Wine smell.

[koolaide187]

I have been drinking wine for a while now and making wine for about a little over a year. I would still say I am new to making wine and all. My question is to anybody who might know what I am talking about. Before actually making wine I never smelled it but ever since I started making wine. I always smell this kind of off smell almost musty in every wine I buy from the store or make myself. Does anybody else smell this? I mean I do smell the wine itself but I also smell a hint of the musty type smell in every wine i've ever come across more so in home made wine that I make or my friends make. If anybody knows what I am talking about is there a name for that smell? It's not so terrible I wouldn't want to drink the wine. I mean I love the taste of wine no matter how strong that smell is.

 

[robie]

That's an interesting situation. I have never heard of it, but maybe others have.

Normally, when a wine smells really musty, it is because the wine is "corked". A corked wine it one that has a compound present called TCA. The wine smells like wet cardboard. For home wine makers, this condition is generally caused by the wine coming into contact with chlorine, as in chlorine bleach. That's why chlorine bleach has no place in the home wine making environment.

In your case, since all wine smells musty, I haven't a clue.

 

[koolaide187]

I know it's strange sounding but I only started smelling it after I starting making my own wine. Now I smell it in every wine. I've never used bleach or chlorine to clean my carboys/equipment.

 

[jswordy]

The only possible thing I can think of is that your nose is now sensitized to the residual smells of fermentation coming off the wine or to a bouquet from an additive common to both types. Pretty wild that the same smells register with both homemade and commercial wines, and it sounds like a misperception by your sense of smell. Shrug.

I have become sensitized since beginning to make my own wine to SO2 levels in commercial wines. There are some brands of whites I used to drink with no problem that I cannot stand now because they smell and taste so much like sulfur. That's probably because I work hard to keep SO2 in my own stuff as low as practical, so there is a contrast.

I had thought a similar thing might be happening to you with the musty smell until I realized that you get it in your own wine AND also commercial. Hmmm ... I'm stumped ... do you oak your wines?

 

[g8keeper]

The only possible thing I can think of is that your nose is now sensitized to the residual smells of fermentation coming off the wine or to a bouquet from an additive common to both types. Pretty wild that the same smells register with both homemade and commercial wines, and it sounds like a misperception by your sense of smell. Shrug.

I have become sensitized since beginning to make my own wine to SO2 levels in commercial wines. There are some brands of whites I used to drink with no problem that I cannot stand now because they smell and taste so much like sulfur. That's probably because I work hard to keep SO2 in my own stuff as low as practical, so there is a contrast.

I had thought a similar thing might be happening to you with the musty smell until I realized that you get it in your own wine AND also commercial. Hmmm ... I'm stumped ... do you oak your wines?

hmmm...and i was told that i was crazy that i could taste the sulfites in wine....lol....i was thinking it might be the sulfite he was smelling cuz i can smell that in wines as well....i think it could be confused for a musty smell if you are new to winemaking and such....

 

[robie]

Some people, more than others are much more sensitive to the smell of sulfites. I'm fairly sensitive to that smell, because I have sort of trained myself that way since I started making wine. As a result, I really dislike over-sulfited wine.

 

[koolaide187]

Maybe it's the sulfites I am smelling then. That's a very good possibility. What does the SO2 smell like? If it's possible I am smelling that?

 

[jswordy]

Maybe it's the sulfites I am smelling then. That's a very good possibility. What does the SO2 smell like? If it's possible I am smelling that?

Alone, it is a sharp rotten egg smell. In a wine, it is more difficult to describe. "Musty" might be a way to describe it. When I drink a high-sulfate wine, I can sort of "taste" a sulfuric aftertaste in my mouth as I breathe. That's the SO2 being exhaled by my lungs from my bloodstream. Sometimes it can become quite a nuisance. There's also a smell to my urine after drinking high-SO2 wine.

Whatever goes in the wine goes through your body. That's why I try to keep the abv high to act as a preservative and the additives at a minimum effective level.

 

[robie]

It's a sulfur-like smell/taste. Like the smell you get after lighting a match.