Is my wine dead

[MarcusR]

I’m currently making a citrus wine( probably the worst idea) but I thought why not. Right Off the bat things were not what I was expecting, in the primary fermenting bin things were quiet and I had a few temperature issue to begin with but it finally picked up and finished so I transferred to a demijohn and my problems grew worse. I was using a soft rubber bung which didn’t want to stay firmly in the demijohn so I put a rag over the top whilst I waited for a cork bung to turn up. I’ve now fitted the demijohn with the cork bung and airlock but I’m seeing no activity after 72 hours. I have a feeling the wine got to cold in the early stages so the yeast is dead I don’t want to start adding stuff that will taint the wine although it does need to be back sweetened at some point, I thinking about returning it to the fermenting bin adding the desired amount of sugar, getting it back up to blood temperature and re-pitching the yeast wondering if anyone had any advice please?

 

[lumpher]

It's very difficult to kill yeast with cold. People freeze it (properly), and it survives. Most likely the yeast is just hibernating. Move it to a warmer spot and see if anything happens over the course of a couple days. You might also try adding some Yeast Energizer.

 

[D the Catastrophist]

You say in the primary it 'finished'. What do you mean by that? Did it ferment to dry(SG of 1.0 or below)? What are you expecting to happen in secondary? If fermentation is mostly finished, you really won't see much airlock activity, and the secondary will act more as bulk aging and allowing the particulates to settle out, with the airlock serving to keep the pressure from building too high.
Before we can help on If there might be an issue we need more info. What was initial SG and final SG before you transferred? What yeast did you use? What was the temp range you have had it at?