Help! White "amoebas" swimming in white wine

[Vito1516]

This is my first year making wine from Lodi Juice. Malbec is doing great, currently sitting in carboy for 2nd fermention. Chardonnay was racked into carboy and I noticed these white sperm like organisms floating up to the top and then dissolving. They differ in size and seem to be alive. I dosed the 6 gallons with necessary amount of potassium sorbate and they're still there. Kind of worried because NO ONE has any clue what these swimmers could be.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

This is my first year making wine from Lodi Juice. Malbec is doing great, currently sitting in carboy for 2nd fermention. Chardonnay was racked into carboy and I noticed these white sperm like organisms floating up to the top and then dissolving. They differ in size and seem to be alive. I dosed the 6 gallons with necessary amount of potassium sorbate and they're still there. Kind of worried because NO ONE has any clue what these swimmers could be.

Potassium sorbate? or potassium metabilsulfate? Sorbate doesn't do anything to protect your wine from spoilage, just prevents yeast from reproducing.
Metabisulfate is what keeps it from spoilage.

 

[Julie]

can you take a picture? I can't see anything alive being in your wine. Also, what all have you done so far with the wine?

 

[Vito1516]

Potassium sorbate? or potassium metabilsulfate? Sorbate doesn't do anything to protect your wine from spoilage, just prevents yeast from reproducing.
Metabisulfate is what keeps it from spoilage.

Metabisulfite****
I can take pictures of it later
I fermented in bucket for 6 days, racked to sanitized glass 6 gallon. Had airlock on primary and currently on secondary.

 

[Julie]

lol since you have ****, I will take that as sulfate. Sounds like you are doing things right

 

[Sage]

Saw the same thing a couple years back. I wrote it off as the Malo doing there job. Good wine too!!

 

[pgentile]

Not sure there are many things that swim that would live in that much alcohol. Do you see these on the side glass or just coming to the surface? My bet its just yeast or degassing activity and the white stuff is just lees. What yeast did you use on the chard?

 

[Ajmassa]

Sounds like the intro into “Look Who’s Talkin” and your having a Chardonnay baby. Congrats. After the 1st trimester you should know for sure.

I noticed these white sperm like organisms floating up to the top and then dissolving. They differ in size and seem to be alive.

If by chance your not having a baby in your wine, then it sounds familiar like what pgentile and sage said. I always thought this was malo working the mlf, but may just be yeast or co2 carrying lees for all I know.
A tiny bubble shooting up side carrying tiny bit of solid matter behind, looking like a mini torpedo, maybe even leaving a trail behind it? And Once at the top bubble disappears and that solid bit might hang around for a minute before dropping back down? And the trails left fade away after a minute or so?
If this sounds accurate than its normal. I always thought that was the malo but never knew for sure. And very well may be yeast or co2 too. Can Chardonnay go through natural MLF?

 

[Vito1516]

Here's the best picture I could muster. I'm going to rack to another 6 gallon glass tomorrow.

 

[Banzai88]

I am very new to wine making, so this could be completely out in left field, but I used to breed and show tropical fish. Those look like the vinegar eels that I would raise to feed baby fish.

 

[Stressbaby]

My opinion - I believe what you have there are little clumps of sediment/yeast/protein which get a bit of gas trapped in them. They rise to the top due to the gas, trailing the proteinaceous debris, then they either sink after the gas gets released or dissolve upon exposure to air at the top.

What is the SG on this wine? What sort of sediment do you have at the bottom? And did you use any bentonite in the primary? (I'm going to guess - north of 0.995; at least some; and no)