My wine is sweet and I don’t want it to be
I made a sweet wine… but that wasn’t my intention!
When a wine that was supposed to be dry ends up sweet by accident, you may find yourself wondering a few things:
A) Why did this happen?
B) Where did I go wrong?
C) What can I do now?
First, let’s get back to basics.
For a wine to have residual sugar (RS) remaining, it must have not completely finished alcoholic fermentation. The only exception to this is if you backsweetened it purposely after it finished fermenting.
A sweet wine can be a purposeful and stylistic decision, or a result of a stuck fermentation.
Potential root causes
My wine stopped fermenting before I wanted it to
Sometimes a fermentation will not complete despite your best efforts. Check your process – did you do all of the following?
- Start between 22-26 Brix. If it was above or below these numbers, did you make any adjustments?
- Added SO2 pre- chosen yeast add to kill off unwanted wild yeast
- Added a specified yeast strain and followed proper rehydration procedure
- Maintained temperatures so they did not drop too low or get too high
- Added correct amount of yeast nutrient at correct points in time
I accidentally chapitalized more than I meant to
This is a bit trickier to maneuver. Whether you added too much sugar pre-fermentation (to increase eventual alcohol level) or post-fermentation (to backsweeten), you may be stuck with more sugar than your chosen yeast is capable of converting. You could try to restart the fermentation after it initially slows down, but this could potentially increase the ABV way too much depending on how much you added.
You can try to follow a fermentation restart protocol. Or, you can decide to SO2 and add potassium sorbate to the wine and keep it sweet, or you could do bench trials adding acid and possibly tannin to see if you can create a newfound balance within the now sweet wine. *Important note: do not add potassium sorbate to the wine if it has gone through MLF*
Winemaking goals : striking the perfect balance
I didn’t pitch yeast, I just let it spontaneously ferment
Without choosing a designated yeast that you can be certain will ferment your juice or must to dryness, you risk the possibility of wild yeast starting to ferment but not being able to finish, leading to a stuck fermentation.
I don’t want it to remain sweet. What can I do now?
- If you’re open to doing so, follow a stuck fermentation protocol to restart the ferment. See our blog post for a detailed protocol.
- Blend out the sweet wine with dry wine(s).
- Add acid to strike a balance within the wine – it may still technically be sweet, but by adding acid and/or tannin you may be able to create an enjoyable wine that doesn’t seem as cloyingly sweet as it may without additional acid or tannin.
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 17 – Should I Add Sugar?
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
Do I add sugar?
Adding sugar can fall into two categories. If sugar is added prior to fermentation, it is called chapitalization and will increase the Brix (sugar level) of the must, resulting in a higher alcohol by volume wine. The yeast will process this sugar in addition to the grape sugars and will turn it into alcohol. Chapitalization is an important step for under ripe grapes, lacking in sugar.
Another form of sugar addition to wine is post-fermentation. This must be done with much care as to not restart fermentation. Adding the sugar after fermentation may reactivate yeast by offering them another food source and cause them to ferment that sugar as well. This can be prevented by adding sulfites to at least 50ppm to kill off the yeast. Adding sugar after sulfites will effectively back sweeten the wine, giving residual sugar and a sweet flavor to the wine. The winemaker can also add potassium sorbate to the wine, provided that the wine has not gone through malo-lactic fermentation. Potassium sorbate cannot be added to a wine that has undergone MLF as it will result in an off aroma of geranium taint. Potassium sorbate is strongly suggested for white wines that the winemaker would like to add residual sugar to. The sorbate will encapsulate any yeast particles, prohibiting them from metabolizing the sugar that was added for sweetening.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 5 – Is Malocatic necessary in White Wines if it has not been inoculated?
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
Is Malocatic necessary in White Wines if it has not been inoculated?
When considering the stability of a white wine in preparation for bottling, sugar and microbial stability are of great importance. After fermentation, if MLF is not purposefully inoculated by the winemaker, the addition of Lysozyme may be considered as to retard any naturally present MLF bacteria from beginning to ferment. If the level of SO2 is kept up to is suggested level (contingent upon pH), the Lysozyme may not be needed as the SO2 will prevent the bacteria from fermenting. If the winemaker is trying to use a low amount of sulfites in their wine, I would suggest the use of Lysozyme to inhibit any bacterial growth.
Equally as important, is the use of sterile filtration. If the wine is processed through a sterile filter (.45µ), bacterial and yeast cells should be eliminated. This will physically prevent the bacterial spoilage of the wine. If the winemaker chooses to back sweeten the wine, this filtration will also help prevent any refermentation within the bottle. When it comes to back sweetening, I also always recommend chemical as well as physical sterilization of the wine to prevent fermentation and off aromas to develop within the bottle. Potassium sorbate may be used on any wine that has not gone through malolactic fermentation. If it is used on a wine that has undergone MLF, remaining MLF bacteria can begin to metabolize the sorbate, resulting in a strong geranium odor. In my experience, I typically add sorbate and sterile filter the wine, then bottle, without the addition of Lysozyme. I am meticulous about the level of SO2 remaining above the suggested amount , and I typically add an additional 10ppm before bottling to ensure prolonged sterility within the bottle.
While you certainly can conduct a chromatography test upon the wines to detect the presence of acid, both malic and lactic exist naturally within the grape, so the chromatography test will not be especially helpful when looking at a wine that has not gone through MLF. As long as you keep a vigilant watch upon your sulfur dioxide levels and pH, and use sorbate when sweetening, you should be fine.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
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