funny wine

[bubble]

I've made some (3 gallons) parsnip and ginger wine my notes are pretty rubbish but it had about 1100g cane sugar to every 4.5l plus presumably a little sugar from the parsnips, lemons etc. Its now dry (0.995) a bit cloudy but has this really funny taste quite chemical having read about a bit I wonder if its acetaldehyde. Apparently it should taste like sherry well it doesn't taste very much like sherry but its certainly that kind of flavour. Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

[oldbloke]

Dunno about 'should taste like sherry' - I expect parsnip to be a dry white. Mine tastes like sherry coz I used brown sugar and/or it got oxidised a bit. Two things I'll avoid next time I make some. If it's still cloudy you don't really know what it'll taste like when it's finished.

 

[bubble]

yeah I wasn't very clear, aldehydes make wine taste like sherry apparently, the wine isn't supposed to but it does.

Seeing as its already dry should I rack it add a campden tab and cool it to see if it clears without finings? Or is there something I can do to get rid of the aldehyde flavour?

 

[Moley]

How long has this been going and can I assume that it's now in three one gallon demijohns, filled up to the base of the necks?

It could be that you are tasting aldehydes because the yeasties haven't quite finished their job, so subject to question 1 you might care to leave it for another week before racking.

Parsnip is a long-term wine so finings shouldn't be necessary, just patience. However, there can be problems with clarity, did you use amylase in your recipe?

 

[bubble]

Hi Moley,

Its been going since late march, its in 3 demijohns filled up to shoulder, no amylase in recipe. Is it likely that there could be a starch haze that doesn't clear when its finished?