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Séb Séb is offline
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Default Potassium sorbate, sweet wines, dessert wines, etc

Sorbate have no disadvantage if use properly. You should note that to
avoid any off-flavors you need to know that the sorbate is dependant of
the alcohol of the wine ( the amount of sorbate decreases as the
alcohol level increases ). So depending on your alc. % you have a
threshold level to respect in order to keep it under the "detectable"
level. Too much sorbate could give a bubble gum taste that is not very
interesting. If added at a good rate, the yeast cells will not be able
to renewed activity under the correct conditions ( alcohol, pH and So2
). As far as I know there is no other way to control a sweet wine from
re-fermentation. Sterile filtration is certainly not available to most
of us.

Dessert wine are normally low in alcoholo ( 7-11% ) but very sweet with
good acidity ( always needed to balance the high sweetness ). A good
example of this is Icewine which is very sweet ( 200gr/L of sugar in
average with 9% acl. ). Botrytis grapes are also good example of this.
They are soo good that they most be drink alone as the dessert with
nothing else ! On the other hand sweet wine can have different level
of alcohol like Sherry ( 15-17 ) or Port ( 20 ) or social wine that can
have only 5-6%. These are normally best drink before the meal of as an
after dinner ( like Port ).

Séb