Plum wine with smell of port.

[crazyx2]

I've got a question...

Well I just bottled a 6 gal carboy of dark plum wine. Tasted good etc, forgot to take s.g which ill endeavour to do as I need to put corks in about half of the bottles which currently just have caps on them.

Thing is it has a distinctive port taste to it, do you think that is because it's still young and needs aging or is it because it fermented too long?

I don't really have any more details than this as I took over this project from my aunty half way through..

All in all I think it's quite nice, I was just wondering as its my first attempt at a plum wine..


Cheers!

 

[St Allie]

there's not really enough information crazy,

you don't know how long it's been left in the carboy.. it could be the type of plums used combined with a very high alcohol, or it could have the port taste due to the yeast used, or that your aunty just used plum juice and didn't add any water. Or a secondary fermentation that will have given it a more sherry feel.

it could be any combination of things.

sorry I can't be more helpful...

Allie

 

[mpp1234]

I have made three batches of plum wine, and every time it has smelled and tasted like sherry, quite unlike other wines I have made (apple, grape, persimmon, kiwifruit). Brix 19.5 at start. Added potassium sorbate when transferring to carboy. It isn't unpleasant wine, but I'm not very fond of sherry.

 

[Hazelemere]

I've got a question...

Well I just bottled a 6 gal carboy of dark plum wine. Tasted good etc, forgot to take s.g which ill endeavour to do as I need to put corks in about half of the bottles which currently just have caps on them.

Thing is it has a distinctive port taste to it, do you think that is because it's still young and needs aging or is it because it fermented too long?

I don't really have any more details than this as I took over this project from my aunty half way through..

All in all I think it's quite nice, I was just wondering as its my first attempt at a plum wine..


Cheers!

check the SG with a hydrometer. If it is higher than SG 0.994 you probably need to sorbate it before you bottle it. It sounds like it is fine. Add 1/8 tsp sulphite to it before you bottle it. i.e. rack the whole carboy into sorbate and sulphite so they both dissolve and then bottle it. You can also leave it alone for a week or so and then bottle it.

If the SG is above 0.994 you may get a sparkling plum which might be OK as long as the carbon dioxide pressure in the bottles isn't too high. If you store the bottled wines cold e.g. 10 Celsius or less you should be ok. A fridge chills to about 4 Celsius which will prevent fermentation. Fermentation can start at about 12 Celsius

 

[Rice_Guy]

HOWDY @mpp1234 , and welcome to WMT

Sherry flavor is related to slow oxidation, the easiest way I have found to create it is to use a milk jug as a carboy (LDPE). The oxygen transmission rate of LDPE is significantly higher than oak barrels so it pushes the chemistry into this flavor. Higher rates of oxidation will produce a burn when swallowing / sharp dried apricot like notes / acetaldehyde. If I was going to try to prevent this note I would add chestnut tannin which is an antioxidant. I would also look at what the AWRI calls total package oxygen. ,,, Is there headspace that could be reduced or less splashing or double each dose of metabisulphite. etc

This thread dates back to 2010 and the two folks who started it haven’t been active since 2011.

 

[mpp1234]

HOWDY @mpp1234 , and welcome to WMT

Sherry flavor is related to slow oxidation, the easiest way I have found to create it is to use a milk jug as a carboy (LDPE). The oxygen transmission rate of LDPE is significantly higher than oak barrels so it pushes the chemistry into this flavor. Higher rates of oxidation will produce a burn when swallowing / sharp dried apricot like notes / acetaldehyde. If I was going to try to prevent this note I would add chestnut tannin which is an antioxidant. I would also look at what the AWRI calls total package oxygen. ,,, Is there headspace that could be reduced or less splashing or double each dose of metabisulphite. etc

This thread dates back to 2010 and the two folks who started it haven’t been active since 2011.

Thanks. I will try again next year and try that. Looking at my notes I didn't use metabisulphite prior to fermentation, so that may be it. If I remember I'll report back!

 

[Hazelemere]

Thanks. I will try again next year and try that. Looking at my notes I didn't use metabisulphite prior to fermentation, so that may be it. If I remember I'll report back!

you need to use sulphite post fermentation

 

[mpp1234]

you need to use sulphite post fermentation

I've been using potassium sorbate post-fermentation. The sherry smell was present during fermentation also.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Thanks. I will try again next year and try that. Looking at my notes I didn't use metabisulphite prior to fermentation, so that may be it. If I remember I'll report back!

I normally use metabisulphite (Campden) in the must to kill wild yeast. With a country wine I will put under airlock at about 1.020 / when most but not all of the CO2 has been produced and foam has slowed. I will add 0.3gm per gallon metabisulphite every time I work / rack etc on the wine.
What type of carboy? Glass? Plastic?