Hi,
I'm just getting back into the winemaking hobby after being out of it for some years (since mid 1990's).
I'm looking through some past notes about a gooseberry wine I made. I noted that about 2 days into fermentation in the demijon, the smell coming through the airlock had an odd "planty" / "green" / "sappy" smell, and didn't smell much like gooseberries! The gooseberries I used were fresh from a fruit & veg shop, not tinned. When I've made wine out of various other fruits/juices (apricots, blackberries, grapefruit) it's usual for me that only a few days into fermentation you can still smell a good hint of the fruit you started from, but I didn't get that with the gooseberries. I did make the note during bottling it that "it might be drinkable one day, if lucky", but I don't recall exactly what the gooseberry wine tasted like after maturing - I think it was drinkable eventually, but not my favourite.
My question is really, is this normal for gooseberry wine? Did something go wrong? What is the source of that odd smell that I can only describe as "planty" / "green" / "sappy"?
Gooseberries seem like they would be a good fruit for winemaking, but I'm reluctant to use them again from this past experience, unless I can figure out if something went wrong and what to correct.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm just getting back into the winemaking hobby after being out of it for some years (since mid 1990's).
I'm looking through some past notes about a gooseberry wine I made. I noted that about 2 days into fermentation in the demijon, the smell coming through the airlock had an odd "planty" / "green" / "sappy" smell, and didn't smell much like gooseberries! The gooseberries I used were fresh from a fruit & veg shop, not tinned. When I've made wine out of various other fruits/juices (apricots, blackberries, grapefruit) it's usual for me that only a few days into fermentation you can still smell a good hint of the fruit you started from, but I didn't get that with the gooseberries. I did make the note during bottling it that "it might be drinkable one day, if lucky", but I don't recall exactly what the gooseberry wine tasted like after maturing - I think it was drinkable eventually, but not my favourite.
My question is really, is this normal for gooseberry wine? Did something go wrong? What is the source of that odd smell that I can only describe as "planty" / "green" / "sappy"?
Gooseberries seem like they would be a good fruit for winemaking, but I'm reluctant to use them again from this past experience, unless I can figure out if something went wrong and what to correct.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
