Vinegar!
September 9th, 2005 | 
Author: I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. The dreaded smell of vinegar. I suppose I should rephrase that – vinegar itself is not so bad – except when the goal was lovely wine.
Back in July, I bottled some Valpolicella. It was quite good, new and although I gave a lot of it away (which I hope was drunk fairly quickly), I thought I’d keep a few bottles and age them longer before consuming.
I also kept a reserve bottle – the very last one of the batch which had some lees in it, in the fridge. I thought I would use it to top up a future Valpolicella. Today was that day. I went to the fridge, uncorked the reserve bottle, and of course, smelled it.
I wasn’t sure if I really was detecting a light vinegar or asectic acid smell – so I decided to taste it. Sure enough, although not overpowering, was that distinct taste of vinegar. But it was a very very light taste. So light, I thought maybe it was just me. So, I took the bottle upstairs to Wendy, and said, “Mmmm.. you should taste this!” I thought if I gave her the impression there might be something wrong, she’d taste something wrong.
She had a sip of it, looked at me, and said, “Well, at first it’s very nice, but there’s a funny aftertaste, almost like… vinegar!”
So that confirmed it wasn’t my taste buds playing games. I went and opened one of the bottles I had aging on its side, and sure enough – I could detect the same subtle smell – not strong like a bottle of vinegar you’d buy in the store, but unpleasant enough that I didn’t want to sit down with a glass of the stuff.
I imagine somewhere along the way, bacteria entered the wine either before or during bottling. It was good the first six weeks after bottling though. I thought I had taken very good care to ensure sanitization of everything, but I suppose sometimes, it pays to make sure you over sanitize if necessary, and then rinse.
But all is not lost. I’ve ended up with something I can cook with, or perhaps even try making Switchel or Shrub.
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Vinegar!
Let me expound. It should never happen to you. I have “wine makers” from Mediteranean decent telling me about the right way to make wine all the time. They think they are making it the same way their ancestors did. “They never used any preservatives.” Boy are they wrong. If you read all the wine making books, the remedy for almost all problems is……sulphite. AWHHGGG. Get over it!!! For 1000 years they have been using sulphite to keep wine from turning to vinegar. Ferment the wine, put it into vessels to age it, but before you put it into that barrel, lite up that sulphur stick and let the smoke set into the wood.
The #1 enemy is the fruit fly. They live for fermenting fruit. Most of them will carry the acetobacter. When they find your must, they will leave some of the vinegar bacteria behind which will take about one year to turn much of your alcohol into vinegar.
Now, beyond that, independant of fruit flies, a natural by-product of fermenting yeast is acetic acid. But in very, very small amounts. Some wild yeasts produce a significant amount of acetic acid – enough for you to taste the vinegar in the finished product. The solution to this is to use a cultured wine yeast on day one. Grapes will carry wild yeasts in the waxy surface on their skins, which will convert the sugars to alcohol with varying degrees of efficiency. For 75 cents, always use a cultured wine yeast.
Bob Collin
Fruit flies! Ok, now I know what the problem was. I did have a small fruit fly problem back in July after we brought home fruit from the farmer’s market. I made sure everything was extra extra clean and tightly sealed, but I guess somehow some of the buggers managed to get in anyhow.
At least that is reassuring – as I had been ensuring that everything was sanitized before I used any piece of equipment. So, the idea that it could have been from fruit flies is probably correct, Bob. Now I’ll look for a fruit fly preventative measure… I hear Lee Valley has some great fruit fly controlling gizmo.
I’ve made wine for 20 years and a trick I have found, is when the wine is finished furmenting say 10 days or so. I rack off the wine and bring it to a boil! I quickly cover with a good lid to keep from loosing any more alcohol than nessasary. After it cools bottle and keep! This has proved a very good way to stop all proccesses!!!!!
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