Wild Violet Wine... and Sturgeon Bladder

Yesterday, Ron and I worked with two very different ingredients. I picked wild violets for my wild violet wine (the simple recipe is at www.KinkeadRidge.com/htm/violet.htm). The photo is of the mixture, which has an incredible aroma.

Meanwhile, Ron mixed up a cheerful little batch of isinglass,"a protein extract made from the swim bladder of certain fish, including sturgeon. It is used in white wine clarification at very low concentrations with excellent results." (Concepts in Wine Chemistry, Margalit).

Vegans prefer not to drink wine which used this fining agent.

Here's maybe more than you want to know about isinglass... From Bruce Stoeklin "Isinglass is principally used in white wine fining to bring out or unmask the fruit character without significant changes in tannin levels. Isinglass is less active toward condensed tannins than either gelatin or casein. Because condensed phenolics are principally responsible for astringency, isinglass has a less dramatic effect on the reduction of both wine astringency and body than most other protein fining agents. It has the added benefit of not requiring extensive counterfining as compared with other proteinaceous fining agents. Many vintners fine with the agent after aging (particularly barrel aging) and before bottling to “round out” background astringency and produce a brilliantly clear white wine without the stripping effect seen by other protein fining agents. Isinglass is also used as a riddling aid in methode champenoise production at levels of 1.5 to 4.0 g/hL (1/81/3 lb/1,000 gal.).

Isinglass has several advantages over gelatin in fining of white wines. The agent is active at lower concentrations, produces enhanced clarification and a more brilliant wine, and is much less temperature dependent than gelatin, which shows enhanced properties at low temperature."

Comments

[Jim Jordan]

My biggest issue in picking violets has been time.
By using a course comb I now pick them 3 times as fast,
and no longer crush the flowers.
The flower heads now pop of mostly with out the stems.

Thanks for the recipe. Looking forward to tasting next year.

Jim Jordan