Lesson Learned: When Good Wine Goes Bad

The economics of making wine are pretty good. If I make a 14 gallon demijohn (a type of fermentation vessel) of wine, I'll get about 70 bottles of wine. At 150 bucks or so for grapes (enough to press and fill the demijohn), that's $2.14 a bottle!!!

I've made one or two wines that I would consider on par with a $6 -$8 a bottle wine (Pa. prices). When you realize you can do this, there is every reason to make sure your wine is good. The money you put in isn't a 'large' amount, but who couldn't find another use for $150 or so? If it's your hobby, you probably have to take time away from other things as well. So if you're going to make wine, take care to do it right, so you can fully enjoy the fruits of your labor.

In 2005 I made two wines from grapes: Zinfandel and Sangiovese (Chianti-styled wine). I took good care of both, watching, tasting, racking, making sure everything was perfect. The Zin worried me, didn't develop a lot of flavor at first, and was even a little harsh in late winter. The Sangiovese, however, was delicious right from the start.

My lovely wife, Heidi became pregnant with Giada in late 2005. Spring and Summer of 2006 was busy with preparing our lives, and our home for her arrival. This caused me to do something in haste that I now regret. I racked the wines for the last time in late Spring, and both were coming along nicely. I forgot to 'top off' the Sangiovese.

Oxygen, it would seem, is quite a nasty substance! Cut an apple, leave it out for an hour...see that color? O2 did that. Taking a multivitamin? Does it have 'anti-oxidents' in it? What do you think they're trying to prevent in your body?

What oxygen does to your apple, it did to my Sangiovese. When you rack wine, you have to make sure you leave as little air as possible in the fermentation vessel in order to prevent oxidation. When mid-summer came and I did a final tasting before bottling...well it was a sad moment. The wine was rust colored...it tasted acidic; not vinegar yet, but might as well have been. The wine I was so looking forward to handing out at Giada's birth was rotten.

Fortunately, the Zin was tremendous (in my opinion).

I had 13.5 gallons of bad wine in my cellar. I didn't know what to do. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I left it, with the airlock till this past fall when I needed the demijohn again. Dumping it was easier than I'd expected, but I learned an important lesson: Air+wine=swill.

So far this years wines are still tasty, and haven't been exposed to that much air. I plan to keep it that way. I'll keep you posted on the 2006 Zinfandel (we HAVE to get around to bottling it!) and the 2007 Ruby Cabernet, Zinfandel, Diamond, Chardonnay and table red made from grapes grown in our backyard!