California Muscat 6G bucket - Taste is blah....

I started this juice bucket Sept. 14, see notes below. Before pitching yeast I think the taste of the juice itself was blah....not as grate as the Muscat Canelli I bought in the fall last year.


Sept 14 1.090 Temp around 42F. PH=3.27. Saved a liter of juice in fridge

Sept 15 1.090 Juice temp ~68F. Hydrated D47 yeast with Go-Ferm and pitched. Later at night added 1 ripe banana directly to bucket

Sept 17 1.040 added couple grams of Fermaid-K

Sept 17 1.010 added thawed peaches, about 4

Sept 18 0.996 racked into 6gal bucket

Sept 24 0.996 racked into bucket, added ½ tsp k-meta, sorbate and the liter of juice I had saved prior to ferment. SG=1.000. Thawed 5 frozen peaches and strained into wine, SG=1.002.
Added 1 package of Kielosol, then racked into 5gal carboy and 2 bottles.

Oct 28 racked and then racked back into carboy, wine all cleared but the taste is a bit acidic or flavor is not that good, wife didn't like it.


Not sure how to describe the taste/flavor but needs body, not sure what it is, like if the taste is a bid acidic.
PH now shows in the 3.27, never bothered checking TA on it since the PH seemed in line and because this is a juice bucket.

Trying to improve it now, wine is really clear, no need for more clearing at all. Hoping I can add some flavor without boosting the SG much, maybe a .02 or so to bring it to ~1.004

What would you recommend? Went to Walmart and didn't see peach extract, just Welch's concentrate of apple and white grape, maybe the white grape is the way to go.

I don't want to cloud it up now.

White grape seems logical. H

opefully it comes around because Muscat is tasty. I used to get a Muscat Canelli from Becker Vineyards when I lived in Texas, and it was just a touch effervescent and tasted like peaches. So good when it's good.

I hear you, for some reason I think this year's Muscat from California was not that tasteful at all, again I tasted the juice before ferment and said to myself: "I'm not going to like it...", the taste wasn't "there" like a Muscat.

Hopefully the white grape concentrate will do the trick, I was hoping to bottle this for Christmas for the wife's presents to friends, we'll see.....

My muscat tasted like wet dog smells. That is until it was in the bottle for about 9 months, now the flavor is just yummy. Friend of mine told me that muscat has a musty taste until it ages.

Try adding some tannins

Thanks Julie but might be too late for tannins as I don't want to cloud the wine, it is super clear now.

Sounds to me that the wine is good, but just a little lacking in the flavor dept. Aging may help and would (IMHO) be far better that toying with it.

Note: the PH of this wine is ~3.26, not sure of the TA.

I will be doing a small test by adding tartaric acid to a small glass and check how it tastes.
If this improves the flavor and I add tartaric to the carboy to "balance" the flavor, I wonder what would happen if one cold stabilizes? The acid will form crystals and will drop to the bottom, will the flavor go "backwards" ?

For a short term wine, adding some glycerin and simple syrup (+ sorbate) can make some improvement in body and balance the acidity. I would try these along with the tartaric trials.

I think I back sweeten as much as I'd like, I even just added a can of concentrated white Welchs grape juice.
So again wonder what would happen to its taste after adding tartaric but then cold stabilize.

Varis,

Try it, what is the worst thing that will happen if the tartaric drops out when you cold stabilize? I think you will still have a good wine, just not as good as you were hoping for.

I've been blessed so far. None of my wines have been undrinkable. My wife has liked most of them, except the really dry ones. I know at some point I'm gonna make a bad one, or at least one that I don't enjoy drinking. Just want to make sure that I learn from what I did and try to avoid it or learn how to compensate for it in the future.

Keep up the faith. You could always give it away as gifts if things don't work out so well???

I know.
I blame the quality of the juice this year....blah..!!!