Thread for questions and discussion on new winemaker series

[lockwood1956]

If you followed the tutorial omitting no detail (no matter how slight) the wine will keep easily for 6 months.......a cork popping might indicate that the wine may need degassing, or, you didn't allow the air to escape while corking?

the odd taste my be that the wine had started to oxidise (how long had the cork been out?)

regards
Bob

[Rich]

Hello,

I bottled my first ever wine, a #1, last Saturday and stored the bottles in a cupboard. Yesterday, 4 days after bottling, I found that the stopper had popped out of one of the bottles.

Was it fully degassed? what was the SG when you bottled it? Did you sulphite it?

The wine didn't taste great, but wasn't that bad. I opened another bottle and it tasted really good.

Can anyone shed any light on what happened here? Given the 2nd bottle tasted so good, I don't think I've bottled too soon. Could some contamination in the 1st have caused it to pop?

Yes, good chance. Make sure your bottles are clean, and sanitised properly. (I store mine clean, but still always look in them towards a bright light to make sure there is nothing lurking, spots of mould etc, then sanitise before use)

Would the bad taste be from contamination or just from the bottle being left open for up to 4 days?

Good chance too of that!

This has got me thinking about how wine keeps. If I buy a bottle and open it before putting a stopper in I'd expect it to taste off after a few days. How then can the wine I bottle keep for longer? The bottles contain a small amount of air and as it's not fermenting there won't be a CO2 layer. How long will it actually keep for?

Sorry for all the newbie questions!

Thank you,

J

By small amount of air left in your wine, I presume you've got them topped up into the neck? If not, they should be. The tiny amount of air left shouldn't be a problem for a wine with the right sulphite additions to survive quite a while.

Hope that's covered it all. (I've got wine upto 5yrs old, that still tastes great.)

[lockwood1956]

Sorry

I see the bottle was open for 4 days....this could be the source of the bad taste.....oxidation


drink this batch and start making some more immediately

[jayess]

Was it fully degassed? what was the SG when you bottled it? Did you sulphite it?

SG was 906. I think it was fully degassed, I followed the "shake the dj" instructions there is no detectable fizz anyway.

Didn't sulphite it before bottling - I guess I should have done.

By small amount of air left in your wine, I presume you've got them topped up into the neck? If not, they should be.

Yes, filled into the neck.

Thanks,

J

[jayess]

drink this batch and start making some more immediately

Good plan!

I'm really pleased with the 2nd bottle so will get another #1 going. I'm not too keen on the #2 but am not sure if there was a problem with it or if it's just not my kind of wine. Think I'll try again and see if it comes out better.

[Delmonteman]

#2 improves enormously after a month or two in the bottle so if you are not keen on it leave it alone and go back to it in a couple of months...

[jayess]

Ah, that's interesting. I'll give it some time then.

That's reminded me, I didn't understand how adding the grape juice to sweeten it wouldn't result in fizzy dry wine. Adding the juice would have reduced the alcohol content and provided food for the yeast so why doesn't fermentation restart?

[Delmonteman]

Presumably if you followed the method you stabilsed with sorbate and campden tablet which will inhibit the yeast and prevent any fermentation of additional sugars. If you wanted it fizzy, you wouldn't add sorbate/campden but would then need to follow a different process for bottling.

Reducing the alcohol by adding the grape juice is only marginal and wines at 10.5% can still be balanced and enjoyable...

[jayess]

Ah, I see. Thanks Delmonteman.

[NV68]

Can anyone give me a rough idea of the final SG of the Christmas pudding wine? Planning to sweeten tomorrow, and I don't drink sweet wines regularly enough to know how sweet is sweet enough (if that makes any sense).

[Delmonteman]

Best bet would be to sweeten to your own taste by gradually sweetening a small quantity of wine then multiplying up for the test of it...

Alternatively bottle it dry, then sweeten each bottle to taste as you drink/ serve it...

[NV68]

OK, thanks Delmonteman

[helenvw23]

Hi,

I am hoping to give wine number one a try, however we have some pineapple juice at home. Would this work instead of apple and is there anything different I would need to do or add to it?

Thanks,
Helen

[lockwood1956]

The pineapple will produce more sediment, and I would be careful about the pineapple overpowering things.....maybe just do a standard wine No 1 and add 1/2 litre pineapple juice to it?

just my two pennerth

regards
Bob

[Abervin]

I have to agree with Bob, having just sampled a 15 litre recipie with 1 litre pineapple. Even at that dilution it is a noticable flavour/smell.