PH and Sulfites

[rebusify]

Couple questions if you don't mind.

1. My Rose wine spent 3 weeks at 32 degrees for cold stabilization. It's been about 3 weeks now since it's been bulk aging at 47 degrees. Just pulled a taste and it smells good and taste good until the after taste kicks in a second later. To me a it's a bit acid taste. Is this the sulfites that I put in?

2. How long will sulfites last in the wine during aging?

3. My PH of the wine right now is 3.38. It's a pinot noir rose. Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance,

 

[Rice_Guy]

* sulphite taste is usually described as burnt match, ,,, if you followed recommendations you should be below taste threshhold, ,,, 100 ppm or if you are very sensitive 60 or 70 ppm.
* depends on how much oxygen and other oxidant exposure, in a sealed commercial bottle I would expect years, in a freshly racked or splash racked could be a week. The only way to understand your technique is test. Other a red with poly phenols will last longer, whites which I test are usually close to zero.
* on a finished wine pH is a taste issue, I like 3.3 with country wine and whites for chemical stability. My first question would be if you degassed 100 ml (45 seconds in a microwave followed by stirring) does this flavor go away? Low temp will hang onto CO2. Acid flavor should be fairly forward, just after the sweet notes. Next question does a little sugar make the flavor balance? If yes the acid could be high, ,,, by the way sugar fixes high acid flavor.

 

[CDrew]

Well, it should have an acid taste especially if there is still dissolved CO2 in the wine. The sulfite will go away over time as they react with the oxygen the dissolves in the wine.

Now I'm saying that without knowing how much sulfite you added. What grapes did you start with?

 

[rebusify]

The grapes are Pinot Noir. Picked at a Brix of 19. Crushed/Destemmed and soaked for 20 hours then pressed off. Fermented for 15 days until .996 SG. Then put into 3 week cold stabilization at 32 degrees. I use 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite each time I racked. I've racked 3 times in total so far. I was reluctant to use more potassium metabisulfite. My wine supplier told me 1/4 teaspoon per gallon but I thought it was a bit too much. No unpleasant smells. In fact it smells good. There is that burnt match taste a second after tasting good wine.

Are you suggesting that I degass again if I taste burnt match taste? I'm hesitant to do that for fear of oxidizing the wine.

 

[CDrew]

So I think that's a fair amount of Sulfite this early, but I think you should relax and let things ride for a month or two and retaste. What's your pH? It's really too bad that measuring SO2 is so expensive, but this illustrates why you should!

 

[rebusify]

Ph is 3.38

 

[Ajmassa]

. I use 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite each time I racked. I've racked 3 times in total so far. I was reluctant to use more potassium metabisulfite. My wine supplier told me 1/4 teaspoon per gallon but I thought it was a bit too much.

rule of thumb is 1/4tsp per 5-6 gallon. Basically per carboy. If this rosé is only 1 gal of wine then that’s 5x the standard amount of so2 (and the 1/4tsp per 5gal is already a heavy dosage actually)
And has been done 3 times already. If this is only 1 gal and you’ve added 3/4tsp of kmeta in total in this short amount of time, then you probably are tasting the sulphites.

 

[rebusify]

It's 6 gallons.

 

[CDrew]

Well, making a lot of assumptions, I'd stop adding sulfite. At that pH you don't need much. I'd back off for many months, and re-taste then. I'll bet it's fine. A reasonable thing would be to retaste in March, bottle in April (you may not need more sulfite so you'll need to test (or take it to a wine lab). But give the CO2 a chance to leave the wine.

 

[rebusify]

Thanks. Will let sit for a few months then. Thanks guys.

 

[Rice_Guy]

the magic ingredient, , , patience

Well, making a lot of assumptions, I'd stop adding sulfite. At that pH you don't need much. I'd back off for many months, and re-taste then. I'll bet it's fine. A reasonable thing would be to retaste in March, bottle in April (you may not need more sulfite so you'll need to test (or take it to a wine lab). But give the CO2 a chance to leave the wine.

 

[winemaker81]

If you're tasting acid ... it's probably acid. I concur with the advice to give it a few months.

If you're still tasting acid 6 months from now, you may want to backsweeten slightly.