Settling White Grape Juice

Let the juice settle overnight at a cool temperature between 40 and 50°F. A spare refrigerator will work for this purpose and will improve the chances of insoluble material settling out because the lower temperature reduces "wild" yeast activity and therefore the "turbulence" associated with it.

Wines made from settled juice tend to have a cleaner, fruitier aroma than wines made from unsettled juice. Rack the juice off of the sediment into a clean fermentation container with an airlock. For fermentation purposes, the container can be as full as 75 to 80% when using low foaming commercial yeast intended for winemaking. The exclusion of air is not as critical at this stage as it is in a finished wine because the wine yeast used in the controlled fermentation will utilize the oxygen.