Egg White ?s

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

Its like a CSU Fresno reunion around here, love it! Who wants to go to Jimbo’s?

Egg Whites- Who uses them? When? on the whole of a lot or a heavy dose on a smaller portion?

Do people use the real thing or the atomized- Blancoll/Ovocol products.

What rates? and how long do you leave the wine on them, would you be worried if the wine was on EW for more than a few months?

They have increasingly become a part of our BDX red programs and am curious what others think.

Nathan

2

I’m not a winemaker, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and I recall Bruno d’Alfonso talking about egg whites quite a bit, as we know Bruno’s no stranger to making a wine taste right if it doesn’t already…

3

We haven’t fined a wine in years, but when we did (and I’m pretty sure if Dan felt we should) we use real deal eggs, and nothing else–no dried sturgeon’s bladder around here. (Pee-fwhew.)

4

Hey Mary, I think Nathan is talking about the ‘fake’ egg whites, which are usually just lyophilized egg whites, either as powder or a liquid. I’ve used both Nathan, both for Sangiovese in a previous life, and I like the real eggs better. I was using 1 egg per barrel, just for clarity and some phenolic fining. I have to say though, many egg whites trials I’ve done caused me to prefer the untreated wines over egg white treated wines. For me, it’s only an option if you really have some mean phenolics to take care of. I usually left them on for a few weeks and then racked clean, FWIW.

5

If you EVER mention Jimbo’s again, I’m going to have to get you banned.
[wow.gif] [tease.gif]

We did it once in school, but never have done it after that. Our former winemaker here (before my time) was French, and she used to egg white fine just about everything. I’m really not sure why, because we don’t exactly produce tannin bombs around here.
FWIW, the only thing we fine in our Viognier, and then at the bare minimum.

6

Wow, Linda and Nathan as the CSU Fresno poster children. No wonder I decided not to go back to school… [emot-pwn.gif]

7

Yeah, yeah, I know. I just threw the isinglass out there because there are other fining agents, and they can be somewhat, um, surprising from an intern’s pov.
[blink.gif]

8

Now Jeff, no reason to be jealous of the obviously superior intelligence and education of the Fresno State grad. I’m sure you’re pretty smart too. [wow.gif]

9

Ive always used the organic free range eggs (why not, its on the expense account). I did side by side bench tops against the “fakes” one time and realized that cracking 200 eggs was not enough of an inconvenience to switch to them. Ive done anywhere from a half an egg/barrel up to six.

We have always racked to tank and fined the whole lot and then racked off of eggs and whatever else is in there. You could say that I don’t really have the balls to fly into the black hole when it comes to “super” fining a portion of the lot. I know a lot of people swear by it though. Ive only fined before bottling and left them on from one to three weeks max. I know a lot of people have left them on for more than a month or two.

Sometimes egg whites just don’t hit the tannins that you you find out of balance. Thats always a real bummer!

I stopped going to Jimbos because the clan meetings in the side room really limited how many pool tables would be open on weeknights.

10

That makes one of us Linda.

11

Real organic eggs, not very often. Then make gelato. So yummy.

12

Thanks for the responses! great wealth of info. I have been trying so many different variables in the lab with my trials its nice to get some others opinions as well!

Our BDX reds from the SCM can be pretty burly, egg whites have been more effective and gentler, than gelatin for softening out some of the more aggressive lots. just 1-3 whites/bbl has been a pretty good rate for our most tannin lots.

Thanks

13

In Bordeaux they use one or two egg whites per barrel. They consider it the superior form of fining (you know the french). Add a little salt mix it well and add it! It tends to soften the wine, it sucks for Pinot.

14

Organic sea salt si vous plait. None other than Peynaud wrote that of the various agrents (available then) egg whites are the “most respectful” to the wine- which has been my own experience.

15

I just found out an interesting tidbit about egg whites and Brett yesterday. As you all know, Brett has an absolute requirement for Biotin (you guys knew that, right?), and it is thought that egg whites bind and remove Biotin from the wine matrix. Hmm.
My question would then be, how come there are so many Bretty French wines? [wow.gif]

16

What’s this about egg whites sucking for pinot? I have a barrel of '08 Oregon pinot that’s a long way from bottling, but may have a tannin profile that makes me want to whip up an egg white closer to bottling. Never done it. Anybody care to share their precise method. Anybody have thoughts one way or the other on fining pinot noir with egg white?

17

da bump

18

Do trials - eggs, gelatin, albumen powder, etc on the benchtop. every wine seems to react differently to different types of fining.

To do egg white fining, separate it from the yolk, dilute x10 with distilled H2O, adjust pH to 7, add some salt or KCl and whip ever so gently (don’t want it to froth - denaturing of proteins). Add, stir, enjoy.

Give yourself some time to settle, too. IIRC, egg whites don’t always settle so well.

19

Thanks for the tips on technique.

20

I’ve done trials on Pinot Noir with egg whites and had little to no luck with the results, seems to really strip flavor. I’m sure there are people who have had success, but i don’t even consider it, FWIW.