Help:Watery wine

[tonyvlx]

Purchased about 60 liters of San Giovesse juice last oct 2007. On a recent check up iv noticed that the wine is very watery. No body/thickness to it at all.
What could of caused this??? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[m_lapaglia]

What recipe did you follow? Yeast, did you add anything? more info makes it easier to help you.

 

[tonyvlx]

What i did was everything recommended by the pro's that sell the juice.

1. I put the pales of juice in a warm room near the furnace.I just removed the lids and left lids laying on the pale so dust/dirt would not get in.
2. Left it that way for 3 weeks(as recommended)
3. After 3 weeks i poured the juice in carboys,almost filling each carboy up so
there would be little air space.Added oak chips and 1 sulfer pill per gallon (as
recommended).Added air lock to carboys.Stored it in a dark cool cellar.
4.6 or 7 months later i racked it.(removed all the oak chips)

At this stage, 1 year later, the wine seems very watery.Any help would be appreciated.

 

[m_lapaglia]

Did you take any SG readings? what is the current SG?

 

[Noontime]

It may be that the original juice is the cause...I guess the only way to know is if they have a proven track record of selling quality juice, or someone else you know is making wine with juice from the same people and there's is much different. Unfortunately you really don't have a whole lot of information to use, and you let nature do the work so there's no way of knowing what yeast did your fermenting.

I wouldn't worry about it too much though; I've had wines that change drastically quite a few times during the first year, so a year from now this may be the best wine you ever tasted.

 

[tonyvlx]

I remember the original juice being thick and rich.

 

[Luc]

Was there a lot of sediment when you racked it ???

If there was, the juice was thick due to the solids dissolved
in it. They may have settled out.

How did you do the check up ???
By tasting or just by looking. ???

Luc

 

[tonyvlx]

there was sediment.when i racked it but not a big amount. I checked it by both tasting it and looking at it. It just dont seem right.Could i have been scammed with poor quality juice???

 

[Wine Maker]

I didn't see the mention of yeast being added. Did you add yeast?

 

[tonyvlx]

Nope i never added yeast.Was i suppose to??? If so how much per gallon???

 

[Wine Maker]

You can get by with the native yeast but that can lead to problems. For example a stuck fermentation where the yeast is not strong enough to finish the job. Thereby leaving you with lower than expected alcohol and a sweet wine. Commercial yeast is so widely available that I am surprised that where you purchased the juice did not recommend it. Commercial yeast comes in 5 gram packets, enough to ferment 6 gals (if fermenting less than 6 gals just use the whole packet). There are winemakers out there who still prefer to let nature take its course but with the availabilty of commercial yeast I wouldn't risk my investment and time with out it. With this being said, the watering down you experienced would not be the result of native vs commercial yeast.