Wierd off-taste w/Zin (not noticable to most)

Pete · 2004-09-13T03:21:14+00:00

Howdy, Just found this board, and I can believe I never thought [before] oflooking to newsgroups for information on winemaking. Anyway, something is driving me nuts about my Zin (2003). I made Zin,Cab, and Merlot, in 2003. I just finished bottling and I noticed somethingthat I thought I corrected. During my last racking, I racked my Zin into 2 - 6.5 gallon carboys, and3 - 1 gallon glass jugs. All had airlocks with rubber bungs securely inplace. For the last couple of months, I made a couple of trips down to thepulling our the 1 gallon jugs to drink (couldn't wait till bottling), and Idiscovered an off-taste. Tart - similar to over-oxidation. Only 2 of the 3, 1 gallon jugs had this off taste .. so I convincedmyself that I must have had a slow air leak in these containers. Well... I just bottled the 13 gallons of Zin and whamo.. there it isagain.. Funny thing about it is.. my family loves the wine.. I am the only onewho can really notice it. Still, I am pretty pissed.. My question is. I am good about sterilization, oxidation and that sortof thing.. Anyone else have a similar experience? P.S. My Merlot and Cab is incredible with no after taste ..

Sep 13, 2004 22 Replies

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Joe Sallustio 21 years ago

Apologies, I missed this. I should set up the newsreader rather than rely on Google...

I have a copy of Zoeckleins et al "Wine Analysis & Production"; in it it describes the AOAC procedure for measuring TA. on page 512 it tells you to remove the CO2 by holding the sample at 60 C in a water bath for 'several minutes'. They considered it a major source of error.

Does CO2 in an aqueous media form carbonic acid? Maybe that's it, but I'm not a chemist, I don't know for sure. That is the way they suggest to drive it out. Margalit says boil and reconstitute.

I'm just trying to get repeatable measurements so I can 'benchmark' my tastebuds so I'm open to correction... :o) Joe

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Ben Rotter 21 years ago

Yes, and at the saturation level of 1.5 g/l CO2 (at 20 C, ambient pressure) the contribution to the TA is 2.6 g/l. Very significant!

Fred:

snipped-for-privacy@> quantity of acid. Since (as you say) the quantity of acid remains constant,

Using the *original* volume, sure.

Ben

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pp 21 years ago

That's a good point, Ben, it makes sense. Maybe the reason is to counter any water losses because of the boiling? In that sense the Zoecklein's method would be preferable, as it only removes CO2 and nothing else.

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