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Old fashion wine making to modern

Hi being Italian my Dad, and I since about 10 years made wine using no chemicals, yeast etc. I have read enough posts on the differences of today compared to before so I will not ask which is better. What I need to know is, I have used potassium metabisulfite right before bottling my wine to preserve it. I always used the grapes natural wild yeast. I read that some people are alergic to potassium metabisulfite, and myself noticed that since the last few years when I added the potassium metabisulfite to the wine it seems to make me more sleepy after drinking a few glasses(maybe i am getting old). So my question is, the modern way of making wine is to use potassium metabisulfite at 3 stages, as grapes are crushed before adding cultivated yeast, to completely end fermentation, and before bottling. What I would like to know is, since i will be introducing cultivated yeast to my must this year can I skip the first potassium metabisulfite, and just add the yeast while leaving the wild yeast in there also? Or is it better to kill off the wild yeast wait 24 hours and add the new? Also can it really be the potassium metabisulfite that makes me sleepy, I know all baught wines have that effect on me? Thanks in advance

Reply to
erables40
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erables - You've been making wine longer than I have but if you're making red wine, and you have good quality grapes which you crush and process right away there is no need to a sulfite before adding your wine yeast. Just go ahead and do it. But, when I cold soak crushed red grapes for several days I do add 25 ppm SO2 based on the estimated volume of juice in the batch. For white wines I always sulfite and settle the juice before adding yeast.

I too get sleepy after a couple of glasses of wine...it's not the sulfite. Tincture of time takes it's toll on all of us.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Reply to
William Frazier

Half Italian, but I also make wine basically the way my grandfather and my uncle made it: California grapes, crush, de-stem, ferment, press, rack, age in oak, bottle. The one exception is I de-stem they didn't. Wild yeast, small amount of potassium metabisulfite in the oak barrel and a potassium metabisulfite solution to rinse my bottles before bottling. This has worked very well for me and although I respect and pay close attention to the advice of those more knowledgeable than I on this list, I don't plan to change this process. FWIW my 2005 and 2004 Cab-Zin blend just won 1st and 2nd place respectively at the county fair wine competition. Not a big deal in world of wine but a big deal to me.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Landis

erables, I don't know where you live, but in the northeast, I sulfite my wine to kill any wild strains the grapes may have picked up in their long journey from CA.

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Reply to
marcortins

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