Looks like mold, can it be saved?

[Srimmey]

I finally got out of the house and hung out with some friends last night who were very excited to show me their wine making experiment. When we opened up the cabinet we all got hit with a little surprise. A white film/cap has formed over the top of the must.

Nothing was done right with this but who knows, might still turn out ok. They were super excited about it because they grew their own grapes, smashed em down and everything. Vine to wine sort of fun.

Anyways, they are bringing it over today. We are going to rerack it off the gunk, get a gravity reading on it and try to restart fermentation. I smelled it last night and it still smells like lightly fermented grapes, no real off flavors on the nose… yet

 

[Srimmey]

We racked it off today and did a tasting, the flavor was simple and a bit flat but not bad. It needs a lot of body to even out. Here are my notes, please feel free to advise!

Heather’s wine

Approximate SG of grape juice 1.052

OG estimated with added sugar 1.076 to 1.08

FG = .990

ABV = 11.3% (OG - FG) * 131.25

Reracked on 10/29/22. Added oak and pectin enzymes

Plan to stabilize and back sweeten in 2-4 weeks, rerack and age for 3 months.

Bottle in March

 

[IslandLizard]

Nice experiment, yes! And you made wine.

That white cap on top of your wine is called a pellicle. It's often made by wild yeasts that normally live on the skin of the grapes, but also inside blemished grapes. It's harmless, and may even return later on.
Did you use any sulfite when you made the must? Sulfiting helps keeping wild yeasts at bay, so the yeast you pitched will ferment your wine, suppressing wild yeasts from participating in the fermentation.

It's generally recommended to add a little bit of sulfite each time you rack your wine, to prevent oxidation. That is, unless you don't want to use sulfites for whatever reason; some people are even allergic to them. I'm not sure there are suitable alternatives.

I see what looks like quite a few whole grapes and large bits of pulp still in your carboy. Didn't they get crushed? Next time make sure they all get crushed well, if you want wine from them.

When racking the (mostly) clear wine off the top into another vessel it's recommended to use vessels such as carboys or (large) jugs that will be nearly filled to the top, so the leftover headspace is very small. General rule for "clearing vessels," leave about 1 inch of headspace under the bung, for expansion.

 

[Srimmey]

I was just helping recover a project that she was willing to dump but she will rack it to a 3 gallon carboy soon (2-3 weeks).

My suggestion was to stabilize with campden tablets and meta k when we rerack to a smaller vessel. Maybe even add some marbles or something to reduce head space.

 

[Coffee49]

Experiments are the fun part of wine making, reracking into a vessel with little headspace and adding some campden or bisulfite and waiting 3 months will surprise the wine taster when ready to bottle