Old wine???

[Daddythelen11]

So...when I moved to my current house 4 yrs ago I had several primary fermenters with wine in them. Unfortunately, several of the airlocks were knocked off by kids at some point. The ?wine? still smells great. If I run it through a filter do you think it would be safe to drink?

 

[winemaker81]

I use a 3 stage testing method: look, sniff, and taste. If looks ok, sniff it. If it smells ok, taste it. If it tastes fine, it's fine.

Filtering is totally optional and will have no effect if the wine is drinkable or not.

 

[Ohio Bob]

In any event I would add some potassium metabisulfite in case the wine is still salvageable.

 

[ChuckD]

Good luck with your wine and welcome to WMT. Regardless of the outcome for these wines, it sounds like you have at least some of the equipment… don’t let it go to waste. Winemaking is a fun and rewarding hobby!

 

[Sailor323]

I'm sure the wine would be safe to drink. The problem is that it may have oxidized and won't taste good. Taste and see. If it tastes fine, just add meta to keep oxidation at bay.

 

[Rice_Guy]

?wine? still smells great. If I run it through a filter do you think it would be safe to drink?

* wine is a traditional food preservation system. The first level is stability is preventing growth of things that make one sick. By having the pH in the range where grapes are you don’t have to worry about pathogens.
* Alcohol is also toxic and early in the process effectively kills bacteria. If exposed to air surface organisms can grow and the normal one will produce vinegar. ,,, you may have made salad dressing or marinade, but again not toxic
* oxidation reactions produce a variety of off flavors. Which flavor depends on how fast the oxygen is added. Slow addition will produce sherry like flavors. Fast oxidation/?lots of oxygen tends to produce burn in the back of the throat swallowing and basically the wine is considered spoiled because of the flavor.
* filtering? This is cosmetic. Home filter options frequently add oxygen which pushes toward creating off flavors. If you have factory grade pumps and sealed tubing/ filter housing, ,,, yes it can be done. Filtering and consuming within a few days works well.
* fine lees don’t really hurt you. Fine lees would be mostly yeast that came out of solution. Again cosmetic.

 

[Daddythelen11]

* wine is a traditional food preservation system. The first level is stability is preventing growth of things that make one sick. By having the pH in the range where grapes are you don’t have to worry about pathogens.
* Alcohol is also toxic and early in the process effectively kills bacteria. If exposed to air surface organisms can grow and the normal one will produce vinegar. ,,, you may have made salad dressing or marinade, but again not toxic
* oxidation reactions produce a variety of off flavors. Which flavor depends on how fast the oxygen is added. Slow addition will produce sherry like flavors. Fast oxidation/?lots of oxygen tends to produce burn in the back of the throat swallowing and basically the wine is considered spoiled because of the flavor.
* filtering? This is cosmetic. Home filter options frequently add oxygen which pushes toward creating off flavors. If you have factory grade pumps and sealed tubing/ filter housing, ,,, yes it can be done. Filtering and consuming within a few days works well.
* fine lees don’t really hurt you. Fine lees would be mostly yeast that came out of solution. Again cosmetic.

Awesome! Thank you for the info....not scared to try it then!