smelly Merlot

Nov 28, 2004 7 Replies
S

This is the my first batch of Merlot and it seems I got off on the wrong foot. The Merlot starting SG was 1.092 and TA: 1.05%. I used Lavlin V1... yeast. Fermentation started easily and went without issues until I noticed an H2S smell towards the end of fermentation. The fermenetation appeared to have finished so I pressed and put in DJ. The SG turned out to be 1.010 and ended up overflowing out of the DJ several times. I cleaned up took a little out and finished fermenting without further incident. A few days later I racked to a clean DJ, added oak chips and MLF expecting that I had beat the H2S smell. Now 3 weeks into MLF I notice that it still has a noticeable H2S smell.



Should I rack and aerate now in the middle of a vigorous MLF fermentation or should I wait a few more weeks for MLF to complete before racking? I want the MLF fermentation to complete.



thanks Sarge


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P

.....

Treat as soon as possible. It will only get worse if you wait.

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A

I would try adding Bocksin to treat. It worked very well for me for some cases that I thought were too stinky to save.

Aaron

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S

Bocksin isn't discussed very much on this forum. Is it new? I see a couple of write-ups that mention it also strips out some flavors and you may also require fining afterwards for possible cloudiness? Could it interfere with MLF fermentation? thanks Sarge

fermentation

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T

Sarge,

I had a Cab that went that way on me last year and caught it early on. I simply added an 18-20 inch section of clean sanitized copper tubing to to my siphon hose and racked twice through the copper. Noticed an immediate reduction in the odor and at my next scheduled racking found no H2S smell.

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S

Thanks for the practical suggestion Tom! I think it would likely remove the H2S smell. Is it possible copper ions remain in the wine after this? What can you do to remove the copper from the wine after this treatment? Sarge

fermentation

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C

Fining with copper sulfate is a better idea, since you can easily control the amount of copper that is added, thus adding only as much as is needed to get the job done. Fining with bentonite will ensure that all the copper is percipitated out (AFAIK)

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