I have a white ring around the neck of my Cabernet. I've read the
archives and the general consensus was to sulfite and top up. My cab
has been topped up pretty well during it aging, about 1/2 below the
bung. I just tested the so2 and pH, it is:

pH 3.17
SO2 40 ppm

This should be sufficient to protect it from mycoderma IMO. I don't
know why I have this. Is it a problem?

I am going to cold stabilize this wine to drop some of the acid out.
A bit tart right now. I've shock sterilized my carbuoys that I am
using for cold stablization. Maybe the cold will knock it back.

What are your collective thoughts?

I had this affliction a few months ago. The consensus was that it was a film
yeast (that is mycoderma, right?) and it generally went away with a couple
rackings and has not reappeared. Of course, I did knock it back a few times
by spritzing with a sulfite solution.

"Dan Emerson" wrote in message
om...
I have a white ring around the neck of my Cabernet. I've read the
archives and the general consensus was to sulfite and top up. My cab
has been topped up pretty well during it aging, about 1/2 below the
bung. I just tested the so2 and pH, it is:

pH 3.17
SO2 40 ppm

This should be sufficient to protect it from mycoderma IMO. I don't
know why I have this. Is it a problem?

I am going to cold stabilize this wine to drop some of the acid out.
A bit tart right now. I've shock sterilized my carbuoys that I am
using for cold stablization. Maybe the cold will knock it back.

What are your collective thoughts?

Well, I'm nothing close to a really experienced winemaker compared to
many on this ng (20 batches over 3 years, just over 1/2 of which were
kits). But I thought I'd toss my personal experiences into the ring
because they seem quite different from all of the posts I keep seeing
on this kind of topic (and that in itself mystifies me).

I've had a bit of a white ring appear on 5 different batches over the
last 2 years. 2 of these were kits, and only 1 of the 5 (one of the
kits) was not completely topped up (that one was gassed with inert
gas). 3 of the 5 batches were good and low pH (mid 3.4's), one of the
5 was extremely low pH (crabapple, below 3.0) and all were well
sulfited prior to the ring appearing and most had extra sulfite added
after (including the spritzing that people recommended). None of
these white rings seemed to get very large (i.e. thick), and none in
any way began to spread across the surface. It really seemed to me
that this was not something that was growing, but rather just some
kind of solid-ish matter that seemed to be bouyant, coming to the
surface and collecting where the surface liquid met the edge of the
vessel. Racking and/or fining always reduced it, sometimes but not
always enough that it seemed to be gone for good.

Anyhow, I've seen no ill effects in any of those wines (other than
forcing me to use more sulfite than I otherwise would) and I've pretty
much convinced myself that what I've seen so far is not at all
harmful. The one time it did not disappear completely from rackings,
I filtered with Buon Vino #2 pads and it hasn't reappeared in the
bottle.

So far this phenomena hasn't appeared on any of my 2003 batches, but
if it does I may just have to buy a cheap microscope and take a closer
look -- and I will also likely set aside a small amount of the
"afflicted" wine in a separate vessel without extra sulfite and a
little more air space, to see if it will actually grow.

Cheers,
Richard

"Patrick McDonald" wrote in message ...
I had this affliction a few months ago. The consensus was that it was a film
yeast (that is mycoderma, right?) and it generally went away with a couple
rackings and has not reappeared. Of course, I did knock it back a few times
by spritzing with a sulfite solution.

"Dan Emerson" wrote in message
om...
I have a white ring around the neck of my Cabernet. I've read the
archives and the general consensus was to sulfite and top up. My cab
has been topped up pretty well during it aging, about 1/2 below the
bung. I just tested the so2 and pH, it is:

pH 3.17
SO2 40 ppm

This should be sufficient to protect it from mycoderma IMO. I don't
know why I have this. Is it a problem?

I am going to cold stabilize this wine to drop some of the acid out.
A bit tart right now. I've shock sterilized my carbuoys that I am
using for cold stablization. Maybe the cold will knock it back.

What are your collective thoughts?

Richard,
I have had somewhat similar occurances sporadically with different
wines. Last year I made a red Zinfandel that had a ring of white material
that I decided was not Mycomderma. I still dont know what it was, but I do
know that Mycoderma will spread acrossed the surface of the wine and look
like soap scum on hard water that is linked together.
I'm not sure what was in my wine, but I did not over react to it, and
all turned out fine. My motto is to top up once fermentation is complete,
and to sulphite to proper levels as soon as it is possible. (in that case
after MLF)
John Dixon

"Richard Kovach" wrote in message
om...
Well, I'm nothing close to a really experienced winemaker compared to
many on this ng (20 batches over 3 years, just over 1/2 of which were
kits). But I thought I'd toss my personal experiences into the ring
because they seem quite different from all of the posts I keep seeing
on this kind of topic (and that in itself mystifies me).

I've had a bit of a white ring appear on 5 different batches over the
last 2 years. 2 of these were kits, and only 1 of the 5 (one of the
kits) was not completely topped up (that one was gassed with inert
gas). 3 of the 5 batches were good and low pH (mid 3.4's), one of the
5 was extremely low pH (crabapple, below 3.0) and all were well
sulfited prior to the ring appearing and most had extra sulfite added
after (including the spritzing that people recommended). None of
these white rings seemed to get very large (i.e. thick), and none in
any way began to spread across the surface. It really seemed to me
that this was not something that was growing, but rather just some
kind of solid-ish matter that seemed to be bouyant, coming to the
surface and collecting where the surface liquid met the edge of the
vessel. Racking and/or fining always reduced it, sometimes but not
always enough that it seemed to be gone for good.

Anyhow, I've seen no ill effects in any of those wines (other than
forcing me to use more sulfite than I otherwise would) and I've pretty
much convinced myself that what I've seen so far is not at all
harmful. The one time it did not disappear completely from rackings,
I filtered with Buon Vino #2 pads and it hasn't reappeared in the
bottle.

So far this phenomena hasn't appeared on any of my 2003 batches, but
if it does I may just have to buy a cheap microscope and take a closer
look -- and I will also likely set aside a small amount of the
"afflicted" wine in a separate vessel without extra sulfite and a
little more air space, to see if it will actually grow.

Cheers,
Richard

"Patrick McDonald" wrote in
message ...
I had this affliction a few months ago. The consensus was that it was a
film
yeast (that is mycoderma, right?) and it generally went away with a
couple
rackings and has not reappeared. Of course, I did knock it back a few
times
by spritzing with a sulfite solution.

"Dan Emerson" wrote in message
om...
I have a white ring around the neck of my Cabernet. I've read the
archives and the general consensus was to sulfite and top up. My cab
has been topped up pretty well during it aging, about 1/2 below the
bung. I just tested the so2 and pH, it is:

pH 3.17
SO2 40 ppm

This should be sufficient to protect it from mycoderma IMO. I don't
know why I have this. Is it a problem?

I am going to cold stabilize this wine to drop some of the acid out.
A bit tart right now. I've shock sterilized my carbuoys that I am
using for cold stablization. Maybe the cold will knock it back.

What are your collective thoughts?