Stressbaby
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This thread is a little embarrassing but I'll post it anyway because maybe it will help me or someone else down the line. Sorry for the length.
I recently submitted six wines to a wine competition. I did OK, two bronze (elderberry rosé and lemongrass mint) and one silver (lychee). Two other wines didn't medal but the scores weren't bad and the judges had nice favorable comments.
But the 2015 blackberry was terrible and it was reflected in the scores. Don't ask me what prompted me to send this wine, not sure what I was thinking. At no time would I have said it was a gold medal winner, however, and now I know why.
Two main flaws...first it was oxidized. Second, there was a geranium odor or, as one judge wrote, "sorbate-flawed MLF"
I have one bottle left, so I opened it. Brown, clearly oxidized. Not sure how I missed that when bottling.
As to the aroma, the smell of crushed geranium leaves to me is distinct, having been imprinted into my brain when I was a child playing with my mom's potted plants. This is NOT that smell. It doesn't smell good though, and so I've spent the last 2 hours smelling it, trying to burn that smell into my brain, because to me it doesn't smell like geraniums.
I looked at my notes. Straight juice. I adjusted the pH preferment up to 3.4. Yeast was 71B. Six weeks postferment pH was 3.5. I used a little oak (cubes) but not until the wine was 6 months old. I added kmeta preferment, but then I didn't add kmeta again until 3.5 months after fermentation. Then I didn't add kmeta again for another 3.5 months after that. I added the sorbate and backsweetened in July about 2 weeks after this dose of kmeta, but didn't bottle right away; I waited another 3 months, dosed again with kmeta and bottled in October.
So what went wrong? My thinking is that the SO2 levels got too low, and between the relatively high pH and inadequate SO2 levels, it got oxidized. Maybe there was some malolactic activity as well, which would be consistent with both the rise in pH and the end result after adding sorbate. I'm interested in thoughts on this.
I checked 2016 blackberry to compare. I didn't push the pH so high preferment, and the postferment pH was 3.17 which should provide some protection. I hit it with kmeta at thaw and again 6 weeks postferment - probably not soon enough, but certainly not as late as last year. It has been oaked (cubes) and another dose of kmeta since then. SO2 is sitting at 50. The color is not bright purple like my elderberry and red grape wines. It is not brown like the flawed wine, but it is still a little brick colored. I was under the understanding that blackberry wine tends to do this - it tends to sort of lose that nice purple color when exposed to light or just with time. But now I'm having trouble telling whether or not it might be oxidized too. The aroma to me is of blackberries, oak, and a little of smoked meat...pleasant, nothing foul like the flawed wine.
I'd like this year's blackberry to not suffer the same fate as last years. This wine will need some backsweetening, so my thoughts are first, don't fall behind on the SO2; second, sterile filter before backsweetening, rather than using sorbate. Other thoughts?
I recently submitted six wines to a wine competition. I did OK, two bronze (elderberry rosé and lemongrass mint) and one silver (lychee). Two other wines didn't medal but the scores weren't bad and the judges had nice favorable comments.
But the 2015 blackberry was terrible and it was reflected in the scores. Don't ask me what prompted me to send this wine, not sure what I was thinking. At no time would I have said it was a gold medal winner, however, and now I know why.
Two main flaws...first it was oxidized. Second, there was a geranium odor or, as one judge wrote, "sorbate-flawed MLF"
I have one bottle left, so I opened it. Brown, clearly oxidized. Not sure how I missed that when bottling.
As to the aroma, the smell of crushed geranium leaves to me is distinct, having been imprinted into my brain when I was a child playing with my mom's potted plants. This is NOT that smell. It doesn't smell good though, and so I've spent the last 2 hours smelling it, trying to burn that smell into my brain, because to me it doesn't smell like geraniums.
I looked at my notes. Straight juice. I adjusted the pH preferment up to 3.4. Yeast was 71B. Six weeks postferment pH was 3.5. I used a little oak (cubes) but not until the wine was 6 months old. I added kmeta preferment, but then I didn't add kmeta again until 3.5 months after fermentation. Then I didn't add kmeta again for another 3.5 months after that. I added the sorbate and backsweetened in July about 2 weeks after this dose of kmeta, but didn't bottle right away; I waited another 3 months, dosed again with kmeta and bottled in October.
So what went wrong? My thinking is that the SO2 levels got too low, and between the relatively high pH and inadequate SO2 levels, it got oxidized. Maybe there was some malolactic activity as well, which would be consistent with both the rise in pH and the end result after adding sorbate. I'm interested in thoughts on this.
I checked 2016 blackberry to compare. I didn't push the pH so high preferment, and the postferment pH was 3.17 which should provide some protection. I hit it with kmeta at thaw and again 6 weeks postferment - probably not soon enough, but certainly not as late as last year. It has been oaked (cubes) and another dose of kmeta since then. SO2 is sitting at 50. The color is not bright purple like my elderberry and red grape wines. It is not brown like the flawed wine, but it is still a little brick colored. I was under the understanding that blackberry wine tends to do this - it tends to sort of lose that nice purple color when exposed to light or just with time. But now I'm having trouble telling whether or not it might be oxidized too. The aroma to me is of blackberries, oak, and a little of smoked meat...pleasant, nothing foul like the flawed wine.
I'd like this year's blackberry to not suffer the same fate as last years. This wine will need some backsweetening, so my thoughts are first, don't fall behind on the SO2; second, sterile filter before backsweetening, rather than using sorbate. Other thoughts?
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