The Use of Gel Column Analysis in Evaluation of Bentonite Fining Procedures

Abstract

The comparative effects of bentonite fining during and after fermentation, at each of three different levels, have been investigated by analyses of wines made from the same batch of 9Muscat Gordo Blanco9 juice. The evaluation was based upon gel column analyses of total ultraviolet absorbing constituents, and upon determinations of nitrogen content in the protein and non-protein fractions of each wine. Fining after fermentation gave much more efficient removal of residual wine proteins, with removal of nearly equal amounts of non-protein nitrogen and protein nitrogen at each level. The use of bentonite during fermentation resulted in greater net losses of non-protein than protein nitrogen at each level. The observations are interpreted in terms of pertinent differences in composition between musts and wines.