Options To Treat Oxygenated Wine?

[vinny]

I may be over analyzing my wine, but on my first big racking I used vacuum. I believe I had an air leak. A Pinot Gris kit, given time didn't taste ruined, but flat. None of that bright citrus, green apple, etc. I adjusted acid (@winemaker81 you may remember walking me through it?) and let it do its thing. I added it to the mussels, yesterday. Tasted right after stealing it from carboy, bright, full, really good, and not even cold. I've been unsure if it was acid or oxygen, but I decided then that I was going to bottle it. It tasted good. After 15 minutes on the counter while I was cooking, I had a taste before adding to the pan. It was like it had been on the counter for an hour or hours, not exciting anymore.

Is it possible I brought it just to the brink without destroying it? Can it be improved? I read about milk powder. Any experience, and how does one remove milk form wine? This is the main reason I haven't experimented.

I know there won't be a 100% fix, just wondering if I can try for a win.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Wine/ a water based beverage will pick up oxygen in activities as splash racking. From your post I didn’t understand that you very pouring through a funnel from the height of a carboy. , , , , The normal treatment for oxygen at racking is to add 50 ppm of free SO2 (Winemaker Magazine has a calculator for pH) Next is to wait out bottle shock which happens because of oxygen contact/ splashing when bottling. When oxygen reacts with alcohol it forms acetaldehyde, commercially this might be ultrafiltered but I don’t know of a home winemaker tool to remove it. Our normal sin producing acetaldehyde is to have too much head space or let an airlock go dry or splash racking.

Milk powder is used to remove tannin from wine (bitter and astringent flavor). Tannin in wine gives long flavor notes and acts as an antioxidant which prevents acetaldehyde. Milk protein will fall out of solution with time if in a bottle. Normal is to do casein fining in the carboy and the casein can be removed with bentonite fining. Milk powder/ a protein will not remove acetaldehyde. Note LD Carlson sells a gelatin protein which comes in a grade suitable for use in wine.

 

[vinny]

It was my first racking of a 6 gallon batch. I used an oil vacuum pump and must have had an air leak. It had been treated with k-meta and sorbate within a couple of weeks as per kit instructions, but it was bubbling beyond co2. As it was my first vacuum, I didn't realize it at the time. I think the high SO2 is why it is questionable instead of clearly ruined.

Thanks for the explanation. I will look for casein/gelatin and see what happens.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Oxidation and treating with gelatin are two different problems.

Oxidation at low levels is pleasing/ apple like. At high levels it is sharp when swallowing and masks any fruit aromas.
Excessive tannin is fixed with gelatin, note that if you were adding acid and it fixed earlier problems you probably don’t have excessive tannin. Tannin and acid complement each other/ build the flavor of the other chemical . . . sugar/ sweet can balance high acid and or high tannin.

This is where I would like more flavor descriptors/ a second opinion about the wine.

 

[vinny]

I don't have anyone to ask for an opinion. This was my first kit and when I mixed it I used the 23 liter mark on my fermenter and ended up almost a gallon shy in secondary, after racking. I topped it up with store bought. I didn't like it for months, it smelled and tasted like grape juice. As it developed it started to come together, but was lacking acidity. There was no brightness, or crisp finish. No fruit or citrus notes. It was hard to tell if it was lacking acid or was oxidized.

The acid brought it to where it tastes good, but I was still uncertain if it was a balance or beginner error issue. As I said above after sitting on the counter it tasted oxidized after only a short time which is why I was wondering if I just brought it to the brink and the flavors flop more quickly.

If there is no procedure to combat a little oxidation, I think I will just bottle this batch and chalk it up to the results of a first batch. Good, but room to improve. I can further assess once bottled, and at the very least it's a good cooking wine.

 

[Noontime]

Sorry can't give any input on your particular wine... but to me it doesn't sound like an oxidation issue. Oxidized wine usually has nutty flavors, sometimes cola or root beer flavors in reds, sherry notes, etc. To answer your original question, once a wine is oxidized there nothing you can do to reverse it. Its like trying to unbrown an oxidized apple. Best you can do is manage it beforehand with SO2 and care. Again, your wine seems like it has a different issue.