WineXpert Stuck Wine

[Frosty]

I did a batch of WE Sauvignon Blonc/ Semillion. I didn't test the SG and the wine turned out sweet. We like out wine bone dry. Therefore we have only used this for cooking or gifts (with people that like dry wine. ) I stabilized with sulfate and sorbate in January 2016. Has enough time passed so I could dump the wine into a carboy and restart fermentation?

The taste is pretty good except we cannot get past the sweetness. Any ideas?

Tks,
Frosty

I

 

[Julie]

since you added sorbate, I really don't think you will ever get it to restart.

 

[Frosty]

That is the worry but I did think the additives diminished over time.

 

[Redbird1]

From a super quick Google search..

The second limitation of potassium sorbate is the length of time it is effective. Once added to wine it stays in the desireable form of sorbic acid only for a short time. Over time it breaks down into ethyl sorbate which can add notes of pineapple or celery to your wine.

and

Potassium Sorbate does not kill the yeast at all, but rather it makes the yeast sterile. In other words, it impairs the yeast's ability to reproduce itself. But, it does not hinder the yeast's ability to ferment sugar into alcohol.

Potassium Sorbate puts a coating on the cell wall of each individual yeast in such a way that budding or multiplying is next to impossible.

Based on my interpretation, it sounds like there would be a point where if you introduce enough new yeast that you'd be able to overcome the effect of the sorbate (i.e., there is a limit on the number of yeast cells the amount of sorbate you previously added can "coat"). That doesn't even account for the break down of the sorbate over the past year.

That is the best I can figure from a scientific perspective. From a personal perspective, it sounds like a lot of work for something that might not even work. You'd have to expose it to oxygen to process it, add an unknown amount of yeast, and hope that it makes it all the way dry, when it somehow didn't finish in what we can assume were much more favorable conditions. I'd just make a new batch of dry wine and continue giving out the sweet wine to people who enjoy it that way.

 

[salcoco]

I would buy some vodka or Everclear and blend to amount of dryness to overcome sweetness. use bench trials.

 

[GaDawg]

Isn't semillion known as a sweet wine?

 

[Frosty]

Thanks Redbird1. You are likely right it isn't worth it. I have had few kits that didn't work so was reluctant to give up.

 

[Frosty]

The kit was listed as dry. The kit fermented really quickly and seemed to quit in the primary. I thought I had some fermentation in the secondary but likely it was only co2. I should have tested SG but have had so few problems I skipped that step.

 

[Redbird1]

Thanks Redbird1. You are likely right it isn't worth it. I have had few kits that didn't work so was reluctant to give up.

Trust me. I'm right there with you in not wanting to give up on something. That's why I did a little digging.

Personally, my free time is rather limited. I'd rather put any effort into a new batch rather than trying to fix the one at hand. If there are others out there that like it, and you are happy giving it away, it sounds like a win-win. They get something they like and you don't have to give them the stuff you really like.

 

[CabSauv]

Make a dry Pinot Grigio and bench blend to see if it balances out. If not, keep both separately or dump the failed batch. If it blends well, then you found your solution. Either way you're ending up with wine, and a Pinot Grigio is dry which is what you like.

 

[Hordak]

When you make another white, and I think you should, I would recommend keeping it in the primary a fair bit longer than the instructions recommend. I always ferment whites in the primary to dry (.990 to .993) and it usually takes 2-3 weeks. For the first week stir the must every day and that will keep the ferment active and make sure the room temp is above 17C or 63F. Also get in the habit of checking the yeast expiration prior to pitching just in case. Although I've pitched expired EC1118 without a problem before so I believe the extended primary, temp and stirring are more important.
I also agree with the suggestion of blending with a real dry varietal but I would also recommend bumping up the alcohol of the new wine with dextrose or a simple syrup addition and that will help the perceived sweetness when blending.

 

[Frosty]

I actually thought the problem was that I left too long in the primary. I guess the stirring would resolve this by adding new oxygen. I generally slow down the process. I'd usually wait until activity in the primary was slowed down almost to a stop but thought, as I said, that was the problem. Hordak I don't want to keep the sweetness. The wine is a very flavourful white. It is just that it is off dry. We like our wines mouth puckering dry.

We generally prefer reds and I am very happy with the wines I have been producing. I have been making kits since 2001. I am very careful about sanitizing and really try to limit exposure to oxygen and light. However over time I have made some mistakes with my whites. The first one was in the selection of kits. I tried to copy big bold tastes of our reds. However we tend to drink whites almost exclusively in the summer and want a light crisp wine. I have moved to making Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. I was getting ahead of myself on kits and let some sit too long. For some dumb reason I though they were stabilized and didn't clue into the expiry dates. I had a Special Edition NZ Pinot with an off taste. I think the age was the problem (however the stuck kit was before the expiry).

These are the only kits I had problems with after 16 years of making 5 to 10+ kits a year. Not a bad average. However it is a hobby and producing the very best wines possible is my goal.

When I started I talked to as many wine store staff and read all I could. Unfortunately I didn't discover forums until recently. I am amazed at the info available and thankful to the members on this forum. The only real challenge is the bulk of opinions and that they sometimes conflict. I really want to keep learning and I am grateful for all the ideas. Some of my early assumptions have been challenged.

As I said I'm pretty happy with my reds. I had almost given up on my whites but do have a batch almost ready to bottle. Where I like fruity whites I try to have them new and fresh rather then have the aging of my reds. Also I have done taste tests and found that sometimes my testers liked the intermediate kits (10 to 12 litre kits) as well or better than the top end kits (16 to 18 litres) although I have not tried the Eclipse whites which are my go to reds.

Am I on the right track with my whites? Is it better to have a brief aging period to retain the fruitiness and if so how long? Are you finding the intermediate kits as good or better for a light summery refreshing drink than the top end kits? Am I missing out on something with this approach that I would get in an aged Eclipse white kit (or similar premium kit) that was aged longer?

I'd appreciate any advice and help to produce a decent bone dry refreshing white and to continue to perfect my craft. Thanks all.
Frosty

 

[Rtrent2002]

I had a stuck super Tuscan at 1.01 so I took a package of EC 1118, added to warm sugar water and a bit of the wine and let it start up over night. Poured in my batch of wine the next day, racked the whole batch to inject oxygen and it started up again. However, I did not add sorbate to my batch.