Very disappointing taste red grape wine

[MoeJay]

Hi everyone,

Your input really means a lot to me. I just need some clarification.

I have batches that finally survived to 1.000 after a very long journey of cooking up and errors. I racked both into new carboys which eventually ended up with big spaces on the top.

The whole story here.

I have hade been advised to top up one using the other. And I went ahead to bottle the rest.

I have decided to just give a bottle a try and enjoy it.

Here comes the issue, the wine smells very strong alcoholic smell with a very strong and unpleasant taste. It is like a very strong distilled moonshine, but only color is different. I tried to swirl lt in a jug (as I never degasser it), waiting it to "open" and get the aroma and taste back. It never did.

A friend of mine tested it with me, he couldn't go ahead for another glass, although he is a moonshine fella. When he first smelled it "that is distilled" he said.


It had me very disapointed! It is very very disappointing!

Speaking about color, it is very dark red and and never clear.

I presume no contamination has occurred as I am very cautious about it.


My question is, have you ever tasted a newly fermented wine?
Is this normal and will disappear when it is cleared? Or is this a sign of fault?


Please help,

Cheers

MoeJay

 

[salcoco]

a newly fermented wine will have all kinds of tastes good and bad. wait util wine clears and stable wait another three months and then taste. might surprise you.

 

[NorCal]

Wine is about balance. It sounds like the added sugar, which fermented to alcohol, is overpowering the other elements. I added too much sugar to the first wine I made and it tasted like a cheap mixed drink and tossed it.

 

[1d10t]

The best you can probably do at this point is to let it age until you need the bottles or the space. If it hasn't improved by then, toss it.

 

[user 36973]

When he first smelled it "that is distilled" he said.

Your friend might be onto a wine fault. By referring to it having a "distilled" character, I presume that means it has a strong chemically, solvent aroma. That could be ethyl acetate which smells like fingernail polish remover. The chemical is an ester of acetic acid and ethanol. If that is the case, it is a sign of oxidation and light spoilage by vinegar producing acetobacter.

 

[Lwrightjs]

Reading through your posts, don't toss them yet. Your wines just have a really high alcohol content. But also a high sugar content. Honestly, after just a month, your wines are gonna taste pretty bad. Usually strongly alcoholic and pretty much like moonshine. Lol. But after a few months, you'll notice considerable difference in your wine. I've had wines at 1 month that I thought were terrible. Almost made me quit the hobby. But after even 3 or 4 months, they were excellent. I can't say for certain how yours would turn out, but just know that what you're experiencing right now is completely normal.

 

[MoeJay]

The thing is, it's been a month and so already, since 29 June.

The smell and the taste are very are unpleasantly suphostcating.

I have a friend of mine who has his deliciously ready for consumption in 6 weeks span ( I used his recipe, ie: juice, Lalvin ec 1118 and sugar) but off course I tried to refine it with tannin and nutrient.

Salcoco, In brewing world, I have recently gone into a situation where the refractometer reading was telling me that my batch had stalled at 1070, Then ended up with a shocking surprise when I used the hydrometer.

What I'm trying to say is that you might be right that I might also be surprised with finishing results.
I had been mocked by the refractometer that time, and I believed it. This time I'm believing the smell and taste, but may also be mocking me and be surprised with the finishing results, ( make sense?). Just dunno!

1d10t, can you please explain further?

 

[peterseng]

Try to be patient, my friend. The bottom line is that, at this point, you can't be sure if you wine has a fault or not. Rack it to fresh carboys (and top off with the extra that you bottled) every 3 or 4 weeks. Degas it if you want to finish it quickly (although with a long enough aging process, it will degas on it's own as well). Let it clear (you can use a variety of fining agents, such as Sparkaloid, to help speed this - as I imagine the friend from whom you obtained the recipe must have done) and give it time.

 

[DriftlessDoc]

Top it off to eliminate headspace as much as possible, push it to the back and forget about it. Best case scenario, it turns around in 6-12 months. Worst case, you still throw it out.

 

[Steve Wargo]

I have a gallon of wine with a very similar problem. I made several one-gallon jugs of various fruit juice wines during very hot temps, no air conditioning 90+ F degree weather. Two gallons out of six 1-gallon batches fermented dry in 3 days and developed the weird taste that you are describing. They both were very active fermentations. When I took a hydrometer reading both read 0.990 Both were fast ferments and were smelling of strong sulfur and chemicals and tasted about the same. One of those 1-gallon batches (started 7-14-2019) turned around in 14 days and now tastes and smell good and is drinkable as new fruit wine. The other 1-gallon batch (started 7-14-2019) continued to be a problem child, even today, not drinkable, at least I'm not ready to try. So it's been just over 3 weeks since initial fermentation took off. I added 1/16 tsp of K-meta to the funky 1-gallon batch 4 days ago. I left the screw-on cap slightly loose after the K-meta application. Note: From experience, the pressure from an airlock doesn't always let bad gasses escape. Else I am very impatient. Today is 8/5/2019 I did a smell test. Things are improving. Again, I did not taste it. Yea it was that bad the first time. Flashback: After fermentation was complete I was going to toss the bad batches. Today my thought is that I continue to monitor progress and use the "Problem Child" one-gallon batch as a written recorded experiment. What the Worse that can happen? I use it as a weed killer on my driveway? lol, The batch is psycho. It happens. I took a risk fermenting during extremely hot weather. Or it was the result of a fruit fly that somehow contaminated the protected wine must. There is an answer. Just don't know the question to ask as yet.