Wine conditioner

Walter, I never use it, I add sugar to taste and use fresh sorbate at around

1.3 g/gallon (1/2 teaspoon). The amount of sugar you use does not matter, sorbate inhibits yeast budding so if the wine is still you are OK. I would like to get away from sorbate use but am not there yet.

Joe

Walter Venables wrote:

The idea of a wine conditioner with both sugar and sorbate makes no sence. You need a certain about of sorbate that depends on the volume of the wine you are treating. You need a certain about of sweetner to give the wine the taste you want. The two have no relationship. If you use a comercial conditioner or make your own you are likely to use too much or too little stabilizer or end with wine that is too sweet or not sweet enough. Just use them separately. Add the right amount of sorbate and then sweeten it to taste.

Ray

Joe:

I also want to get away from sorbate but am not there yet - hopefully next season! In the meantime, here is a good article that has allowed me to reduce the amount of sorbate used significantly, and more importantly, to the levels where I don't find it objectionable:

I believe the original source of this info is Peynaud's Knowing and Making Wine.

Pp

I can and do sterile filter using a 0.22 micron cartridge set up. But, I'm sure I can't guarantee sterility downstream from the filter and through the bottling process. Maybe you don't have to be absolutely sterile but I still add K sorbate. I don't like the taste either but it's my experience this taste fades with time. I've used amounts like Joe uses and also lower amounts like 0.8 grams/gallon (about 210 ppm). Never any lower. Pp, are you using the lower amounts mentioned in the article and are your off-dry wines stable?

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

pp wrote "I also want to get away from sorbate but am not there yet - hopefully

Joe Sallustio wrote: "I add sugar to taste and use fresh sorbate at around

Yes. Admittedly, I don't have much data yet as I've been doing this for

2-3 years but so far I've had no problems, with additions as low as 0.1 g/L ( under 0.4g/gal) for a 13% alcohol Gewurz.

For me the smell is worse than taste. With the off-dry fruity wines, the issue is they are freshest when they're youn, i.e., when the sorbate is most noticeable.

I'm planning to get a good filter setup for next season. Since I'm not doing this commercially, I'm willing to take the small risk of contamination downstream.

Pp