Tips on How to Prevent Wine Spoilage

After all your diligent work in creating your wine, the last thing you need is any signs of wine spoilage in your batch. Spoilage can ruin not only the flavour of the wine, but also its clarity and overall quality. When you make wine on a commercial scale to sell to various customers, spoilage can dramatically decrease your profits. For all of these reasons, you should know the signs of this problem, various causes for it and how to prevent it from occurring in your facility.

Signs of Wine Spoilage

Below are some of the signs of wine spoilage to be aware of:

• A noticeable brown colour to the wine
• Mouldy taste
• Vinegar or acidic taste Incomplete seals on the bottles of wine
• A mildewy, musty or sulfur aroma coming from the wine
• An unwanted biofilm on the wine

Causes for Wine Spoilage

• Over-oxidation is one of the causes of wine spoilage. While a certain amount of oxidation has to happen during the winemaking process, if the wine is overly exposed to oxygen it can cause spoilage to occur. The colour of the wine will be one of the clues to this with both red and white varieties. Red wines can even turn brown and whites can turn as dark as gold-brown.
• Another cause of spoilage can be the development of Brettanomyces in your facility. This is a type of yeast that has the potential to ruin your wine since it produces volatile phenol compounds. The telltale sign of this cause is a barnyard aroma.
• Storing wine at improper temperatures also can cause the wine to spoil.
• Improper sealing of the wine
  
  How to Prevent Wine Spoilage

The main ways to prevent spoilage of wine from the above causes are:

• Monitor each type of wine that you produce to ensure that it receives the proper level of oxidation for the desired outcome.
• Clean and sanitise your production and storage area, bottles, barrels and equipment with effective methods to eliminate the risk of spoilage from Brettanomyces. Also, certain filtration methods along with addressing pH and SO2 levels, and residual sugars can aid in controlling this yeast.
• Store the wine at temperatures of five-degrees to 15-degrees Celsius to prevent heat exposure from ruining the wine.
• Seal the wine bottles securely so no air or bacteria can enter to taint the wine.

For additional tips on preventing wine spoilage, consult with Grapeworks Consumables. Our company specialises in winemaking supplies ranging from yeast to equipment and machinery.