Red Wine looks Brown

Hi
I noticed my red wine has taken on a brownish look to it, and smells a little funny. I know it has a lot of co2 in it and I need to rack it to a smaller carboy due to head space. Any help on making it red again would be grateful.

If it has lots of headspace, could be oxidation (if it is fermented fully). Can't undo that, to my knowledge.

Cyclman said:

If it has lots of headspace, could be oxidation (if it is fermented fully). Can't undo that, to my knowledge.

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That's what I"m thinking.

Brownish color generally means oxidation happened, and once that happens there isn't a fix for it.

The "funny" smell could be oxidation as well, but it's hard to say for sure without tasting it or seeing it.

ok I got an update I changed the light bulb in the kitchen so its not so dull looking and after realizing the bottle has a blueish tone to it ( Better bottle) I have found that my wine is still in fact red. today I racked it over to a new better bottle , but racked it onto benzonite and campden and sorbate. It has already gotten a lot of lees at the bottom and its only been 30 minutes since I done it. It does still have a funny smell to it though. My newest question is am I on the right track?

winenoob66 said:

ok I got an update I changed the light bulb in the kitchen so its not so dull looking and after realizing the bottle has a blueish tone to it ( Better bottle) I have found that my wine is still in fact red. today I racked it over to a new better bottle , but racked it onto benzonite and campden and sorbate. It has already gotten a lot of lees at the bottom and its only been 30 minutes since I done it. It does still have a funny smell to it though. My newest question is am I on the right track?

Click to expand...

That's a sort of weird addition schedule! Normally, you add sorbate right before bottling, and bentonite to clear the wine, but not together.

What sort of wine are you making?

grape concentrate, I'm new to wine making can ya tell? lol

Adding sorbate + Campden/k-meta while you have lees still dropping will usually mean refermentation is going to be likely in the presence of a fermentable. Typically you want the batch to be free of 90% of the lees before stabilizing with sorbate + Campden; no sediment since last racking for a period of 60 days once wine is degassed and clear is a very good indicator that your batch is ready for bulk aging, or bottling if you choose not to bulk age. Stabilizing would be part of the aging/bottling process.

If it helps, to check for oxidization, put a sample in a clear glass. Tilt the glass upon a white background. You want to look at the tilted liquid where the liquid meets the glass. Look from the inner part of liquid out toward the glass. You should notice the color of your sample, but as it thins toward the glass you notice a change in color. It may appear that there is a crystal clear ring of liquid closest to the glass itself, or the ring could be tinted any shade of brown. The crystal clear ring, or halo, means no oxidization while a shade of brown means oxidization is present. You may notice at wine tastings people tilting the glass and holding it against a white piece of paper or white tablecloth, any white background....they are checking for oxidization. If your batch has oxidized there are products on the market to help save your batch, but casein is the simplest in the form of dry milk powder. Treating oxidation is discussed here just scroll down to find it but enjoy the reading as you get there.... http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblog7.asp

Thx Saramc

you can prevent oxidation but you cannot reverse the effects it has on a wine. You may be able to keep it from oxidizing more but there is no reverse effect you can perform.