Unpleasant Smell -- HELP!

[TedLarsen]

I'm hardly the most experienced winemaker around, but I have had many successful and delicious batches of wine (mostly reds) and mead in the past 4 years. However, lately I've had a problem cropping up in almost every batch.

The wine is raw but delicious with an appetizing nose when I bottle it. Then, when I open the bottle (usually after at least six months to a year or so of aging), the wine has developed an unpleasant smell -- sometimes almost foul. If I let the wine breathe -- like 24 hours or more! -- the wine is back to delicious. The smell is not quite the same as the famous rhino farts, but it is kind of -- but not exactly -- sulfurous.....

I have no idea what's causing it. I had thought that maybe some star san was clinging to the corks when I would bottle, and maybe that was contaminating it somehow. But the last 50 bottles I bottled, I used Yoopers "humidor method" (which is great, by the way!), but when I opened a Pinot Grigio (which was flat-out delicious already when I bottled it), it had developed the nastiness....and in the case of the Grigio, I opened it after only 3 weeks.

The wines ars not oxidized, and they are clear and gorgeous. And it's not contaminated -- after it breathes, it's really tasty. I'm pretty meticulous about cleaning everything and sanitizing everything. It just has that nose....which will, over the course of several hours, breathe itself away....

Any thoughts at all? Anyone? HELP!

 

[The_Bishop]

Did you sulfite the wine before bottling? If so, how much?

 

[TedLarsen]

I add campden at every other racking. I have not added any sulfite at bottling (or less than a month before bottling). And in the case of the Grigio, it smelled and tasted delicious when I bottled it....

 

[Yooper]

I add campden at every other racking. I have not added any sulfite at bottling (or less than a month before bottling). And in the case of the Grigio, it smelled and tasted delicious when I bottled it....

Ok, sounds like a bottling issue then. How are you preparing your corks, bottles, bottling equipment, etc, and what kind of corks are you buying?

Anything else that we should know? Do you rack to a bottling bucket? Any lees or other types of sediment in the bottle? When do you typically bottle (what age of the wine, how many rackings)?

I know it sounds like we want a ton of information, but without seeing and tasting the wine ourselves, we have to "picture" what happened and what may be going on. I hope you understand!

 

[TedLarsen]

Ok, sounds like a bottling issue then. How are you preparing your corks, bottles, bottling equipment, etc, and what kind of corks are you buying?

Anything else that we should know? Do you rack to a bottling bucket? Any lees or other types of sediment in the bottle? When do you typically bottle (what age of the wine, how many rackings)?

I know it sounds like we want a ton of information, but without seeing and tasting the wine ourselves, we have to "picture" what happened and what may be going on. I hope you understand!

Understood, and glad to provide! I just didn't want to make the original post too long.....

I use used bottles. I rinse them well with a bottle washer when the wine is consumed; and before bottling I wash them again with PBW, and then blast them with Star San and let them dry on a bottle rack.

The corks....nothing special. I buy a bag of them at my LHBS. I used to prepare them by swirling them in StarSan; the last bottling I humidored them. I use a floor corker, and spray the jaws with StarSan (and let them dry) before corking.

I do not usually rack to a bottling bucket. By the time I bottle(usually 10 months to a year after starting a batch), there are usually no lees on the bottom of the carboy. I rack when the lees build up -- probably every 6 weeks or so (after the second racking), and that stretches out every racking. I campden when I rack.

I can't think of anything else pertinent!

 

[Yooper]

Understood, and glad to provide! I just didn't want to make the original post too long.....

I use used bottles. I rinse them well with a bottle washer when the wine is consumed; and before bottling I wash them again with PBW, and then blast them with Star San and let them dry on a bottle rack.

The corks....nothing special. I buy a bag of them at my LHBS. I used to prepare them by swirling them in StarSan; the last bottling I humidored them. I use a floor corker, and spray the jaws with StarSan (and let them dry) before corking.

I do not usually rack to a bottling bucket. By the time I bottle(usually 10 months to a year after starting a batch), there are usually no lees on the bottom of the carboy. I rack when the lees build up -- probably every 6 weeks or so (after the second racking), and that stretches out every racking. I campden when I rack.

I can't think of anything else pertinent!

Sounds like you're doing everything right, and if the wine improves after decanting that means it's not an infection or cork taint.

I'm really puzzled. If the wine tastes great at bottling, and there are no lees present in the carboy, I cannot think of where the off flavor (that then improves) come from. If it was an infection it would get worse, not better, with aging.

Is it possible that you have more than 1/4" of lees before 60 days? I'm grasping at straws here, though, as it sounds like your technique is fine.

 

[TedLarsen]

It >is< possible that is more than 1/4" of lees when I rack. That's the one part I'm not >quite< as stringent about as I should be.

But by the time I'm bulk aging for a longer period of time, there are close to zero lees.

 

[TedLarsen]

A thought just occurred to me. My wine is stored in a musty basement (a situation I'm working to correct, by the way).

The steady temperature is great, but do you think the musty air might be infiltrating slowly and generating this unpleasant nose? That could explain why after enough breathing time in fresher air the wine gets good again. Maybe?

 

[gregbathurst]

Perhaps you have a sensitivity to so2 and this is the smell you are noticing? Some people are very sensitive and if you are adding so2 at each racking the ppm will build up. Maybe you should go easy on the so2 next time, maybe use half the dose you are currently using. That is the only smell I can think of that will dissipate so quickly.