White wine tastes lemony and tart

[Polarhug]

I don't have my exact recipe here with me at work but I'll see what I can remember:

December 1st batch started what I thought would be a Tropical Riesling Clone. Hah! That will teach me to think I know anything about trying to clone a wine!

3 Gal Batch
White Niagara Grape Juice
Welches Mango & Passionfruit Cooler
Apricot Nectar
8oz golden raisins
3lbs ripe bananas for body
SG was 1.090, it finished dry. Acid at 7.0

At the end of fermentation it tasted exactly like dry chardonnay. But very very tart and lemony. OK, I can reroute myself... lets experiment with a MLF Fermentation! Seemed like a good idea at the time

Added in the MLF as I knew it wouldn't go through this naturally with store bought ingredients. Waited 4 weeks until the tiny tiny bubbles dissipated. Very clear wine at this point.

Still tasted tart and like I was sucking on a lemon.

Ok, lets try cold stabilization!! Now it has been in the fridge for 5 weeks and the taste has not improved even a tiny bit. Tart, lemony.

What are my options to salvage this? Soooo at this point I can never backsweeten because of the MLF, correct? Mabye try aging on some oak for a long long while? Egg shells to pull out some of that pucker? What could I have done differently? Educate me wise ones, this one has me puzzled.

 

[jswordy]

Want to experiment? Try this in a test goblet less than 1/2 full of wine. Add in a little bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). It may foam. See if it kills the acid. There is no max amount to baking soda that I know about.

Calcium carbonate will also help out with acid, but it is hard to back acid down once it is a done deal. Anyway, 2.5 grams per gallon is the start point and not over 10 grams per gallon or it tastes like chalk.

It'll have to settle out after either.

 

[Polarhug]

So its possible that it tastes more acidic than it tests out at?

I will try that tonight!

 

[Jaiart]

I don't have my exact recipe here with me at work but I'll see what I can remember:

December 1st batch started what I thought would be a Tropical Riesling Clone. Hah! That will teach me to think I know anything about trying to clone a wine!

3 Gal Batch
White Niagara Grape Juice
Welches Mango & Passionfruit Cooler
Apricot Nectar
8oz golden raisins
3lbs ripe bananas for body
SG was 1.090, it finished dry. Acid at 7.0

At the end of fermentation it tasted exactly like dry chardonnay. But very very tart and lemony. OK, I can reroute myself... lets experiment with a MLF Fermentation! Seemed like a good idea at the time

Added in the MLF as I knew it wouldn't go through this naturally with store bought ingredients. Waited 4 weeks until the tiny tiny bubbles dissipated. Very clear wine at this point.

Still tasted tart and like I was sucking on a lemon.

Ok, lets try cold stabilization!! Now it has been in the fridge for 5 weeks and the taste has not improved even a tiny bit. Tart, lemony.

What are my options to salvage this? Soooo at this point I can never backsweeten because of the MLF, correct? Mabye try aging on some oak for a long long while? Egg shells to pull out some of that pucker? What could I have done differently? Educate me wise ones, this one has me puzzled.

Sounds delicious, gotta make some of this stuff.

 

[Arne]

Polar,
You can always add a little sweetener as you are drinking it. That way you don't have to be worried about stabalizing it. Draw a glass, bring it up to the sweeteness you like and drink away. Arne.

 

[Polarhug]

I tried a tiny pinch of baking soda in a half glass. No fizzing or foaming, but it did improve the flavor oddly. Less tart, more fruit forward.

I went ahead and added in 1/4 tsp of calcium carbonate dissolved and put it back into cold stabilization storage. Don't want to chalk it up or take some of the crispness away from it. I also plan to oak it for awhile and I actually think now it is savable!! A cheapy Chard I bought to re-top "Toasted Head Chardonnay" didn't taste much different except for the extra oak and less fruity flavors. And the color and clarity were exact. I actually got the glasses mixed up!

I will say that it did not taste as bad as it had the week before. It may have been because I was sampling sweet wines right before?

 

[ShawnDTurner]

Give it time the tart will will fall away.

 

[jswordy]

I tried a tiny pinch of baking soda in a half glass. No fizzing or foaming, but it did improve the flavor oddly. Less tart, more fruit forward.[quote}

Yaaaa, I learned that from the moonshiner's wife.

I will say that it did not taste as bad as it had the week before. It may have been because I was sampling sweet wines right before?

I have found the key is to keep sampling it. Along about the fifth glass, it tastes awesome.

 

[Polarhug]

The best wine i've ever tasted is usually my 5th glass too!!

 

[Arne]

The best wine i've ever tasted is usually my 5th glass too!!

Yep, then try it again tomorrow and "Wonder what happened to it, it was sooo good last night and now..." Been there, Arne.

 

[grapeman]

It is very young wine at this point and likely will taste tart. Time will take care of a lot of that. Did you measure the final pH and TA?