Oxidized wine into vinegar?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

New_Guy_Brad

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Messages
76
Reaction score
2
Well I have been very busy for the past couple years but things are finally slowing down and I'm getting back into wine making.

Problem is I remembered I had a few carboys I had let go for at least a year and all airlocks are completely dry on them (no surprise). I am sure at very least they are oxidized and would taste terrible. I popped the one bung off (odd sentence to type out) and smelled the wine and it had a very rubbery type smell...

My question is since I "know" the wine is already bad, would I do any good trying to turn some/all of it into vinegar? (that is if it didn't do that already)

Would a oxidized bad tasting wine turn into a bad tasting vinegar?

Long shot but I figured maybe someone here might have tried this before.
 
I would siphon some off and give it a taste. Smelling right out of the carboy after a year might not be indicative of the wine. It might be fine if it was topped up. Might not have a long life because of the increased exposure. I've never fooled around with vinegar, so unfortunately I have no insight on that.
 
Don't be so positive that it is bad. If the only indication was a rubbery smell through the carboy then it might be workable.
The rubber stopper with a dry airlock for a portion of the past year could be the rubber smell. And The neck and rim may be what you smell and not the wine.
A year is pretty long, but if you see no growth or film at the surface of the wine. and you were topped up with no bacteria growth then I'd say go for it.
I've had a neglected batch oxidize. It developed bacteria and the smell was unmistakable. And the wine browned a bit. LOTS of TLC and I was able to salvage. (Read: drinkable) I'd be optimistic if I were you. Silver lining there's no need to worry about CO2 issues. Good luck
 
Alright, i will give it a taste. I had just figured with the bad smell and being exposed to air for a year would basically=bad
 
At the very least I'd hit with sulfite immediately, rack and give it a little time and see how it goes.

This is a very sound suggestion. The wine may smell and taste semi ok right from the demijohn but when you add pms (as you would pre bottling) you will get a real taste of what the wine will be like in the bottle.
And if you want to make vinegar out of it remember anything over about 6% alcohol can cause problems. So start with a shop bought vinegar without preservative add a little wine at a time and you have to give the vinegar oxygen to work
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top