# Can I fix an oxidized wine?



## LarryW

I have a high quality kit that i have aged for about a year and i am sure it is getting oxidized. it has a slight brownish color and has that taste.
i probably should have added sulfate more times. Can i salvage this wine?
Thanks


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## milbrosa

Sodium or potassium metabisulfite. 1/4 teaspoon every 3 months while bulk aging.

Have you tasted the wine? If it still tastes good, add 1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite and bottle it. 

If it taste like cardboard, or otherwise unpleasant, I don't think it can be fixed. But please wait for other people on the forum to weigh in. I still consider myself a novice.


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## Runningwolf

If the wine is truly oxidized and beyond saving as the wine it is, I've heard of making sherry with it. I don't know anything about but possibly someone else on the forum might know about making sherry with oxidized wine.


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## Wade E

I believe PolyClar is what you are looking for and Ive heard it work a few times on stuff like this! 
http://morewinemaking.com/view_product/16810//Polyclar_VT_PVPP_1_oz


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## LarryW

Well I would hate to lose it. I hate to say it Wade, but it is that EP Amarone you brag about.


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## Wade E

Give that product a try. I belive a few people have used it with great results. One was a white wine that had gotten oxidized in a vessel with too much space in there and it eityer fixed it totally or at least mostly and this was taste and color!


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## Dugger

Are you sure it is oxidized? An Amarone is a slightly different wine and has a slightly sweetish, rasiny taste and colour can be a bit subjective. If you don't have experience with an Amarone perhaps get someone who has to check it out for you or take some to your local brew store.


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## grapeman

Ditto what dugger said. An amarone can be a bit of a brownish color from the blend of grapes used to make it. It also has a slightly different taste- the reason why it is called the Big Bitter. Maybe buy a bottle of less than the cheapest and compare your color and taste to that. Also remember that it should be a couple years for it to develop in the bottle.


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## AlFulchino

when you bulk aged did you use an airlock during this time or a solid bung...i think this may be the key to your wine history's mystery

i may be wrong from here but this point is worth raising


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## robie

Yep, Amarone is a "different animal", as they say. Some people make it only to find out they don't really like the Amarone taste. 

You added raisins, if you went by the RJS EP instructions, as I remember them. A raisin taste in wine is very much like the taste of oxidation of typical red wine. Most of the time the way I know a wine is oxidized is it tastes like raisins.

What you have is likely a very nice Amarone, just not quite ready to drink, yet.

(I made an Amarone, too. I am struggling, myself, trying to get to where I like that taste. Hopefully it will grow on me soon. I now recommend a person try a commercial Amarone before they make one. Expensive, but you sometimes can get a glass at a restaurant for about $10.)


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## AlFulchino

the trouble is that like any varietal or blend there are good and bad in each group

our history w wine is a lifetime in the 'getting'


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## Wade E

The problem with buying a commercial Amarone is its more than 1/2 the price of a good Amarone kit!


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## robie

Wade E said:


> The problem with buying a commercial Amarone is its more than 1/2 the price of a good Amarone kit!



That's why I recommend trying to buy a glass of it and some Italian restaurant. Share the glass with a friend and it is not so bad price-wise.

That is, if you can even find it by the glass...


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## ibglowin

We went out to dinner over the Holidays at a nice Italian restaurant in Santa fe. I ordered a bottle of Brancaia Tre a Super Tuscan that was named #10 on WS list in 2009. The waitress came back and apologized, said they were out and wanted to know if they could upgrade us to the Amarone on the list. 

I said sure, I don't think that will be a problem......

It was pretty darn good I must say.


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## Wade E

Just ran across this on Jack Kellers site!
Treating Oxidation

"But when a wine oxidizes, you can remove some -- but not all -- of the oxidase from the wine. An oxidase is any of the enzymes that catalyze biological oxidation either directly or indirectly. These enzymes may be an oxidoreductase, oxygenase or peroxidase. Whichever, you can remove some of the enzyme responsible for the oxidation.

First, correct the wine's SO2 level commensurate with its pH. Then measure 1/2 gram of non-fat powdered milk per liter of wine and dissolve this in 5 mL of cold water per liter. In other words, to treat 5 U.S. gallons of wine (approximately 19 liters), you would dissolve 9.5 grams of powdered skim-milk in 95 mL of cold water. This would be added to the wine while stirring the wine vigorously. The wine may foam, but will soon stop doing so. The reconstituted skim-milk solution must be thoroughly integrated into the wine or it will accomplish nothing. After it is added and integrated, small brown curds will develop in the wine but will eventually settle as lees.

In a previous entry here (June 25, 2003) I noted that Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) can remove some of the taste (but not the odor) of oxidation. Similarly, Polyclar Ultra K-100 and Polylact are products that combines casein with PVPP for tackling browning problems.

About three days after adding the reconstituted skim-milk solution, rack the wine carefully off the oxidase-laden curds into a clean secondary. You may want to tie a piece of fine, sanitized nylon over the intake end of the racking hose (or racking cane, if you use one) to prevent the small curds from being siphoned into the clean secondary. While racking the wine, add the required amount of PVPP, Polyclar Ultra K-100, Polylact, or another fining agent of choice such as Bentonite to the transferred wine (the clean secondary), Allow this to settle under airlock for about 10 days, then rack again. The wine will be greatly improved, but not as good as if it had not oxidized at all."


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## LarryW

Awesome!! Thanks a lot - I will try these ideas and let you know what happened


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## tonyt

LarryW said:


> Awesome!! Thanks a lot - I will try these ideas and let you know what happened



Larry, those were all good comments. I just had this same problem with a Syrah. I wound up not needing the Polycar. K-meta, Grand Cru Tancor and a few days did the trick so I didn't use the Polycar. bty the oxidized taste and smell was bad, color was a bit brown but not too bad. Here is a link to my topic from a few weeks ago. Don't panic, I'll bet you can fix it. http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17155


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