Stabilizing wine before back sweetening

[browndd1]

My question is that I cant remember whether I added the campden tablets and potassium sorbate to my 5 gallon carboy of wine over a year ago. Should I add them since I cant remember? What if I did in fact add them and give it another dose will it be safe to drink and turnout ok?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[ChuckD]

Definitely add the k-meta. If you are going to back sweeten and bottle soon, then add the k-sorbate as well. If you did add the recommended 1/4t a year ago it’s probably all used up by now. Many add that dose every three months while bulk aging. If the wine was topped up and the airlock maintained I have stretched that to 6 months.

If you indeed forgot to add it a year ago the wine may have started to oxidize regardless of the airlock. Give it the smell test… if it smells ok give it a taste. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Rice_Guy]

? What if I did in fact add them and give it another dose will it be safe to drink and turnout ok?

Campden / potassium metabisulphite needs to be added periodically as long as you can get at the wine/ it isn’t in 750ml bottles. Some folks can taste the free sulfur, most can’t. The European limit is 200ppm total addition.

Sorbate is interesting, it can produce a bubble gum like food flavor (ethyl sorbate). We have quite a bit of sorbate in our foods & beverages, ie it isn’t toxic to us. , , , ,
In intentionally trying to produce this flavor I haven’t been able to do it by dosing 10x and waiting a year or by holding at elevated temperature. This makes it look like a few years in the bottle are required, so again the risk is low.

 

[winemaker81]

In intentionally trying to produce this flavor I haven’t been able to do it by dosing 10x and waiting a year or by holding at elevated temperature. This makes it look like a few years in the bottle are required, so again the risk is low.

Interesting. All the literature says overdosing with sorbate is a bad thing, and that the bubblegum will occur eventually.

OTOH, I have bottles of 6+ yo kit Ports that taste just fine, no odd flavors. This made me question the conventional wisdom regarding sorbate. Your testing really makes me question it.

@browndd1, make sure your sorbate is fresh. Vendor information says it's good for several years in an ideal environment (sealed, kept dry), but I balance the cost of sorbate vs. the cost of unbottling and re-bottling a batch where the sorbate is old. For that reason I buy the smallest package (I don't backsweeten much), date it when I buy it, and bin it after 12-15 months.

 

[Rice_Guy]

All the literature says overdosing with sorbate is a bad thing, and that the bubblegum will occur eventually.,, . This made me question the conventional wisdom regarding sorbate. Your testing really makes me question it.

* from a health point of view ethyl sorbate isn’t bad. If I was doing candy processing I could buy pallets of it.
* YES, as a wine producer it is rather shocking to have a candy flavor. I would still not use it unless I was back sweetening.
* As a wine judge I have see it in contest wines once every four or five years. As a member of two Vinters clubs roughly once a year. The flavor isn’t very common. ,,, I have started to use it on ALL sweet wines that are under 12 months in the carboy.

 

[winemaker81]

I would still not use it unless I was back sweetening.

It irritated me when kit vendors started combining K-meta + sorbate. But I understand that it is a slight cost savings to them. And for newbies without experienced help, it does prevent mini-volcanoes.