#1.....I am pretty new to this....my parents have been making wine for
years,and their wine always had a "taste" to it,regardless of the
variety of grape.I believe it may be from the sorbistat they have
always used to stop their wine. They always liked sweeter wines,but I
like dry wines,so my question is,if I let my wine go completely dry,say
to .995 SG, do I even need to sorbistat it to safely bottle it ? What
if I get to a taste that I like that is higher in sugar...can it be
bottled without treating it with sorbistat? What about sodium
benzoate...does it have a "taste" to it,and how do you use it? My end
objective is to intervene as little as possible when it comes to
additives.Thanx.

"treetoad" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> #1.....I am pretty new to this....my parents have been making wine for
> years,and their wine always had a "taste" to it,regardless of the
> variety of grape.I believe it may be from the sorbistat they have
> always used to stop their wine. They always liked sweeter wines,but I
> like dry wines,so my question is,if I let my wine go completely dry,say
> to .995 SG, do I even need to sorbistat it to safely bottle it ?

No. In fact I highly recommend _against_ it. I don't like the flavor of
sorbate either.

What
> if I get to a taste that I like that is higher in sugar...can it be
> bottled without treating it with sorbistat? What about sodium
> benzoate...does it have a "taste" to it,and how do you use it? My end
> objective is to intervene as little as possible when it comes to
> additives.Thanx.

You certainly should use sulfite in your wine, but that won't prevent
refermentation by itself.

I've never used benzoate, so I don't know if that's a good way to go.
Making sweet wines as an amateur pretty much forces you to one of three
choices:
1) Sorbate/sulfite combo,
2) Maintaining the wine refrigerated after clarification and bottling, and
3) Sterile membrane filtration.

Those are in _increasing_ order of desirability and difficulty. OTOH, if
you really get serious about winemaking I recommend that you pick door #3.
Sterile filtration isn't really all that difficult. It does require some
equipment and a bit of technique though, and the filter media is a bit
pricy - but you can run a _lot_ of wine through a filter cartridge before
you have to replace it if you adequately clarify the wine beforehand so as
to not load the membrane too quickly.

Perhaps I'll write a few chapters on the subject one day when I have time.

Tom S

Thank you for the reply.My interest isn't in making sweet
wines,(prefer dry) as much as it is to make one that won't potentially
turn into a hand grenade after it is bottled.Is this a valid concern
with dry wines? My folks sorbate everything, and I'm guessing that is
the source of the funny taste to most of their wines. I recently made a
kit wine (mezza luna from brew king),and one of the ingredients was
sorbate. I got it really dry,tastes good,etc,but was hesitant to go
against their directions in the use of sorbistat.I understand about the
importantance of using sulfites,just not sure how critical the use of
sorbistat is in dry wines. Thanks again

Sorbate with sulfite prevents wine that has stopped fermenting from
restarting. If this happens in bottle it can turn into a grenade. If there
is no sugar in the wine, then it cannot restart. Therefore there is no
reason to sorbate a dry wine. It cannot turn into a grenade due to
refermenting.

Sulfite by itself and in proper doses is still advisable to give your wine a
long shelf life so it will not oxidize and it can age properly.

Ray

"treetoad" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Thank you for the reply.My interest isn't in making sweet
> wines,(prefer dry) as much as it is to make one that won't potentially
> turn into a hand grenade after it is bottled.Is this a valid concern
> with dry wines? My folks sorbate everything, and I'm guessing that is
> the source of the funny taste to most of their wines. I recently made a
> kit wine (mezza luna from brew king),and one of the ingredients was
> sorbate. I got it really dry,tastes good,etc,but was hesitant to go
> against their directions in the use of sorbistat.I understand about the
> importantance of using sulfites,just not sure how critical the use of
> sorbistat is in dry wines. Thanks again
>