WineXpert Possible spoiled batch of WE Stags Leap Merlot

I have a WE Stags Leap Merlot kit that was filtered with a 5 micron filter and bottled on 1/31/15. I have opened a few 375ml bottles over the past couple weeks and they all taste the same, very sour almost like vinegar. Way too tart to drink. There is also a milky looking sediment that is attached to the side of the bottle that is about 1/2" to 1" wide by almost the length of the bottle. The sediment almost looks like yeast, and will detach from the side if you rotate the bottle from side to side. Not sure why this is here since I filtered, is this a normal occurrence?

I realize the wine could be young, but this one just tastes different.

Is anyone that is more experienced than me interested in receiving a couple bottles in the mail to give me an opinion? If so I'll send a couple good bottles too

That's a shame. I would take a bottle to the retailer I purchased it from and get their opinion. WE could become involved if there is a problem, and they really want you to be happy.

wineh said:

That's a shame. I would take a bottle to the retailer I purchased it from and get their opinion. WE could become involved if there is a problem, and they really want you to be happy.

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Thanks that is a great idea. Below is a picture of one of the bottles. You can really see the film on the inside of the bottle with the flash. The circle is where the bottom of the bottle was laying.

Well I contacted where I bought the kit and sent them the picture. They contacted WE on my behalf and are replacing the kit with no questions asked. Great customer service on both companies.

Has anyone seen anything like this or have any idea what it may be, or what may have caused it? I bottled another WE kit the same day with the same equipment, and used the same filter for both batches. The other kit is delicious right now, so I'm guessing it wasn't a sanitizing issue. Every bottle in this batch looks like the above picture.

Got nothing good to say about ***... Hopefully your experience will be better than most.

Wow. good customer service? Good to hear.

bosco500 said:

Well I contacted Southern Homebrew (where I bought the kit) and sent them the picture. They contacted WE on my behalf and are replacing the kit with no questions asked. Great customer service on both companies.

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Did either give an indication of what had happened? I've never seen anything like it. When you filtered 2 kits with 1 filter, which one was first?
PS, I think that retailer is persona-non-Grata here.

wineh said:

Did either give an indication of what had happened? I've never seen anything like it. When you filtered 2 kits with 1 filter, which one was first?
PS, I think that retailer is persona-non-Grata here.

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Well I picked up on them not being welcome here. I tried searching but found nothing other than their name replaced with a bunch of asterisks? I know there are 3 sides to every story but if anyone has anything to share I would appreciate it. PM would be sufficient.

I didn't speak to WE, only the retailer. And he just sort of joked and said he has never seen anything like it and told me to throw everything away including the bottles. They were very fast to respond and did replace the kit.

I am concerned now though because I popped open a couple bottles from another kit that was bottled a month after this one and they are spoiled also. I'm not going to bother calling the retailer about this one, I'm starting to wonder if I am doing something wrong on my end. I followed all of the directions and sanitize everything with Star San before I do anything. I'm a little frustrated, thinking about throwing away my primary buckets and getting new ones, they have some scratches in the bottom. Not sure where to start!

One kit a possibility, two…… definitely points to something on your end more than likely. You have not mentioned how old these wines are. A bit more info about how long you have been making kit wines and how many kits you have under your belt might help.

Did you check the sulfite levels before you bottled? I shed a few tears when I read your post, my condolences. That is a very nice kit...

ibglowin said:

One kit a possibility, two…… definitely points to something on your end more than likely. You have not mentioned how old these wines are. A bit more info about how long you have been making kit wines and how many kits you have under your belt might help.

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I've been winemaking since September '14. Just long enough to learn a little, screw some stuff up, and make a few wines. I've done 8 kits so far.

I went back through my logs on this kit and realized I screwed up, I still can't figure out how it happened but it did. The wine was bottled at 4 weeks, and was supposed to age in the carboy an additional 28 days, which I completely missed somehow. So it went through primary, secondary, stabilized/cleared, filtered, then bottled.

Could this be the reason it spoiled?

terroirdejeroir said:

Did you check the sulfite levels before you bottled? I shed a few tears when I read your post, my condolences. That is a very nice kit...

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Yes, PH was 3.8. S02 was 44 mg/l. I added 3 camden tabs before I bottled

Was the wine clear when you filtered it? What date did you pitch the yeast?

ibglowin said:

Was the wine clear when you filtered it? What date did you pitch the yeast?

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1/5/15 Pitched yeast
1/12/15 Racked to secondary
1/19/15 Racked, added sorbate, meta and chitosan
1/27/15 Racked
1/31/15 Filtered, added 3 camden tabs, bottled

It looked clear to me. I still can't figure out why I bottled it 4 days after the 3rd rack. I had two kits going and guess I got confused.

I don't see how it could have "spoiled" in that short of time frame given that amount of sulfite. I think what you see in the bottle is sediment that fell out after you filtered and bottled. You may have also not had a good seal on the filter and stuff got by the filter too small to see. On most big red kits we recommend waiting 3 months minimum before you bottle even though it says you can bottle after only 6 weeks. Stuff will continue to settle for months on many of the higher end kits especially with grape packs and lots of solids in the juice. You could open them all and go back to carboy and bulk age for another 2-3 months and let it settle and re-rack and re-filter. You may also just be tasting very green wine that needs to age for another 3-6 months minimum before sampling it again.

bosco500 said:

1/5/15 Pitched yeast
1/12/15 Racked to secondary
1/19/15 Racked, added sorbate, meta and chitosan

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You should have waited 10 days here, not 7. I'm wondering how much degassing you did?

bosco500 said:

1/27/15 Racked

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8 days is correct.

bosco500 said:

1/31/15 Filtered, added 3 camden tabs, bottled

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you should have waited 4 weeks here, not 4 days. This might be the problem, and why Ibglowin thinks it's sediment, 'cause it likely is. You added a lot of sulfite too, as opposed to the suggested 1/4 teaspoon.

bosco500 said:

It looked clear to me. I still can't figure out why I bottled it 4 days after the 3rd rack. I had two kits going and guess I got confused.

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If you still have this wine, it might pay to put it all back in a carboy and give it a month or two to settle, then rack and see what you get.

Thanks for the assessment guys. Lots of lessons learned here

About the sulfite addition, I used the calculator below to figure how many camden tabs to add:

https://winemakermag.com/1301-sulfite-calculator

With a PH of 3.8 and free so2 level of 44 mg/l, the calculator recommends bringing the free so2 level up to 79 mg/l, or adding 3.25 camden tabs. Is this a good calculator to use?

The calculator is spot on. You added enough KMETA to last at least 3 months bulk aging without adding anything else. How did you measure pH? It seems high.

with a strip. Probably not the most accurate. I got the Vinmetrica for the so2