Back sweetening and bottling Rose advice

NorCal · Jan 29, 2016

Made 30 gallons Mourvèdre Rose sangee style from fresh grapes. The pH was adjusted down (3.4 I believe), fermented cold, under airlock in a 30g flex tank. It has been aging in glass carboys and has really evolved. It is crisp, clean, but definitely different. I think some people will love it, others not like it at all. Lots of citrus smells and taste, most closely associated with grapefruit to my taste buds. I did some family taste trials an have determined that I want to back sweeten.6g per liter.

My plan is to .5 micron filter as I vacuum rack to get any remaining co2 out, add sorbate, bring the SO2 to the right level, add the sugar, then immediately bottle. Any advice as this wine goes bottle?

Boatboy24 · Jan 29, 2016

I like to wait a week or two after sweetening, just to be 100% sure that a re-fermentation doesn't happen. Otherwise, your plan sounds good, as does the wine.

mgmarty · Jan 29, 2016

I also wait after adding the sorbate, just a day or two, before sweetening. I have had problems if I add the sorbate and sugar together. Waiting to bottle is a good idea too.

stickman · Jan 29, 2016

NorCal, I go with a .2 micron filter and eliminate the sorbate.

NorCal · Jan 29, 2016

stickman said:
NorCal, I go with a .2 micron filter and eliminate the sorbate.

Where can I find an economical .2 micron filter?

stickman · Jan 30, 2016

Unfortunately there is no cheap .2 micron filter that works really well. The good ones are between $30 and $40 depending on where you get them from. PIWC has one for $32, it's not absolute rated, but has much greater retention rates than the typical cartridge. The absolute rated filters are twice that price, and even though they are technically the correct one to use, I've never had to go that far to prevent re-fermentation, no issues with back sweetened Riesling with bottles still in the cellar since 2005, 2007, 2011.

GreginND · Jan 30, 2016

mgmarty said:
I also wait after adding the sorbate, just a day or two, before sweetening. I have had problems if I add the sorbate and sugar together. Waiting to bottle is a good idea too.

Can you explain what problems you have had that would be due to adding sugar and sorbate at the same time?

mgmarty · Jan 30, 2016

Referment in the bottle. Seems like the sorbate needs a day or two. No idea whats right or wrong, just my experience. I did it all in one day, filtered a year old Riesling, sorbate, So2, and sugar and bottled. I had sparkling Riesling in a month. Now I bottle in a day or two to see that it's stable.

NorCal · Feb 6, 2016

Successfully SO2, sorbate, simple syruped and bottled the wine. I bottled some without sugar and the balance at .5%

Thanks for the inputs.

Back sweetening and bottling Rose advice

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Back sweetening and bottling Rose advice

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