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Right, we have just started making wine after a couple of successful goes at beer. Problem is we got a kit and followed all the instructions, it has just finished the clearing stage and it looks good in the glass, the instructions said to bottle it and leave it between 3 and 6 months. Just before bottling it i thought i would give it a try as it smelt good, but it had a strange taste, kinda a bit vinegary. is this normal? should i bottle it up? or start again? i thought this meant it was infected, but i dont want to get rid if it might be all right... anyone know?

cheers

Most of my country wine have started of tasting somewhat bitter and one or two I suppose a little vinegary, but after a couple of months and a little further tasting they had settled down quite a bit.
I'd try maturing in in bulk for as couple of months and then tasting it. you have nothing to loose this way.

I'm sure I read somewhere that home wines tend to change taste subtley every three months; I do remember finding some tomato wine in the back of the cupboard that had tasted a bit flat and watery, and three years later when I found them it tasted like good sherry!

Having said that, if those horrid barflies have got to it apparently they have a bacteria they carry that turns the wine to vinegar, really the only way to see that I know is to wait and see. If worse comes to it at least you'll have someit to put on your chips! Personally I'd probably leave it in a spare demijohn at back of cupboard and comeback later to it, but that's only because I have more spare demijohns than wine bottles!

Vinegary is not good.

It does usually mean acetic acid bacteria has got into the system somewhere. Usually due to something not being sterelised or the wine left with out an airlock and open to the air.

However your description lacks the "smells" element, quite often you smell it rather than taste it. So you could just have young wine thats a bit "rough", hence storage. You can speed up maturation by the use of glycerine, this is well used in industry, but don't do as the Austrian's did and use the cheaper substitute ethylene glycol (anti freeze) which will kill you!.

If you do have vinegar you should also get a film across the top of the wine which does not break up on shaking and drops in a whole sheet.
You could let it fully convert and produce wine vinegar, or if it isn,t too bad you can kill it off with camden tablets and blend it into your next batch. Use of potassium carbonate can reduce the effect as well.

I can't help you I'm afraid! If only I were closer I could certainly come help you do some tasting...............I'd like that!!

"Vinegary" is, as mentioned, bad. Homemade wines do taste different to commercial ones, and a slight bitter taste should not be confused with vinegar. My advice is to leave it and hope for the best, and next time try to make wine from scratch, instead of expensive, and inferior kits.

It won't be 'infected'. At the worst you will have winefly and have ended up with quite a lot of red wine vinegar. But home brew is always best left for a while - give it the full 6 months then see what it tastes like. If it is still vinegary then whoops, but young wines never taste good.

This is why I prefer to make wines from fruits and flowers - not much inital lay out to cry about if it goes wrong.