Doh! Gotta uncork a batch

[GreenEnvy22]

About 6 weeks ago I bottled a bunch of stuff, including 5 cases of our Muscat, which I had filtered (5 micron), sulfited (30ppm), and back sweetened (wine conditioner with sorbate in it)
Opened a bottle today and and it was sparking. Looked at a few more and see some cloudyness in them.

I'm going to uncork them all and out back in carboys to let sit for another month or two, filter again, and rebottle. This is the first time I've had to do that.

No fun

 

[crushday]

Ouch!

 

[tjgaul]

So far iI have only had to uncork and rework one case and that was painful enough. In the words of Bill Clinton . . . I feel your pain. Hope the 2nd time's the charm.

 

[Johnd]

About 6 weeks ago I bottled a bunch of stuff, including 5 cases of our Muscat, which I had filtered (5 micron), sulfited (30ppm), and back sweetened (wine conditioner with sorbate in it)
Opened a bottle today and and it was sparking. Looked at a few more and see some cloudyness in them.

I'm going to uncork them all and out back in carboys to let sit for another month or two, filter again, and rebottle. This is the first time I've had to do that.

No fun

That sucks. What do you reckon the problem was since the conditioner had sorbate in it?? Too old? Bad batch? Application rate?

 

[mainshipfred]

About a week ago I had to uncork for the first time. Fortunately it was only 14 bottles. This was my fault though since I added a little sugar just prior to bottling and didn't sorbate. Except for a peach and an Island Mist all mine have been reds. My first white, a Sauv Blanc, is aging now. I'm going to start filtering the reds with a 5 micron but the whites I was considering a 1 or .5 micron. I've heard a .5 removes any yeast cells that may be present although mine is a plate filter and not absolute.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

That sucks. What do you reckon the problem was since the conditioner had sorbate in it?? Too old? Bad batch? Application rate?

Not sure, maybe it was because I bottled same day I added the conditioner, and it didn't fully disperse.

 

[user 36973]

I'm going to start filtering the reds with a 5 micron but the whites I was considering a 1 or .5 micron. I've heard a .5 removes any yeast cells that may be present although mine is a plate filter and not absolute.

Yeast runs 1-3um in size generally. The 0.45 EK pad filters remove >99.9% of the yeast in the wine. But the filter pad will clog quickly so you need to step down to that filter size. It only takes a small amount of yeast to successfully referment even in the presence of sorbate/sulfites to inhibit it.

The lessons I've learned are to successively pad filter the wine down to 0.45um sterile filtration. Use 200ppm sorbate along with 0.8ppm molecular SO2 and don't add excessive yeast nutrients during fermentation. I put the wine through an absolute 0.45um membrane filter when it goes to the bottler. Barring the issues detailed below, I've not had a problem!

However, refermentation has caused me to uncork, pour, filter, recork a several dozen cases. It sucks. The last batch refermented due to excess yeast nutrients (I added the final round of nutrients too late into the fermentation) and then bottled using an absolute membrane 0.45um sterile filter which had developed a tear somewhere in the bottling session. Murphy's law.

And I'm now sitting on 80 cases that developed a protein sedimentation 2 weeks after bottling. That membrane filter was fine and it never refermented, LOL. Taught me to always use bentonite during fermentation for wine that wasn't going to barrel age. Winter project to dump, filter and re-bottle. Joy

 

[askins3097]

That sucks. I had to do the same for the first time in 10 years. I had my Chilean wine in carboys since May. The airlocks looked like they haven’t moved. I bottled. Popped a cork. Noticed my Chardonnay went from crystal clear to cloudy. Long story short, 5 cases later it’s all back in carboys. No clue what went wrong. I’ve never had a wine not go dry in that time period under normal conditions.

 

[GreginND]

It happens to the best of us. I had to uncork 800 bottles by hand last year.

 

[bstnh1]

It happens to the best of us. I had to uncork 800 bottles by hand last year.

Ouch! That would be discouraging enough to make a body take up drinking!

 

[winemaker81]

Not sure, maybe it was because I bottled same day I added the conditioner, and it didn't fully disperse.

If you don't have one, get a drill mounted stirring rod. Proper use ensures even distribution.

 

[Dom Lausic]

It happens to the best of us. I had to uncork 800 bottles by hand last year.

800 bottles?!?!?!?! Yikes!!!

 

[Arne]

It happens to the best of us. I had to uncork 800 bottles by hand last year.

Smiling the whole time I suppose. Sounds like a real pain in the patoot to me. Arne.