Floating sediment in bottled wine

My first wine recipe is an Italian wine, Amarone from the WineExpert recipe kit. I followed the directions on the recipe and racked when instructed while basing each racking on the specific gravities detailed by the recipe. When I bottled the wine it looked crystal clear. After a month of aging in the bottles, the bottles of wine have floating sediment in them.

Since this was my first experience making wine, I didn’t do any type of filtering of the wine when racking or bottling. The wine doesn’t look cloudy, it just has floating stuff in it which wasn’t there when I initially bottled the wine. Is this sediment normal or did something happen to the wine? Can I fix the sediment issue given the wine is now in bottles? Should I have aged the wine longer in the glass carboy even though the recipe was followed?

My wife said we could just filter it when we go to drink it but I don’t know. Should I open a bottle and taste it?

Thank you for any insight and help you can offer me.

Dave

Is there any chance that the floaties might be small pieces of cork? Some corkers do not work well inserting dry corks and small pieces of cork can flake off into your wine.

This sediment is more then likily resedue from the sugars. It would probably benefited from another racking prior to bottling. I have had this in several of my first wines and have gotten away from it by using sparkolode before bottling wether the wine is clear or not. It has not effected the taste of any of my wine. Good luck

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:? +1[quote=“Baratone Brewer”][quote=“Abrnth3”]This sediment is more then likily resedue from the sugars.[/quote]
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I have no idea what residuals from the sugars are, but the chunks falling off the cork could be what you’re seeing. That would be good. It could also be something growing in there. That would be bad. How was your sanitation with the bottles and corks?

It could also be clumped sediment that didn’t have time to settle out before you bottled. In general, you can never go wrong by bulk aging longer than the instructions suggest. They write those to allow people to drink the wine in the shortest possible time, which is different than what should be done to get the wine to the best possible quality.

You should ALWAYS taste the wine to help evaluate what should be done. Open a bottle and see if there are any off flavors. Hopefully you tasted a bit before you bottled so you can tell the difference between it being very young vs developing off flavors.

I appreciate all the responses. Here are some more details:

I washed then sanitized my bottles and rinsed them before bottling the wine. I did not wash and sanitize the corks. I simply opened the sealed package and began using them. I read conflicting information suggesting sanitizing and not sanitizing corks. The corks are not the synthetic type however they are number 8 and I read that to store wine for long periods of time a number 9 quality cork is better.

The floating sediment is actually settled on the bottom of the bottles. I originally thought they were floating because the bottles were stored on their sides and when I moved them the sediment could be seen throughout the wine. I then stored one upright and observed the sediment is on the bottom of the bottles.

I think because the wine wasn’t kept in the carboy for a longer period of time then what was put on the recipe, this could be more fallout from the wine clarifying process. This seems to be the most likely answer.

I did taste the wine throughout each stage of the wine making process, the taste was good with no off taste. Of course the full flavor would be better with age, I hope. I just love wine so any chance of taste testing is always an opportune moment for me to indulge.

I hope this added information can help.

I have another question, can I open the bottles and put it back into the carboy to age for a longer period of time provided I clean and sanitize the carboy? If so what do I need to do and how long should I leave the wine in this state? Also, should I top of the wine in the carboy and if so with what?

Thank you all!
Dave

+1 on the racking another time before bottleing. I also have had this same problem and i myself seem to believe its probably resisdual sugars. Especialy if u didnt invert the sugar. But rest asure my friend i know we all wanna make mirror polished wine but it want affect the taste.

[quote=“Wine Brewer”]I have another question, can I open the bottles and put it back into the carboy to age for a longer period of time provided I clean and sanitize the carboy? If so what do I need to do and how long should I leave the wine in this state? Also, should I top of the wine in the carboy and if so with what?
Dave[/quote]
This would bring oxidation issues. I would just let it ride. Since it is sinking its more than likely sediment that has made its way through.

Sugar residue again?:?

Not sure residual sugars are a problem. Sedimentation is just a natural part of the process. Was it the new Amarone kit with skins, or the older one without? Both could get you the sediment, but the new skins kits really take a while to clear and create a huge amount of sediment.

If you can live with a little sediment and just decant the wine I’d have to go with keeping it in there. Opening up the bottles, pouring them out and rebottling is definately a lot of churning up. It likely would not spoil the wine straight off, but I imagine it would shorten the lifespan through oxydation. If you plan on keeping it around for a while I’d be carefull woth that.

My store actually deals with winex almost exclusively. And what I can tell you about the instructions on most kits is that their timeframe is very optimistic. We get all our wines bottled one week later than suggested, and we filter them all to get there.

In future, you could easily rack at least one extra time and let sit a month or 2 extra before bottling for less sediment. The kits are designed for bottle aging primarily, but a few extra months in a carboy would not have much negative effect, assuming you store it pretty well. I don’t even bother topping mine up for that little extra time.

I have mucked one batch up so bad that I had to put every bottle through a coffee filter before drinking it. I don’t imagine yours is that bad is it?

Thank you for the reply Brew Meister Smith.

My bottles don’t have a lot of sediment, I was just surprised there was any because when I bottled there was none. If I stand them up for a little while the sediment falls to the bottom of the bottle, you cannot even see it on the bottom. I will simply leave it alone, put it in the notes of my first experience and do it better next time given all of the great advice I have received here.

Thank you and all the others who have provided great insight and information!

Dave

If you used Bordeaux style bottles they were actually specifically designed to decant from sediment. As long as you don’t jostle the bottle about too much, the grit should be at the bottom by the time you are finishing the bottle. Pour off the end gently, trying to keep the dregs in the shoulder. Unless you pour everything out at the end, you likely will not even notice anything. And even if you do pour out the dregs, it will only be in the last swig of the last glass of wine. But that last swig will be a doozy.