Trouble with backsweetening

[shoebiedoo]

OK, this I don't get.

Bought 24 gallons of Pinot Grigio fall of 2013. Experimented with zesting on 6 gallons and was not happy with the results (too much grapefruit flavor) While I understand to ad less zest what I don't understand is..
I back-sweetened the zested wine to make it a little more tolerable. I added sorbate (as per the instructions), back-sweetened it to 1.000 and bottled. I'll be damned if a month later it ain't starting to ferment. WHAT THE HECK OVER?????

The other 18 gallons is fine.

I'm baffled

 

[Runningwolf]

Was the wine completely dry before adding sugar and sorbate? Did you have your SO2 level high enough? Sorbate and meta work together. I'm sure you already know all of this but I am just thinking out loud. The only other thing I can think of is old meta.

 

[ibglowin]

Old Sorbate by chance?

 

[joeswine]

process

it's apparent that not all of the yeast wasn't dead ,whether you added the zest in at the secondary or in the primary the net result is the chemistry was not correct ,shoebiedoo.how much zest did you add to the 6 gallon batch and did it have a off odor? Should have added 1 grapefruit. I'm also gong to assume this is fresh juice, I'm I correct?

 

[Julie]

How old is the sorbate and how was you storing it?

 

[shoebiedoo]

This was from a bucket of fresh juice last fall. so it was a year old by the time back sweetening. I purchased the sorbate for this purpose so it can't get any fresher. As for the SO2 level at the time of adding the sorbate I can't say. Didn't think after a year this would still be an issue (i don't often sweeten wines). As for the zesting, Joe I know I screwed this one up. I used 2 oranges and 2 grapefruit, The idea was to mix it with the 18 gallons of the same wine. Just didn't work out so I had all this Grapefruit wine
Now it's sparkling wine

 

[Julie]

This was from a bucket of fresh juice last fall. so it was a year old by the time back sweetening. I purchased the sorbate for this purpose so it can't get any fresher. As for the SO2 level at the time of adding the sorbate I can't say. Didn't think after a year this would still be an issue (i don't often sweeten wines). As for the zesting, Joe I know I screwed this one up. I used 2 oranges and 2 grapefruit, The idea was to mix it with the 18 gallons of the same wine. Just didn't work out so I had all this Grapefruit wine
Now it's sparkling wine

Luva Bella's? I have had to degass some of their juice buckets one year after getting them.

 

[shoebiedoo]

Luva Bella's? I have had to degass some of their juice buckets one year after getting them.

It was from Regina but it was properly degassed. it was 1 of 4 buckets of Pinot Grigio that I made. all the rest is fine.