As a home winemaker, I've had to deal with spoilage due to volatile acidity a few times. Once I actually boiled the wine in question (VA is called that b/c it can be separated from the wine by boiling the volatiles off) but it was a total PITA. The final wine was a bit flat on the fruit, but totally clean of VA! It was a hassle but worth it.
My bulk wine from '17 was in carboy too long AND I hadn't yet purchased a compressed neutral gas sparger (have now!) I had a gallon carboy with half the space exposed, and some of my best dry white got the filmy white crust of Death (acetobacter and resulting VA).
I tried blending it with new wines. The nose was OK and also the mid-palate, but on the finish that awful gag of VA just made me pull all the corks, put the wine in a large blending carboy, and add a hefty dose (3 g/ gallon) of PVPP, since I remembered that it works well for removing bitterness.
I"m pleased to say it worked! It was amazing to taste the finished wine with no VA burn. I then added 1:7.5 ratio of very good viognier to this vidal/vio blend, and it was as good as new.
Moral #1: bite the bullet and buy a tank of neutral gas with a gauge and hose to fit; sparge all your empty carboys and bottles, then sparge any remaining headspace, but top up even if you have to use some other finished wine.
Moral #2: If you get a VA problem in a bulk wine, THROW IT OUT!! "Denial is more than a river in Egypt." Don't ruin the rest of your wine and then spend money on neutral wine to fix it; it doesn't take much VA to make a wine undrinkable, especially a fruity delicate white.
Moral #3: If you need to remove VA taint from a wine, first stabilize the wine (KMS) then use PVPP and I think you'll be relieved and happy!
My bulk wine from '17 was in carboy too long AND I hadn't yet purchased a compressed neutral gas sparger (have now!) I had a gallon carboy with half the space exposed, and some of my best dry white got the filmy white crust of Death (acetobacter and resulting VA).
I tried blending it with new wines. The nose was OK and also the mid-palate, but on the finish that awful gag of VA just made me pull all the corks, put the wine in a large blending carboy, and add a hefty dose (3 g/ gallon) of PVPP, since I remembered that it works well for removing bitterness.
I"m pleased to say it worked! It was amazing to taste the finished wine with no VA burn. I then added 1:7.5 ratio of very good viognier to this vidal/vio blend, and it was as good as new.
Moral #1: bite the bullet and buy a tank of neutral gas with a gauge and hose to fit; sparge all your empty carboys and bottles, then sparge any remaining headspace, but top up even if you have to use some other finished wine.
Moral #2: If you get a VA problem in a bulk wine, THROW IT OUT!! "Denial is more than a river in Egypt." Don't ruin the rest of your wine and then spend money on neutral wine to fix it; it doesn't take much VA to make a wine undrinkable, especially a fruity delicate white.
Moral #3: If you need to remove VA taint from a wine, first stabilize the wine (KMS) then use PVPP and I think you'll be relieved and happy!
