Taste issue: Help

OK, so I made a batch of wine from Lodi Gold Juice from my LHBS. I followed the directions to a tee, and have racked this wine 3 times now. My gravity reading has been stable at 0.996, but upon tasting I am getting a weird aftertaste that I'm having trouble identifying.

I checked out Jack Keller's wine website and read about imparted flavors in finished wine and its still hard for me to identify. Here is kind of what I taste:

Flat taste and sort of vegetal. Its weird though. My dad and I have made wine before and it always seems the white wines that we make always have that flavor and same with the red's. Only exception is that after aging the reds for about 8 months to a year the flavor goes away and the wine is good.

Observations: Generally clear in appearance and no tell-tale signs of any lacto infections or any sanitation issues. All went according to plan as far as I could see.

I just clarified with metabisulfite and added campden tablets to this wine. I read that I should perform an acid test, but don't have a pH meter to use as of yet. Could I use those test strips to get a general idea?

Also is it also possible that because it is down to 0.996 that i should be back sweetening a bit? Its a Voigneier, and i thought those wines are supposed to be mildly sweet (between a pinot gris and a chardonnay)

Any help would be grateful.

You might want to think about slightly back sweetening to balance out the wine.

Flat tasting can be too little acid. Take out a glas and try adding some. Then tast it. Same goes for sweetening it. Try changing it a glass full at a time. Not the whole batch!
If all else fails try aging it longer. That fixes many things.
I don't do kits, but I remember a coment being made about the "kit wine flavor" that all kits have. Maybe that is what you are tasting.


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.996 is a bit dry for a traditional viognier, stabilize and test with some sugar.

I like mine with just a hint of sweetness.

Thanks for the sanity check. I am definitely tasting that "Wine Kit" flavor. But I'm certain that some sweetening should help balance it out. Im almost 4 months into this Voignier

Bowtiebrewery said:

Thanks for the sanity check. I am definitely tasting that "Wine Kit" flavor. But I'm certain that some sweetening should help balance it out. Im almost 4 months into this Voignier

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But you didn't make a kit wine, you made wine from a bucket of grape juice...

Thought that was considered kit wine... Figured since I didnt step up to actually crushing grapes and what not, it was still a kit. Oh well. I still like brewing beer much better lol. Either way I'll keep doing what I should to make it work.