Sulfite management and cork juice

[Rappatuz]

As you can tell from the heading I want to get your advice on two completely different topics.

Firstly, I want to know how you manage "free" sulfite concentrations in your wines. I know there's a sulfite testing kit called "Titrets", which I have understood can be unreliable. I wonder if there's some expected dissipation rate of free SO2 in wine? Probably not, but if so, one could approximate the remaining sulfite concentration from the added amount. Just wondering.

The second question is about natural cork. I bottled and corked my first wine just a couple of weeks ago. Following ECKrauss' advice, I soaked the corks in a sulfite solution and let them dry a little before corking (having read further upon it I will probably not soak the next time). I noticed the solution had a (very) light brown color stemming from the corks. My question is: When wine comes in contact with the cork after bottling, will this "cork juice" leak into the juice and cause a distaste?

Rappatuz

 

[user 36973]

Yes, the free sulfites will dissipate over time in the wine due to racking, evolution at SO2 gas, binding with compounds, and doing their job grabbing dissolved oxygen. So depending on your wine process you will lose various amounts of the sulfites, making it impossible to guess the current sulfite level with any accuracy. The aeration oxidation method is best for measuring sulfites but the ripper method works too. Titrets are just not reliable.

As far as the corks go, I would just handle them with gloves out of the bag and spritz your corker with everclear rather than soaking the corks.

 

[Rappatuz]

Yes, the free sulfites will dissipate over time in the wine due to racking, evolution at SO2 gas, binding with compounds, and doing their job grabbing dissolved oxygen. So depending on your wine process you will lose various amounts of the sulfites, making it impossible to guess the current sulfite level with any accuracy. The aeration oxidation method is best for measuring sulfites but the ripper method works too. Titrets are just not reliable.

As far as the corks go, I would just handle them with gloves out of the bag and spritz your corker with everclear rather than soaking the corks.

Great information! I guess I have to check out the aeration oxidation method and ripper. Haven't even heard about those, but then again I'm kind of a newbie

Can't get Everclear where I'm at. I guess a Star San solution will do the trick just fine?