Acidity, tart flavor, young wine?

[southlake333]

Ok, something very strange is going on that I just can't explain. I made a batch of Tinkleberry Tropical (a type of quad berry skeeter) pitching the yeast on August 9th. After fermentation, stabilization, clearing and backsweetening to 1.006 I bottled it on September 2nd. It was tart but just sweet enough and I knew from my experience that it would settle down and taste much better in a few weeks.

So Friday I opened a bottle and tried it. It was like sucking on a sweet tart. Puckered your whole mouth. Since I recently tasted a similar taste with my regular Tinkleberry batch (started at the same time but not yet bottled - in cold stabilization now) I assumed it was too much acid. I have not tested the Tropical for acidity but I did test the other batch and found it to be .8% tartaric (5.12ppt Sulfuric).

So here's the kicker. I was thinking "oh crap I screwed this batch up and will have to throw it away". But I had other things to do so I left the bottle and my glass of wine on the counter. Well this morning (Sunday) I took a sip of the sitting glass out of curiosity and it tastes amazing. The tartness went away completely and now it just tastes smooth.

What's going on? Why is decanting fixing the tart/acidic taste?

 

[southlake333]

Anyone have any ideas, tips or suggestions?

 

[Deezil]

If you just bottled it on the 2nd, then i'd say the bottle was still stuck in a bit of "Bottle Shock" - basically a process in which the wine freaks out for a month after you bottle it, because its been shoved into a confined pressurized space - so that was probably part of it..

Aerating/decanting young wines just makes them more palettable, the oxygen absorption from being left just-sitting helps to soften the wines tannins (i think its tannins?).. Part of the tart taste may just be the "green" taste you find in young wines

 

[oldwhiskers]

I don't know but I have seen the same thing with the Skeeter Pee and variants.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Are you sure that you are not confusing acidic taste with astringency (high tannins)?

Astringency will give you a pucker sensation if they are high - this would also explain why decanting mellowed it out..

 

[southlake333]

I was assuming it was acidity but now I'm wondering if I was wrong. Since this was a quad berry pee, the only tannins should be from the initial addition in the skeeter pee recipe. This is definitely not the same as a young wine taste but I guess it could be bottle shock.

Sounds like I just need to let it sit for a few months to see if it mellows out. Thanks for the tips.