Fruit wine tasting bitter/bad after bottling

[Winemakerpk]

Dear All,

I'm very new to winemaking so please forgive me if i sound like a complete amateur.

This is in reference to two batches ive recently bottled. One was Pomegranate and the other was strawberry. Both recipes taken from Jack Kellers winemaking homepage.

I'm going to skip details of the making and jump to the problem area. If i need to specify more details about the initial bits, please let me know and i will do so.

After 3 months each and a couple of rackings both wines were cold stabilized in their respective glass carboys. the strawberry in 2 seperate gallon carboys and the strawberry in one large 2 gallon carboy. Prior to cold stabilization the strawberry was also in one 2 gallon carboy.


One strawberry carboy was drunk out of the carboy and tasted great. The other, just a couple of days after was bottled.

I got old wine bottles and had them very thoroughly cleaned and then sterilised with this steriliser which is that same that i have been using for all the equipment since i began the process. I have been using ritchies steriliser and cleaner. ( the forum wouldnt let me post the weblink and im a new user)

The bottles were then filled with carbon dioxide and then filled with the wine via a siphon from the carboy. They were filled upto about two inches below the mouth of the wine bottle and within 10 or so minutes were fitted with corks rinsed in the same cleanser (and rinsed with water after).

The pommegranate wine was bottled in the same way.

The following day someone had requested me to bring a bottle over to their place for tasting. Even though it was only 24 hours after bottling and i shouldnt have, i took it over on their insistance.

It tasted TERRIBLE. Wine that had been superb in the carboy (strawberry) was now bitter and just bad really. It retained the original bouquet and was great on the nose but just tasted awful.

The pommegranate as well, although it had had great flavour and body out of the carboy was now flat, bland and equally awful.

Is this just a matter of bottle shock? or do you think ive made some other rookie mistake as well?

Please help.

It has been 4 days since this incident, i have around 3 unopened bottles of each lying in a chiller currently. Can i expect the same from them?


Best,

Winemaking Amateur

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

Could you post the recipe and steps you did along the way?

This will help us to possibly identify anything missing.

Did you keep your wine sulphited regularly?

What cleanser/sanitizer/sterilizer did you use on the bottles?

Was it a no rinse solution? If not, did you thoroughly rinse the bottles out.

I like to wait about 3-4 weeks after bottling before i open them after bottling.

 

[Tom]

1st Welcome,

Sounds like bottle shock. give it a few weeks and open one.

 

[SBWs]

Ritchies steriliser and cleaner is a chlorine based compound from what I read doing a google search. Needs to be rinsed with cold water. If you rinsed everything real good then from what you have said I'd go with what Tom said "Bottle Shock". If I read your post right, this wine is only a little over 3 months old, that may be part of the problem also.

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard. Please post recipe.

 

[robie]

"""
The bottles were then filled with carbon dioxide and then filled with the wine via a siphon from the carboy. They were filled upto about two inches below the mouth of the wine bottle and within 10 or so minutes were fitted with corks rinsed in the same cleanser (and rinsed with water after).
"""

He rinsed the corks in a chlorine-based cleanser!!!

I don't think TCA will react and become prominent that quickly, so maybe what you taste is the result of bottle shock.

But wait a while and your wine will likely all spoil:
Even though you rinsed the corks again with water, they very likely absorbed some of the chlorine solution, if even only a very, very tiny amount. That's all it will take to get cork taint.

On the internet, look up "cork taint". There is no safe way to utilize a chlorine based cleansed/sanitizer with wine. I know some home wine makers do, but certainly not on the corks.

You should un-cork all the bottles and re-cork with corks NOT rinsed in that cleanser, no matter how well you rinse afterward with water. I would go so far as to put the wine back into the carboy, rinse, rinse, rinse (rinse!!!) the bottles of all that cleanser; then refill bottles and re-cork with corks NOT rinsed in that cleanser.

 

[robie]

Let me add that during the wine making process, you are going to have to utilize campden tablets or KMeta (potassium meta bi-sulfate) at some point. Under normal circumstances, you really can't wake wine without it, unless you are really schooled in how to make non-sulfited wines.

If you can't get KMeta where you are, you really have a problem.

That being said, KMeta makes a really great sanitizer. Use a non-chlorine containing cleanser like Oxyclean for cleaning; rinse well. Then use KMeta for sanitizing.

 

[Runningwolf]

Winemakerpk what area are you from? Do you have a local supply house to buy supplies from?

 

[grapeman]

It is likely just bottle shock or possibly a bit of the cleaner you taste or even smell. If you used real cork or even agglomerated (ground up and reglued) I would remove them and recork with a synthetic cork such as Nomacorc. Since they are synthetic, no need to worry about TCA since that is only found in real cork.

 

[Wiz]

I can't say for pomegranite but strawberry can still taste fairly raw after only 3 months of aging. Perhaps just needs more aging altough I can't comment about the chlorine based sanitizer.

 

[Winemakerpk]

Dear All,

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly.

I had absolutely no idea that the cleanser was chlorine based and amazingly it doesnt say anywhere on the bottle. I should have gone into more depth. Everything was rinsed out but you guys are probably right, the cork could easily have absorbed some.

I'll rebottle them, do you guys think thats the best way forward?

The wine throughougt its life prior to bottling was sulphited very regularly with Pot Meta.

Like i said, i ended up with two carboys of the strawberry wine. The carboy that was drunk straight tasted superb but the wine fom the carboy that was bottled tasted terrible.

As its my first time bottling, i'm not familiar with the extent of bottle shocks effects, can the wine taste so drastically different becasue of it?

The other thing that came to mind: The carboy that was drunk straight, was given a much greater chance to oxidise. becasue id take the cork off, pour some out, put the cork back etc. It actually tasted really good down to the last glass. Could this be a reason for it tasting good?

I'm based in Pakistan. Unfortuantley there arent any stores that sell winemaking stupplies but i'm quite stocked up on the essential stuff including pot meta, acids, tannin, etc.

What concentration of Pot Meta, in grams per quart/ gallon, should i use to sanitize equipment in, including the corks?

Thanks so much everyone.

 

[Winemakerpk]

Also, will post original reciple soon.

(just have to dig it out)