Muscadine Wine Problem

Made a 5 gallon batch of muscadine wine and followed my LHBS recipe exactly. Tasted my wine on the last racking and it was spot on. My last step was adding isinglass which I did according to the recipe. Tasted again and the wine was gross. So bad in fact that I have pretty much concluded its done for. I was hoping it would not keep the very strange taste it took on after the addition of isinglass and instead age out and be ok. Now it's been almost 4 months and it still has the off flavor. The whole flavor all together taste different and the wine is undrinkable. Anyone else have any issues like this with isinglass ? Is there any hope for this wine or any way to fix this ?

kevinstan said:

Made a 5 gallon batch of muscadine wine and followed my LHBS recipe exactly. Tasted my wine on the last racking and it was spot on. My last step was adding isinglass which I did according to the recipe. Tasted again and the wine was gross. So bad in fact that I have pretty much concluded its done for. I was hoping it would not keep the very strange taste i on after the addition of isinglass and instead age out and be ok. Now it's been almost 4 months and it still has the off flavor. The whole flavor all together taste different and the wine is undrinkable. Anyone else have any issues like this with isinglass ? Is there any hope for this wine or any way to fix this ?

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Walk through your steps as you added it.

How did you mix it, did it clear, how long did it sit on sediments, did you top up your carboy, how much isinglass did you add?

It is a fining agent, so if you tasted after you added, I would expect it would taste a bit strange.

Yes, did wait to let the isinglass work, then rack off it? If not then yes, you probally might be tasting it. If you did wait, and rack off the sediment, THEN tasted it, you probally have one of the problems Nova listed and should go back through your process looking for the problem. Let us know!

Yes. I let the isinglass clear then racked. It only set on sediment for about 28 days. I used the right amount and I topped off when I racked it. I didn't taste it right away, I tasted it days later and it was aweful. Tried it again weeks later and now months later and it's still the same.

Ok, now its tougher because we can't taste it ourselves. Would you say your 'aweful' taste is like...(fill in the blank)

It is a strange sweetness that is very off almost like a chemical sweet. No muscadine flavor at all. I tasted some isinglass by itself just to test it and its very close to the same.

kevinstan said:

It is a strange sweetness that is very off almost like a chemical sweet. No muscadine flavor at all. I tasted some isinglass by itself just to test it and its very close to the same.

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Maybe it was mislabeled and is actually wine conditioner?

No. I have conditioner and its yellow. This was milky white. But it's not a good sweet. It's a nasty not right flavor of sweet.

kevinstan said:

It is a strange sweetness that is very off almost like a chemical sweet. No muscadine flavor at all. I tasted some isinglass by itself just to test it and its very close to the same.

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Pediococcus maybe? This is a bacterial infection that can taste sweet.