I made a crabapple wine using the recipe on Jack Keller's website two
years ago. I sweetened the wine to taste and adjusted the acid
balance to taste with acid blend. I bottled the wine using Cellar Pro
grade 3 solid corks and let the wine bottle age for one year.

Now most bottles are delightful but about 20% of them are lifeless, no
character and taste like blah alcoholic slightly sour water. I cannot
find any visual difference and do not know what happened?

Any Suggestions?

Thanks,
A. J. Rawls
Anchorage, Alaska, USA

The only thing I could think of would be oxidation due to failed corks. Can
you recognize the taste of an oxidized wine? Is the bland wine a shade
darker than the good wine? (this would be an indication of oxidation. You
might pour a glass of the good wine in an empty wine bottle and cover it to
keep out undesirables but leave it exposed to air. Let it sit for a couple
of weeks and try it. If it tastes more like the bad wine, then it is
oxidation.

Ray

"A. J. Rawls" > wrote in message
...
>I made a crabapple wine using the recipe on Jack Keller's website two
> years ago. I sweetened the wine to taste and adjusted the acid
> balance to taste with acid blend. I bottled the wine using Cellar Pro
> grade 3 solid corks and let the wine bottle age for one year.
>
> Now most bottles are delightful but about 20% of them are lifeless, no
> character and taste like blah alcoholic slightly sour water. I cannot
> find any visual difference and do not know what happened?
>
> Any Suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> A. J. Rawls
> Anchorage, Alaska, USA