Tops of bottles - is it oxidized?

[detlion1643]

Hey guys,

I haven't been able to find an answer to this.

The batch was a peach mango from juice. 5 gallon batch of juice, sugar, yeast, that's it. Fermented to dry and looked pretty clear after about 2 months and 1 week. It's been under airlock since day 1 and never ran dry.

When I bottled it, I sampled it. Tasted watered down, but figured the peach/mango would come back a little in the bottle.

I added my 5 dissolved campden tabs to the bottling bucket and proceeded to bottle. However, I noticed that probably 85% of my bottles have a "dipped" portion of liquid in the neck of the bottle.

Is it oxidized (vinegar?) or should I not worry about it?

 

[jswordy]

Oxidized and vinegar are two different things. Oxidized wine of that light a vintage would show browning. Vinegar is made by a bacteria that invades the wine. You'd taste either one. By dipped, do you mean the clearer portion of liquid in the top? That's probably just because the volume is different there - you are peering through less liquid.

If the wine does taste weak to you before bottling, fix it before you bottle with an f-pac, juice concentrate or sugar. Stabilize first. Aging will help a wide variety of faults, but if it has a taste that's lighter than you aimed for, that's how it will always taste unless you fix it.

I also wonder if you needed some additional acid blend or at least citric acid in it. A pH test would be nice.

 

[DaveL]

Just guessing but I think its just clearing more. Most peach wines I've purchased have been clear in color. Do you store them upright as pictured?

 

[detlion1643]

I do store them upright as I still have a collection of synthetic corks to go through.

Apologies I thought oxidized meant going to vinegar, learned something new today!

By dipped, yes, it looks like a line of clear liquid (looks like water) rests on top of the wine. I didn't think the volume in the neck would produce that effect. But alas, I'm still learning and after 4 batches its the first time I've seen this...

Perhaps its just normal and I have too light of a flavor that's causing me to overthink it...

 

[jamesngalveston]

I think its just the neck

The picture here is two gallons from a 3 gallon batch of real ripe mango.
The wine shows clearer at the neck , as yours..I do not think its your wine.
As far as the peach/mango taste...I use 10 lbs of fruit per gallon, when doing peach are mango...You loose a ton to lees, no matter what you do..I like using fruit vs juice...I like the color the skins add to the wine...as in this pic, thats a straight mango....with them being very ripe, there was a lot of red in the skins.
hope this helps.

 

[detlion1643]

Hmm, thanks for the pic james. I guess it might just be the juice (that cause a light flavor) then that's causing me to think there's an issue.

However, still curious if anyone knows anything about a clear line of liquid (water looking) that sits atop the wine, no matter if the bottle is upright, on its side, etc. Is that just another don't worry about it issue? It's really hard to see in a picture, otherwise I'd take one.

 

[jamesngalveston]

if you look at the picture I send, the top 1 1/2 inches looks like water.
its the same thing in almost every batch I make...the top is all ways clearer.

 

[JohnT]

Could be that the wine is perfectly fine. The glass is thinner at the top of the jug and tapered. The amount of wine you are looking through is less, so it looks lighter.

 

[GreginND]

I can't tell from your picture but you may be just seeing the meniscus.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meniscus

 

[jswordy]

For improved flavor profile next time, you might try an old winery trick: Prior to fermentation, remove about 10% of the juice but use all of the fruit it came from.

You can simmer the fruit down to make an f-pac for later, co-ferment it as-is, or simply add it back in after alcoholic fermentation is complete. Or just drink it!

Be sure to stabilize your wine before adding back any fruit or sugar post-ferment.

 

[BernardSmith]

You bottled the wine but was the wine clear enough to allow you to read a newspaper through the carboy? This may be the effect of the photo but the wine in the picture looks quite turbid. I agree with DaveL that the ring at the top may be the wine that is clear of particles. When did you pitch the yeast and how long after pitching was it before you bottled this wine?

 

[detlion1643]

The yeast was pitched 4/22. It was then bottled 6/28. It's made entirely of peach mango juice with no extra fruit. Mistake 1 which made the flavor water/light.

It wasn't clear enough to read a newspaper, however, it was clear enough to see through to it to make out headings and such. Mistake 2 which wasn't enough time.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm still quite new. Did my first all fruit (strawberry) batch the other week and tastes like actual fruit! I don't think I'm using any juice anymore...

As for this wine, I'm fine with some sediment in the bottles. I'm also a lot happier that it's not ruined!!!

 

[BernardSmith]

I am not sure that juice typically produces a thin flavored wine. I've made apricot, mango and papaya wines from supermarket bought juice and elderberry, rhubarb and gooseberry wines from concentrated juice (none with fruit added) and did not find them lacking flavor. What you cannot do is add water to dilute the juice (unless it is concentrate). You say you made wine from strawberries and that wine highlights the flavor of the fruit. That may be because you either used only the juice from the fruit - with no additional water or you used enough fruit per gallon to allow the flavor to come through. If you simply dilute the juice with water to increase the volume or to reduce the gravity then you are diluting the flavors. My rule of thumb is that if you would enjoy drinking the must because it has enough of the fruit flavor then the wine you make from that must will likely have he same fruitiness. But also, fruit flavors are often enhanced with some additional sweetening after fermentation so if your wine is very dry that might contribute to the flaccid flavor. One last issue: your wine is a couple of months old. Flavors that may be in the wine may not come to the fore for another year or two. In other words, your wines may be better than you think they are. You may just need to give them time to develop.

 

[detlion1643]

I want to thank everyone in this thread!

Just tonight, I opened my first bottle of it to see if it improved. The peach flavor has come back through and is actually quite nice dry. It's not bitter and all, no sour taste, and def. not oxidized! Oh, and so far, there is very little sediment, if at all, in the bottles.