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The poster already made the comment that this wine was only aged for 4-5 months before bottling. This is not enough CLOSE to enough aging for even a white, let alone a red. It's plain to see that it was bottled too soon and one should expect sediment in this case.

How old is this wine? Is it from this year? I will bet you didn't bulk age it long enough, because the sediment is made up of such big particles. I agree with salcoco. The only reason this happens is that the wine was not truly stable--which only comes from bulk aging. If you give your...

If you allow your reds from juice buckets to bulk age in the carboy for a year, you eliminate virtually all of the sediment. It takes quite sometime for all of the unstable components in a wine to drop out. Plus, your wine will taste better with more aging as the flavor comes to more complexity...

Yes, you should not allow any other flora to overtake the juice because then it will be in direct competition with your pitched yeast for the nutrients you add. If the flora is strong enough, it CAN out-compete the yeast. This why we SO2 our musts-----for biological control.

I recently had a sample of Frontenac at my friend's commercial winery down the road from me. I think he had the PH around 3.4 or so. I would add acid until I liked the flavor---and stop there.

I agree, NorCal. You don't want the PH so high that it takes unreasonable levels of free SO2 for preservation.

If it's tasting sour, that makes me question the PH. At a PH of 4.0, it should taste like dishwater. I'll bet the PH isn't that high. I think the PH should be around 3.2---and if you get it adjusted better, you're actually adjusting the TA which SHOULD help it to taste better. I really...

You don't want to cold stabilize this wine, as the PH is already too high. CS may raise the PH rather than lowering it. The intent with CS is to drop out some of the acid. I would add some acid to it and leave it alone. As you add acid, let your taste guide you to where it tastes the best...

You might want to think about getting something like a Vinmetrica 100 and begin testing your wines for free SO2. You'd be surprised how wrong you can be about your free SO2 levels until you start testing them.

Are you using any nutrient? The buckets from Luva Bella already have the yeast in them, but you have to remember to add nutrient to them. Lack of nutrient will give off-aromas. We always test the PH on bucket juice and if it's out of line, adjust it before the ferment gets too far along. A...

Sulfur aroma is almost always due to not using enough nutrient and/or not feeding it to the vat in a couple of doses. Another thing that gives you sulfur problems is using a culture like Montrachet which produces quite of bit of SO2 during the ferment. I really like Montrachet on fruit wines...

If you like the flavor, I would leave it alone. ESPECIALLY because it's still young. Young wines are very tough to fully evaluate. So I wouldn't make any adjustment to it until it ages more. Then if it tastes unbalanced to you, THEN go about adjusting or blending to your liking. However, at...

In order to know if you're approaching the finish point, you need to test either by the Accuvin test kit or chromatography test. We prefer chromatography as it's more definitive than the Accuvin.

There are very good, active wine cultures too but they add nice flavor profiles which you'd probably enjoy using more than a bread culture.

Cranberry is really good too, but requires some special handling. Cranberries are easy to find on sale this time of year.

When you make peach wine, the first thing to consider is to choose a peach that has the highest flavor. This is a more delicate-tasting wine, so finding fruit with big flavor is important. It should also be dead-ripe. When we make peach wine, we talk with the orchards nearby and ask them for...

Buy yourself a PH meter so that you have more accurate testing. They are pretty reasonable these days. We use acid blend on fruit wines and even use it on Niagara grapes because they are more like fruits than they are wine grapes. We prefer to acid adjust pre-ferment as the result is better...

Elmer--here's something that you can try which oftentimes works pretty well. Hit it with another dose of pectic enzyme--Lallzyme C Max if you have it because it works better on clearing--then bring the carboy in where it's warm, about 70 degrees. In a few days to 2 weeks, you should see it...

Steven---Yes, calcium carb should be used to adjust the PH. Otherwise, what's the alternative other than using water. You don't want to water-down your pear. Cold stabilization needs potassium carb AND cold stabilization is usually used for acid reduction. We don't CS any of our wines. But...

Lack of nutrient--in a good feeding schedule--is the reason for 99% of stuck wine. The yeast needs food. You must use a good nutrient protocol.