odd taste of rubber

[Cheryl]

I made a plum wine from fruit wine base that I added 8 pounds of frozen mixed berries to. Fermentation went well. I stabilized, backsweetened, and bottled in November 2018. The wine tastes fine, young but fine. I gave away many bottles for Christmas letting people know to let them sit until February before opening. I opened a bottle last night to check how things were progressing and was assaulted by an aftertaste of rubber. What happened, should it dissipate with time? I have never had a batch this bad before, it is undrinkable.

 

[balatonwine]

was assaulted by an aftertaste of rubber

Most likely, either sulfur dioxide or mercaptans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_fault#Sulfur_compounds

 

[Cheryl]

Thank you, very interesting read.

 

[Cheryl]

I haven't found in the article a way to fix it......is it fixable?

 

[user 36973]

Yes, you can resolve it with a 1% copper sulfate solution. Be sure to follow the directions and not to add more than you need (excess copper is toxic). The procedure below incrementally removes the copper and ensures you do not add more than you need.

The procedure:
1) Gently stir in 0.75ml of the 1% copper sulfate solution for every gallon of wine. This give the TTB max level of 0.5ppm copper. The copper reacts with the H2S to form CuS and precipitates to the bottom of your container.
2) The next day smell for the rubbery, rotten egg H2S aroma again.
3) Repeat steps (1) and (2) until you no longer smell the off aroma. It may take several doses of the copper sulfate.

Be sure to re-dose your wine with sufficient sulfites when you are done.