swamp water...

[virginiavinegarworks]

We've been at this a number of years and this is a new one on us. We make vinegar for commercial sale so it is important to filter our whites for clarity. We acquired a large quantity of Viognier wine which we have been working with for a couple of years. We convert in stainless steel and age in neutral oak barrels for the most part. Our aging time in oak is at minimum 4 months for whites and 6 months for reds. Occasionally, because we're busy vinegar may be in aging for longer than that. We've had several batches of Viognier with aging times for just over 4 months to over 1 year. One barrel has set for 18 months. The nose is excellent, the flavor smooth and still fruity and it has the color of swamp water (sort of a greenish-black). We use a plate filter and at the end of filtration we usually come up with a gorgeous, crystal clear, golden colored vinegar. This vinegar also filters out and yields a crystal clear, nicely colored vinegar however within as little as 4 hours the vinegar gets quite cloudy and looks like motor oil when it's in the sunlight. We have sterile filtered it twice with the same result. Protein haze comes to mind however this phenomenon occurs regardless of temperature change or not. It seems possible that oxygen exposure is causing a problem. Any ideas? Thanks, Jay and Steph