Jack wrote:
> Hi folks -
>
> A strawberry, started in June 06, racked several times, filtered and
> bottled July 07, sg 1.006.
>
> Yesterday, opened a couple and they were quite sparkling. Tasted good,
> though.
>
> 3 bottles left, and I'd like to keep them for a year or two to see how
> they mature.
>
> What should I do to get rid of the fizz?
>

Would you consider opening the bottle and put it in the fridge for a day
before drinking it?

This will let the carbon dioxide escape, without losing too much of the
fresh flavor of the strawberry wine.

This carbonation may have occurred because the wine finished fermenting
in the bottle (bottled at sg 1.006 is not quite dry).
Did you do sterile filtration (less than 0.5 micron pore size filter)?
If so, then either somehow some of the yeast got around the filter, or
else the wine got re-inoculated from stray yeast in your 'winery'.
Did you do sorbate addition?
Both sterile filtration and sorbate addition minimize in-the-bottle
fermentation.

Another source of carbonation in-the-bottle is malolactic fermentation
occurring after bottling. Strawberries have low (typically about 0.1%
by weight) malic acid content, so it could contribute to minor
carbonation if MLF occurred in the bottle. If you add an acid mixture
(tartaric-citric-malic blend) to adjust your acidity, you increase the
malic acid content. Also, if you use grape juice in your recipe, you
bring along the malic acid from the grapes. Both can result in
uncontrolled in-the-bottle malolactic fermentation. You can induce MLF
in strawberry wine by adding ML bacteria just like you would do for
grape based wine.

Gene