How to reduce bitterness in wine

[MiBor]

Last fall I made about 15 gallons of cab from grapes and I got a little carried away with crushing. Being still somewhat new to winemaking from grapes, little did I know that crushing seeds will release bitter tannins into wine. I tasted the wine all along the aging process and wondered if the bitterness will go away in time, but the wine is 10 months old now and the bitterness has not subsided much. I keep reading that the best cure for that is egg white or gelatin fining. Does anyone have had a similar experience and found a fix for it? Any ideas to what would work best to remove the bitterness from my wine?

 

[MiBor]

The wine is balanced (pH 3.56, TA 0.65%) has good color and I can taste the silky smooth good tannins that matured and formed long chain polymers, but the bitter note is still there and very noticeable. I plan to do bench trials next week with different amounts of egg white and gelatin, but I would like some advice, if anyone had to troubleshoot something like that and learned some lessons from it.

 

[salcoco]

I had a cab Franc years ago that had the bitter tones. I recall doing a bench trial with egg whites and gelatin. the gelatin won , I used just plain clear gelatin purchased in the grocery store. I had about 50 gallons. I cannot remember the dosage although it was not large. the bitterness was gone in a few days and it became one of our best selling wines in the winery.

 

[NorCal]

I had an astringent wine that got much better with time. It took a good three years In the bottle, but it smoothed out.

 

[knockabout]

Sorry for the late reply. I know some may cringe but I’ve had wine that was too tart or astringent and added a touch a glycerin and found it smoothed things out nicely. For a trial - I’d pour a hole in the paper/foil cover (under that twist off lid ) using a rack then squeeze out a drop and add to about an ounce of wine mix well and taste to see if it helps.

 

[winemanden]

Sorry for the late reply. I know some may cringe but I’ve had wine that was too tart or astringent and added a touch a glycerin and found it smoothed things out nicely. For a trial - I’d pour a hole in the paper/foil cover (under that twist off lid ) using a rack then squeeze out a drop and add to about an ounce of wine mix well and taste to see if it helps.

Glycerin is good. It doesn't remove any bitterness or acid, but it can disguise it and make it taste smoother. It adds a bit of body too.

 

[shoebiedoo]

This answer is partly for my own I formation but doesn't egg white Remove at least the astringent flavors?

 

[salcoco]

egg white will remove bitterness

 

[MiBor]

I did some bench testing with egg white and gelatin to remove bitterness in my wine. For gelatin I used this product: GELATIN
For egg white dosage I used this guide: EGG WHITE
I filled 4 one gallon jugs with wine and added gelatin to 2 of them (0.2 grams and 0.35 grams/gallon) and egg white to the other two (equivalent to 3 and 5 eggs/barrel). I kept checking and tasting the wine daily for a week.
At the end of the testing I found that gelatin reduced overall tannin but the bitter note was still there at both concentrations. Also, gelatin absorbed a lot of color from the wine and it was stuck to the walls and bottom of the glass jugs. It only came off with hot water and a grease detergent.
The egg white removed some tannin and color as well, but it got rid of more bitterness than gelatin, especially the 5E concentration. It also made the wine smoother and overall better than gelatin, so I fined the remaining wine with egg white. Than I racked it and filtered it with a 1 micron pad and added 0.5 oz/gal glycerin. I can say that the wine is very smooth now and the bitter note is gone almost completely. I will bottle it next week or so and let it sit for 3-4 months before I start drinking it and give it away to friends and family.