Back Sweetening Problem

[Lopez]

What's up fellas. New to the board so I thought I'd jump right in and ask for some advice.

I've got a 5gal carboy of a table wine that has fermented dry. I've stabilized it, cleared it, and as of last nite it was ready to sweeten to taste and bottle. Well, the cellar is getting "cleaned" up by the wifey so I moved the carboy after I racked Monday nite to the adjoining basement. I proceeded with my back sweetening process. I like to take off a bit of wine, warm and dissolve sugar. Well I went to add the wine/syrup mixture and noticed that as I was adding and stirring the mixture was almost roping as it mixed. What was happening was the sugar wasn't crystalizing per se, but it now looks like someone added some type of "diamond dust" to my wine. It sweetened it up fine, but it takes away from the clarity.

It seems the problem is that the controlled climate I use in the cellar keeps my carboys at a suitable ambient temp. The basment is cooler and the wine had cooled enough to give me problems when sweetening.

Question is- What can I do to correct this? I thought about letting it settle and clear, racking, and then re-sweeten if need be. I also thought about wrapping an extended heating pad around the carboy to bring the temp of the wine up 10 degrees or so to get it to dissolve properly.

Any tips, similar problems?

Thanks guys!!

--Lopez

 

[Julie]

Hi Lopez,

Welcome to winemaking talk. What is the current temp of your wine. I think you have it right, warm it up to about 70 degrees and see what happens then.

 

[Lopez]

I should have added fellas and ladies to my original post..haha

Thanks for the reply. The temp in my wine cellar is generally 68-72. I moved the carboy to the AC'd basement and it dropped to low 60's. I didnt even give it a second thought. After it happened it I touched the sides of the carboys and it felt like I just took it out of the fridge!!

I think I'm going to try to move the carboy to a small enclosed room and run a space heater to bring the wine temp up to 75F or so sustained for a few hours, stir and keep my fingers crossed!!

 

[SpoiledRotten]

but it now looks like someone added some type of "diamond dust" to my wine.

Just tell everyone it's custom made "metal-flake" vino!

 

[Flem]

Just my opinion but, could it be that you just stirred up sediment from the bottom and that you hadn't let it clear long enough??

 

[Lopez]

Flem-
Thanks for the advice!! Actually this wine was started last September. It was racked, cleared, and stabilized recently. Pretty clear, clear enough for me. I dont use a clearing agent, just racking. I def. think that its the cold temp of the wine so hopefully when I get home from work its warmed up enough to dissolve.

 

[Flem]

Sorry, I was under the impression this was a relatively new wine.