Question regarding odor...

[SharkBite]

I'm making five gallons of merlot from a kit and racked the secondary into another carboy. The secondary did however seem to have a lot of sediment. (lees?).

The wine sample tasted good and seemed to have cleared quite nicely. Nevertheless it had a disagreeable odor. Is the odor to be expected at this stage and will the odor go away once the wine ages?

Thank you.

 

[Caplan]

How would you describe the odour? It's hopefully just 'yeasty' notes as you say it tastes good.

 

[cpfan]

Sharkbite:

It might help to know which brand & variety. Also since most wine kits are 6 US gallons why are you making this as 5 US gallons?

Steve

 

[smurfe]

Sharkbite:

It might help to know which brand & variety. Also since most wine kits are 6 US gallons why are you making this as 5 US gallons?

Steve

I was wondering the same thing. Most wine kits do have a funky smell to an extent which is yeasty. While the wine may taste fine it takes a bit for the yeast smell to diminish. CO2 can emit an odor as well. After de-gassing the odor normally goes away.

You will read lots of posts of people knocking kits for their "kit taste". I have never really noticed this but do notice a "kit smell". To me, all young kit wines smell exactly the same. I could take a Merlot, A Cab, A Shiraz that are all freshly made and ready to bottle. To me, they all smell exactly the same. The taste will be reminiscent of the varietal, but the aroma does not come around until proper aging has occurred. It could just be me though.

Smurfe

 

[cpfan]

Smurfe:

There are definitely some similarities, but there are some kits that smell way different.

Although I haven't made either in quite a while...Vino del Vida Red Zinfandel and Cellar Classic Montepulciano had a very different (and bad to me) odour. In the Zin, this was gone by filtering. That Monte just smelled awful to me.

A lot of whites smell strange (not bad really) in the first 20 days. I make Vineco & Spagnols whites.

Steve

 

[Caplan]

Also since most wine kits are 6 US gallons why are you making this as 5 US gallons?

Unless he's using Imperial Gallons. 5 Imp Gallons equates to 6 US Gallons!

 

[cpfan]

I understand Caplan, but he's from Texas, so I'm pretty sure he's talking US gallons.

Steve

 

[Caplan]

I understand Caplan, but he's from Texas, so I'm pretty sure he's talking US gallons.

Steve

I Know cpfan - I completely missed the measurement until you picked up on it! I was thinking about the different yeasts and how they smell with different musts.

I meant that because someone states they're location is Texas it doesn't mean they're always American.

 

[cpfan]

Caplan:

I run a store in Canada on the US border. I get a few US customers. Thus I know to be careful when talking gallons.

Steve

 

[SharkBite]

I opened up my first bottle Vintner's Reserve Wine made from a kit and was pleasantly surprised. I didn't detect an unpleasant odor as I initially had before racking once again to a "tertiary(?)". This batch is a vast improvement on my first attempt at making wine.

The kit did indeed call for six US gallons of wine and not five as stated in my initial question. I had mindlessly simply added enough water to the five imperial gallon mark not paying any attention to the unit of measure.

This time around I used a stirring devise attached to a drill to mix well. This evidently helped clarify the wine.

Anyway thank you for all your comments and observations.

 

[Caplan]

Glad it worked out well for you SharkBite.

Cpfan, I was right about the gallon thing