Wine Floaties - Not sure what this is

[FlashJT]

Ok, so I've tried searching on here and various other sites to see what these "floaties" in my finished/bottled Pear wine could be. So far I haven't found a good / satisfactory explanation so I'm hoping you guys can help me out. Here's all the details:

• 5/10 - Started Pear Wine from can of juice available at LHBS
• 5/29 - Fermentation completed and added sorbate and bentonite
• 8/2 - Racked off sediment/lees
• 8/18 - Bottled 2 bottles of finished wine, then added 1.5L of Welches Peach+White Grape 100% juice to the remainder of the wine.
• 8/25 - Bottled 7 bottles of wine/juice blend, then added 1 cup of sugar and bottled remaining 8 bottles.
• By my calculations, the first 2 bottles were ~12.7% ABV and the remaining 15 bottles were 11% ABV

When looking at my bottles of this Pear wine recently, I noticed "floaties" inside many/most of the remaining bottles. We've consumed about 5-6 bottles so far, mostly right after bottling, and did not notice any of these "floaties" when those bottles were consumed.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. The first thing that pops out at me is that my log doesn't show that any Kmeta was added at the end. Not sure if I just forgot to include that in my log, or if I actually didn't put any in at the end. I normally put both in at the same time, but I also normally keep detailed notes. I suppose either is possible.
2. I don't think it's tartrate crystals that are sometimes said to be what is floating in some wines after aging for a while. These done seem like crystals.
3. I don't think it's just sediment that's fallen out over time either, as the "floaties" are more "organized" in nature. What I mean by this is that they aren't just little particles, but almost seem to be blobs or something.
4. Part of me says mold. I'm not sure how common mold is in wines, especially at 10+% The blobby floatie things kind of resemble mold, or at least what I would imagine mold to look like in wine. I have a pretty strict sanitary practice so I'd be surprised if it was mold, but who knows.

With all that said....any ideas? Mold? Something else? Safe to drink? Toss them and move on with life?

 

[Runningwolf]

Did you use bentonite? How about any other clarifiers? Did you filter?

 

[FlashJT]

Added bentontite 5/29, no other clarifiers or filtering done.

 

[Arne]

Are you getting any co2 out of it? Like bubbles when you open the bottle? If not, bet it is just solids falling out and joining together. With that alcohol, it should not be anything bad. If it tastes good, should probably be ok.

 

[FlashJT]

So far it seems that most of the wines I've finished so far always have some small amount of co2 that comes out when i open the bottle. I'm not talking soda bottle style, more like champagne that's been in the glass for a bit and just has some bubbles coming up the side of the glass. No noticeable carbonation in any of these when drinking. And I do de-gas with a drill tool from my LHBS, but evidently I'm not doing it enough.

If there is co2, does that mean it could be something bad? I haven't opened/tasted any of these bottles since I noticed the floaties in the bottles, so I'm not sure if they still taste/smell good or not. I've been waiting to see if these tings grow (they haven't) or if any of you guys think it might be something bad before I actually open one up and try it.

 

[keena]

Co2 just worries us due to the fact that it could be refermenting in the bottle which would cause small sediment to be in the wine.
Maybe its the cork breaking a bit when you put the cork in?....

Or maybe its fruit gunk from what you made it from. Here's a pic of some nasty gunk my raspberry left behind, still was great wine though once I got it out.