Wine taste different

[Robin]

I gave my daughter two750ml bottles of Raspberry Peach Sangria wine. They were delicious. I also packed some of the same wine in 1.5L bottles. I opened a 1.5L bottle of the same wine and it was delicious. I opened another bottle from the same batch that was tart. How can that be possible when they came from the same 6-gallon carboy? HOw can one be sweet and another be tart??

 

[NorCal]

Assuming the wine was homogeneous, meaning the same wine throughout the carboy, I suspect the difference could be the temperature that the wine was served or your tastebuds on a different day.

 

[winemaker81]

How long were the wines bulk aged, and how long has it been since they were bottled? Are all bottles stored in the same conditions?

 

[Robin]

No, all bottled from same carboy that was degassed. Temps were the same as all bottles stored in the same place. All same conditions. This is why I am scratching my head as to why one was tart when it was supposed to be sweet. All three 2 750ml and 1 1.5L were opened on the same day one after another so tastebuds were the same.

 

[winemaker81]

How long were the wines bulk aged, and how long since bottling?

I recently opened a bottle from 2018 that was very different from the other bottles -- it was sharper, more acidic.

Some folks are of the opinion that longer bulk aging helps ensure all the bottles age the same, as the early chemical changes occur during bulk aging. I'm leaning towards this hypothesis as the wine I mentioned was bottled relatively quickly.

 

[sour_grapes]

You say that at least one of these was sweet. Were they backsweetened, i.e., did you add sugar before bottling? If so, had you stabilized the wine, e.g., by adding potassium sorbate? Were either of them fizzy?

 

[Robin]

How long were the wines bulk aged, and how long since bottling?

I recently opened a bottle from 2018 that was very different from the other bottles -- it was sharper, more acidic.

Some folks are of the opinion that longer bulk aging helps ensure all the bottles age the same, as the early chemical changes occur during bulk aging. I'm leaning towards this hypothesis as the wine I mentioned was bottled relatively quickly.

Just bottled. Started wine in May. Bottled an drinking now as summer beverage

 

[Robin]

You say that at least one of these was sweet. Were they backsweetened, i.e., did you add sugar before bottling? If so, had you stabilized the wine, e.g., by adding potassium sorbate? Were either of them fizzy?

All I have drank so far were sweet. EXCEPT the 1.5L bottle I opened yesterday when we ran out of two 750Ml. The taste was remarkably different. Same wine. It was a kit with two bags. One bag was added towards the end of fermentation. wine did have sorbate added. Neither wine was fizzzy.

 

[winemaker81]

Your wine it totally green. Wine goes through a LOT of chemical changes in first 6 months, so having bottles tasting different is not a surprise.

 

[Robin]

Your wine it totally green. Wine goes through a LOT of chemical changes in first 6 months, so having bottles tasting different is not a surprise.

That is interesting. I sure like the sweet better than the tart. Odd difference between bottles. I hope I do not find any more like that.

 

[Jim Welch]

Another possibility is that that one bottle had a bacterial contamination and the dormant bacteria became active in the presence of sugar and consumed the sugar changing the flavor. If these were reused bottles it only takes a tiny speck of dried on organic matter to harbor bacteria and sanitizing may not get into the hiding bacteria.

 

[winemaker81]

That is interesting. I sure like the sweet better than the tart. Odd difference between bottles. I hope I do not find any more like that.

You may, or you may not. Let's hope for "not".

For your next batches, don't bottle so quickly. Plan for a 4 month cycle before bottling.

Okay, I know you want to drink it. That's why we make it, right? I agree 100%!

However, to make your future self happy, you need to get ahead of the game. Make wine for your future, meaning make more that you will drink in the short term. I'm mostly a red drinker, so I make batches large enough that some will remain 5 to 7 years from now, and enough batches that I will have that wine available then.

This changes your entire line of thought, doesn't it? Remember that this is not a problem -- this is an opportunity to indulge more in your hobby. Think positive thoughts!

 

[Rice_Guy]

interesting question
* Uniformity of the wine when siphoned into bottles, sugar settled out or meta not dissolved or tannin settled
* different head space, the larger head space had acetobacter
* residue in a bottle
* a taste buds change as you opened up the desert
* overload of taste buds, too much of the same food, folks eat more calories when there is more variety
*
would be interesting if you had done gravity numbers