Is degassing wine really necessary?

Last year (2016) I made a small batch of wine from my own grapes. I started out mostly ignorant of most things regarding wine making (I had already been homebrewing AG since 2015), and what I read confused me more.

So I had this thing of "f**k this", I will start with it and see what I can do. So the only things I bought were a bag of wine yeast and a bottle of pectinase enzyme. All the rest I had from brewing. The only advice I followed was from a blog, where the writer advised to store the wine cool in order to clear it.

Which is what I did, and in March I had a really nice wine, which I then already bottled, being ignorant of the fact most wines are kept over summer. However, tannins had dropped out beautifully, and it was perfect. I also did not add sulphite, being ignorant of the issue. There were only six bottles, and we drank them all.

So, there was indeed one thing, and that was that it was not degassed. However, I get the impression that this issue is really exaggerated on the web. There is no fizz or sparkle, just a light taste of something that you know is carbon dioxide on the palate. And after five minutes after being poured out is has mostly disappeared.

So why do people whisk their wine? Does their wine really contain that much gas (which for me would be the levels of Lambrusco), or is it just because "reasons"?

Would my wine have been mostly degassed because of the racking before bottling?

Topic degassing homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

I don't whisk my wines, I just poor them from primary to secondary and let them stand sufficiently before bottling. Needing to de-gas a wine, IMHO, is just a sign it is being bottled too early. That or one was mistakenly using a champagne recipe!

1
answered at

I would say that degassing is a safe step to better ensure a good final quality of your wine. I just finished brewing my first 6 gallon batch of Cabernet Sauvignon from a wine kit. There was so much carbonation in the fermentation that it actually foamed over the topped when I racked it over to age with oak chips. Thankfully I was racking over in the bathroom so that I could get it in the bathtub. After the aging I racked it over to clarify the wine and performed the degassing with a degassing wand from NorthernBrewer hooked up to a power drill. Despite all those efforts, my final bottled wine still has carbonation as evident in the notorious metallic taste as well as mild bubbling when shaken aggressively. I plan to never skip degassing after this experience and plan to definitely monitor conditions to reduce the effects of CO2 on future batches.

1
answered at

I've had this problem with some of my white wines. Red wine not really since aging in the barrel pretty much gets rid of any CO2. I just had a white wine from Chateau St. Michelle in which I wasn't expecting a little fizz, but it was welcome. Carbonation can take the edge off high acid wines (aka Champagne). It's considered a flaw in Red wines but acceptable in white.

For the home winemaker, I suggest warming up your storage vessel to room temperature for a few weeks to help with degassing or any residual fermentation to finish. It's also possible the MLF happened in the bottle but you won't know that if you haven't done a test before and after bottling.

If it bugs you, just pour your wine in a glass vigorously and let it sit for a while to get rid of the gas.

In the future, racking, vacuuming, whisking or whatever before you bottle can get rid of it. If you do a bentonite fining to clear the wine, the clay acts as a nucleation point and will get rid of much of the gas.

1
answered at

I think it's mostly for yeast health and that most wines have no carbonation by style. So even slight bottle pop or bubbles are considered a defect.

But cO2 in wine can also change the flavor and aroma giving if the impression of metallic or being overly acidic.

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