from store bought wine kits, I highly recommend you get Daniel Pambianchi’s book.

I’ve added a new link to my sidebar – a new blog just recently started by Daniel Pambianchi.

Daniel took time out of his day to comment on my post, “A Bulk Aging Disagreement” and provided some of his thoughts. I’m looking forward to watching Daniel’s blog grow and I’m sure many of us will learn a thing or three from him.

Daniel is the President of Cadenza Wines, Inc. and the General Manager of the Maleta Winery in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario. One of their wines, a Riesling, won Silver at a major competition last week.

As well as being the Technical Editor for WineMaker Magazine, Daniel has written “Techniques in Home Winemaking: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Chateau-Style Wines” and another book that should be of interest to home winemakers wanting to improve their skills with making wine from kits, “Kit Winemaking: The Illustrated Beginner’s Guide to Making Wines from Concentrate”

Welcome to world of home winemaking blogging, Daniel!

Daniel’s blog is here.