Sharp intake up the nostrils

[Caron]

Whenever I take a whiff of a home-made wine I get an almost ammonia-like sharpness that comes from the wine. I don't get this from shop-bought wines so what is this and why does it happen?

[lockwood1956]

how much sulphite have you used (campden tablets)

[Caron]

I make a sterilising solution consisting of 2 tsp Campden Powder, half tsp Citric acid and 1 pint of water. I uses this to sterilise equipment and bottles before I fill them with wine.

[Rich]

Is this just your homemade wine, or other peoples too?

How do you degasss your wine? also, do you rinse out the campden solution before filling with wine?

Maybe posting a recipe up that you've followed, and the methods you've used would be of help with the fault finding. (Bob also does a tasting by post service if asked)

[Caron]

Am I supposed to get rid of all traces of sterilising solution before I bottle the wine? I've read that leaving some solution in is no bad thing as it helps protect the wine?

[Rich]

Depends on how much you mean by 'some' really, I rinse my clean bottles with sulphite, then drain them on a bottle tree. Unfortunately this can sometimes leave a bit of sulphite in the bottle. I've had a couple of bottles where this was the case (even gave one to Richard_s and got a right ribbing for it) I now make sure I empty as much as possible out.

I now use a 10% solution of sulphite (100g sulphite, topped up to the 1litre mark in a spray bottle) just 5ml of this in a gallon of wine is enough to stabilise it, then at every other racking (I rack every 6 to 8 weeks) unless it's bottled earlier.

Your 2 campden tablets and acid to a pint is a fair bit sronger than that, and just 3 to 5ml left in a bottle would leave a strong taste imo.

[cpfan]

Personally I doubt that the K-meta(campden) sanitizing solution would cause this, especially if drained decently.

I interpreted Bob's question....

how much sulphite have you used (campden tablets)

to mean "how much K-meta/campden have you added to the wine?" not "how did you sanitize the bottles?"

Rich's question about the recipe is pointing in that direction as well.

Another question, did you soak the corks in K-meta/campden?

Steve

[Cellar_Rat]

I personally think this is something to do with sodium (campden) metabisultphate as against potassium metabisultphate.

I have always thought you can 'smell' the use of campden tablets, although I would not have called it 'ammonia-like sharpness ' that said I haven't smelt it in ages.

Really don't think it is anythng to do with washing/draining bottles.