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Re: Bottled wine is now very gassy?

Help,

> > My wine (red grape) after 8 month bottled term has been found to be > very gassy (fizzy). It tastes almost spritzy. What went wrong? What > can I do in the future to prevent this. I have made good batches > before, so this is a surprise (bad surprise). > > Thanks,

Renewed sugar fermentation or malolactic fermentation are the two common reasons bottled wine becomes gassy. Wines containing more than 0.2% residual sugar cannot be considered biologically stable, and red wines containing malic acid definitely are not biologically stable. Measuring

0.2% RS with a hydrometer is not so easy. Did you test for RS with Clinitest tablets before bottling? Did you verify that your red wine had gone through MLF and did you raise the molecular SO2 level up to 0.8 mg/l before bottling the wine? lum
Reply to
Lum
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I am a newbie at this, so please help me to understand this. Don't all red wines contain malic acid? Does ML convert -all- malic acid? Are all red wines that have not been thru ML "definitely are not biologically stable" ?

I'm confused.

Reply to
Jay Enterkin

Yes. About half of the acid in grapes is malic acid, so all red wines made from grapes contain malic acid.

Yes, in general. After complete MLF, little or no malic acid is left in the wine.

Yes. All red wine that have not complete MLF are biologically unstable. Sulfur dioxide can control lactic bacteria in low pH wines, but not in high pH wines. Even so, sulfur dioxide gradually disappears from bottled wine and MLF can occur sooner or later if malic acid is present. See Jackisch, "Modern Winemaking," page 77.

Home winemakers are often interested in MLF because of taste implications. But, determining whether or not a wine has gone through MLF by tasting is usually not possible. On the other hand, commercial winemakers view MLF primarily as a stability issue in red wines.

So am I Jay. But what the heck, we are having fun making wine. Regards, lum

Reply to
Lum

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