My wine is Viscous

Great forum! So many questions to ask but I'll start with one. This is my second year making wine my first batch came out ok except for my white I started with 2 6 gallon buckets of Pinot juice everything was fine until bottling I'm not sure how to call it but my white wine started to get thick some I gues would say a heavy viscous almost like syrupy it does taste fine and the color is great. I'm sure it's a bacteria of some sort I would like to know the cause or what it is so I don't do it again. has anyone ever had this happen to their wine?? the alcohol level is fine as well

What is the pH? What are the Sulfite levels? Did you add Sulfite? What was the starting SG, finishing SG. Have never seen anyone say their finished wine "taste fine" but its "syrupy"!

Thank you for the response Sorry I do not know any of that i did have the ph tested store said it was fine acid was Low we raised we then added a clarifier and sulphate to possible kill anything causing the high viscosity. It sat for a week in the glass Carboy and it's a little better now but still thick. Also when I chill the wine it gets worse The local store had also commented that they have only seen this once before but the wine tasted bad. Mine does not it's only fault is that it's thick. I'm sure something went wrong but to deal with chemistry is not an option I was hoping that someone would have heard or seen of this issue.

Any thoughts ?

Not going to be able to help you if you can't provide any information. At a BARE minimum knowing the specific gravity currently would let you know if the wine has fermented to dry or still has sugar in it which would make the wine viscous since sugar is thicker than ethanol.

So I assume you never had this issue?

No. To me it sounds like it possibly didn't ferment to dry and still has sugars in it. If it had a bacterial growth it would have some indication like a white film on the top or mold etc. Go buy a $5 hydrometer and get a specific gravity at least.

Very strange. I have made a good number of batches of wine and have had off tasting, fizzy, cloudy, crappy tasting, etc. - wines but none have been syrupy thick. I am curious on how to make it this way....
Larry

Is it sort of like egg whites but thinner? If so, sounds like it might be a lactic bacteria infection to me. I had a batch that was infected with lactic bacteria once. I was able to save it by following instructions:

"Oiliness or Ropiness: The wine develops an oily look with rope- like treads or strings appearing within it. It pours slowly and thickly with a consistency similar to egg whites, but neither its smell nor taste are effected. The culprit is a lactic acid bacterium and is only fatal to the wine if left untreated. Pour the wine into an open container with greater volume than required. Use an egg whip to beat the wine into a frothiness. Add two crushed Campden tablets per gallon of wine and stir these in with the egg whip. Cover with a sterile cloth and stir the wine every hour or so for about four hours. Return it to a sterile secondary and fit the airlock. After two days, run the wine through a wine filter and return it to another sterile secondary. Again, this problem, like most, can be prevented by pre-treating the must with Campden and sterilizing your equipment scrupulously."

Hope this helps. Regards, GF.

Gotta say I've never experienced this, and I do a lot of white wine from buckets. But I do have an off the wall thought. I've noticed many many folks say they add pectin when they mean they add pectic enzyme (PE). I've seen more than one newbie question if they can use the pectin they find in the canning section of their local grocery store. Any chance that after running out of the PE purchased at the local home brew you switched to using pectin from the supermarket for this batch? I know, I know, not likely, but if one did use pectin it would indeed make the wine syrupy as it thickened it.

Don't shoot me, I'm just the piano player.

Pam in cinti