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Please help a musty port

We made a mistake and now we are paying. Our port, which is about 20% alcohol was left in a 5 gallon barrel without topping up for about 6 weeks- oops. And given the alcohol content, we had skipped adding SO2 other than initially to the primary. (of course the wine we are making didn't receive much SO2 either and it is testing above 50ppm regardless. Anyhow, we tasted it last night with the intent to top off and what we found was a musty port. We topped up and added 1 camden tablet per gallon (5), but have deep concerns. What to do? To give you a sense of the level of mustiness, it wasn't readily appearant to taste until I smelled it. Then I could taste it. It doesn't necessarily blow you away or anything (provided you pinch your nose before drinking it :). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Reply to
marcortins
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Tawny Port is made by aging Port (low in SO2) in partially filled barrels for years. So, the musty character in your wine probably came from the barrel (small barrels are known to be difficult to store).

I would get the wine out of that barrel. Then rack the wine with lots of splashing several times and try to blow off as much musty character as possible. With all that aeration, you may end up with a tawny Port but you may be able to save the wine.

Good luck.

Lum

Reply to
Lum

Ok so I racked it like 6 times. 3 of which were very splashy. It does taste and smell somewhat better. We are leaving it in the glass and will check it in a week, maybe repeat the process then. Any other thoughts?

Reply to
marcortins

Marc, I can't say this will help but it's worth the read. I use it on whites. Oftentimes when I buy preprocessed juice it's dark when I get it. It says it helps with 'stale' tastes.

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Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

There is a problem with milk, it leave some lactose behind. casein or Kolorfine don't do that. 4 ounces skim to 5 gallons of stirred wine if you want to try it

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

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