Help needed : Read this if you need a laugh... - A torrid tale..

[Ash]

Hi all,

Newbie here and currently in dire straits (Mellow dramatic? maybe..).

Around 11 months ago I moved into my new place which had an established grape vine. As I like to try new projects I decided to trymy hand at wine making..

..and so the story begins:

I picked the grapes, seperated out bad and good, pressed the good with a potato masher and at this point the recipe I had found called for water to be added to the jiuce - Note my first (of many) fatal errors - I didn't use the hydrometer before doing this, so my first reading (below) is diluted juice:

Recipe was along the lines of:
1 campden per gallon
170gm suger per litre
24 hours later add yeast.

I left the skins in for a week to develop colour then strained through jelly bag, added campden per gallon.

Put in demijohn with airlock for 6 weeks, re-reacked 2/3 times over the course of the year.

And tonight arrived - The bottling ceremony!

Unfortunately in my haste / idiocy I may have destroyed the past years effort.

So, I tasted the wine a few months back and it was decidely fizzy, I figured this was normal after a little reading and looked into de-gassing when bottling.

So I currently have 9 litres of wine and with this I have added campden tablets and stabilising powder:

Now it clearly states on the above, 1 teaspoon per gallon - So of course I read this as '1 teaspoon per litre'...

Likewise, Campden tablets; 1 tablet per gallon - Again I read this as above...

To top it off in my attempt to 'de-gas' the wine I was rather agressive with the stirring / mixing / wisking and I believe I have more than likely oxidised the crap out of it. The wine is currently in a airlocked fermenting bucket.

Hydrometer reading tonight:

So.....

My questions:

Is the wine recoverable?
If yes, what steps do I need to take to remedy?


Many thanks for getting to the end of this tutorial on 'How not to go about wine making!'.



Any help and advice greatly appreciated!

Ash

 

[dralarms]

Your wine looks ok. How does it taste?

 

[Ash]

Pretty gassy and light.

 

[dralarms]

Did you use table grapes?

 

[Ash]

Unsure of the grape variety, although flavourwise they could very likely be table grapes - Is there a sure fire way to tell?

 

[dralarms]

Yea, where did you get them?

 

[Ash]

My garden..

 

[dralarms]

Were they seedless? If so they were table grapes for sure. If not maybe they are just a little light on flavor.
I see you added water, never add water. You can add juice but water will weaken the must.

 

[Ash]

Yes, pretty sure they were seedless. So given the chemicals I have put in, is there anything I can do to revive this batch?

Point taken On the water.

 

[sour_grapes]

As far as the excess chemicals go, they don't pose an insurmountable problem. You put in 4x too much sulfite and 4x too much "stabilizer."

The sulfite will dissipate in time. The website for the stabilizer doesn't tell us exactly what it is, but the description reads:

Wine stabiliser is added to wine at the end of fermentation to ensure that any residual yeast is stopped from further fermentation.

So I guess it is just potassium sorbate. Too much of this is said to give the wine a bubble-gum taste, but is not otherwise ruinous.

I seriously doubt you have oxidized it. First of all, sulfites serve to protect against oxidation. Secondly, you describe it as "gassy," so there is still plenty of CO2 in there, so you cannot have seriously overaerated it. In fact, the "cure" to too much sulfites is to agitate it, encouraging the evolution and dissipation of the sulfites. Splash racking is the method usually recommended, but whipping would work, too.

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the reply Paul,

Apologies, the stabiliser is sodium metabisulphate and potassium sorbate.

Ok, so as the wine is now still aclittle gassy, would I be best to gently pull a spoon/ rod through the solution to de-gas and then crack on with bottling?

Ash

 

[sour_grapes]

Bottling should be delayed for a long time. There is no point in bottling this now. You need to allow the sulfites AND the CO2 to dissipate. I would put an airlock on it, and forget it for 6 months to a year. Perhaps taste it every 3 months.

 

[Ash]

Wow ok, does the size of the container matter? Just put it back in the 5 litre carboys/demijohns?

Before putting back in, give it another whip?

Should I add anything else to it at this point?

 

[sour_grapes]

Yes, it matters. You don't want to allow much "headspace" (empty space at top) while aging. If necessary, top it off with a similar wine to nearly fill up the vessel.

No, nothing else needs to be added. You could choose to add some tannins or oak if you desire.

There would be no harm in whipping it more, to hasten the evolution of gas and sulfites. Or you can allow time to do it for you -- your choice.

 

[Loner]

If I'm reading your post correctly your wine has already aged a full year. If so it's perfectly ok to bottle now. If you are worried its a little gassy put a vacuum on it prior to bottling.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[Ash]

Hi, thank you both for your advice, although a little conflicting so still not sure what to do.

To clarify,:

- Wine has been aged for a year
- Racked a number of times
- Wine is a little fizzy


Thoughts?

Ash

 

[cintipam]

I believe the conflicting opinions are based on the fact that possibly loner didn't read page one and understand that you have 4x too much sulfite in your wine at this time. Technically, yes, you could bottle if you are certain all gas is out. But it would be best to let it age more with agitation to try to work some of that excess sulfite out. the amount you have in there would prob be noticeable at this point. If you bottle now you would have to really swirl the wine upon opening and let it breathe quite a while. But it could be done. I agree with sourgrapes it is best to carboy age with agitation a while longer to lessen the sulfites, esp if you think it might still be a little gassy. Honestly with a little agitation once a week for a month you could prob safely bottle it. You would have to sniff it upon opening to determine how much breathing it needed to be at its best.

When you are the winemaker you hear lots of opinions and reasons for, but you gotta make your own decision. Maybe you are going on vacation soon and need to get this into bottles. Or you plan to offer it at a family function in one month, so then it would be best to agitate for 2 weeks, bottle, then the bottle will have time to recover from bottle shock before you serve it. You have factors we don't know, so opinions and reasons are all we can offer.

Hope this helps some.

Pam in cinti

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Ash, I am no "expert" when it comes to grape wine but you say that it tastes pretty "light". My guess is by "light" you mean fairly bland. IMO, it is not going to improve very much with time. You say that it is gassy. Sparkling wine is a fun drink and as you have stabilized this wine you might add some grape concentrate to boost the sweetness and flavor and bottle in champagne bottles with plastic "corks" and cages. Alternatively, you might allow the wine to bulk age another year and add it to next year's grape harvest (perhaps 1 part of this to 4 parts undiluted grape juice - in the secondary)

 

[sour_grapes]

I must admit that I missed the part about the wine already being a year old. I think Pam sums up the true situation pretty well.

 

[Tenbears]

This wine is destine to be light, with a starting gravity of 1.020 the alcohol can only be around 3.00% BV. The fact that seedless grapes, that had been diluted comprised the must would create a severe lacking in flavor, and acidity. Bottle it sparkling and use it as a mixer, or use it in another mix as Bernard said.