My red goosegog wine has lost its colour

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sarah77

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Every year I make green gooseberry sparkling wine which is always a big hit. I had some spare goosegogs in the freezer (red and green) so I thought it would be a really good idea to try a rosé goosegog sparkling wine following my normal recipe.

When I added the citric acid, pectolase and campden tablet to the fruit it lost its lovely red colour! I accept (grudgingly) that there is nothing I can do to retrieve the colour for this wine, but I don't want it happening in the future.

Any ideas what caused the loss of colour?

Many thanks,
 
I think it could be the pectolase too, don't reds and rose wines get their colour from the fruit skins? If so the pectolase is designed to break down the cell walls in plants so it could well destroy the colour too... Or I could be talking complete gibberish, but I don't see any reason why you can't restore the colour with a drop of red grape concentrate or even food dye for that matter. Sorry I can't be of more help.
 
Yes, I've had the same experience with Rhubarb wine, its the pectolase. The only remedy - and the one I used - is to put a few drops of cotchenile (Sp???) into the wine to give it back some colour.
 
Campden tablets will strip a red of its colour too - i had a pomegranete and added campdens to kill anything before fermentation with my own yeast and the campdens completely stripped all the colour from the juice. Its also done the same to a strawberry i just sulphated on racking so need to add food colouring to bring it back to red from golden colour.
 
chojo said:
I think it could be the pectolase too, don't reds and rose wines get their colour from the fruit skins? If so the pectolase is designed to break down the cell walls in plants so it could well destroy the colour too... Or I could be talking complete gibberish, but I don't see any reason why you can't restore the colour with a drop of red grape concentrate or even food dye for that matter. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Click to expand...

i think red has the skins on yes, but rosé is red with the skins removed by default. not the way we make it with cranberry juice etc XD
 
Rose is/can be done in a few ways. Suppose the most obvious is that the juice is left with the skins until the colour is what the producer requires, then the juice is taken off and fermented as normal in another tank to finish. In effect same as red wine just not as red. :lol:

Seems the "best" is to allow the juice to flow out over the skins and collect the coloured juice. This is supposed to make a better Rose.

To get colour from gooseberry's I would have thought that even leaving the skins on all the time would have produced a pale rose. They are not all the dark.
 
sarah77 said:
When I added the citric acid, pectolase and campden tablet to the fruit it lost its lovely red colour! I accept (grudgingly) that there is nothing I can do to retrieve the colour for this wine, but I don't want it happening in the future.

Any ideas what caused the loss of colour?
Click to expand...
It was the Campden, and the only way to get the blush back is to add a drop of food colouring.

Same thing has happened to me with rhubarb wine.
 
Many thanks for all your advice. I hadn't thought of adding a bit of red grape concentrate to restore the blush colour, so i might give that a try.

Will keep in mind about the campden tablets having this effect when I make rhubarb wine later this month.

Cheers
 
The food dye with the impossible spelling quoted earlier is the blood of a species of beetle and is probably now a banned substance! Apparantly the French have been known to use elderberries to make a rose from white wine. Adding dried elderberries after the event would do the trick, but Ribena would be more convenient. It would add a bit of sweetness, but as it contains preservatives, there would be no risk of restarting fermentation.
 
Cochineal would make it vegetarian unfriendly

As mentioned, it is a crushed female insect, don't think it's been banned, as it is probably one of the most popular food additves, such a pain with swmbo being a veggie, anything orange or red has to be checked straight away!!
 
it's a powder from under the wings isn't it? same thing they use in tikka.

i think morrison's do all natural food colourings madrik, have a look in there!
 
Not seen it on the shelves for many years, but there's nothing like it for a decent red colour. Red cabbage might be worth a try. It leaves a purple stain but turns red in the presence of acid and can be used as an acid indicator because of that. Veggie friendly, but it is said that cabbages scream when ripped out of the ground and savaged with a knife.
 
tonyhibbett said:
Not seen it on the shelves for many years, but there's nothing like it for a decent red colour. Red cabbage might be worth a try. It leaves a purple stain but turns red in the presence of acid and can be used as an acid indicator because of that. Veggie friendly, but it is said that cabbages scream when ripped out of the ground and savaged with a knife.
Click to expand...

There are vegetarian alternatives out there, swmbo had some red food colouring for her cake making, so she found it.

Remember Cochineal could be hidnig behind it's e number E120, them jam pots by Hartleys? Silly thing is, they don't contain gelatine, but some contain the colouring.

I would also go with the grape juice, although would check the additives to see if they cheat and 'colour' it

The only wine I have done that seems to have kept is colour so far is my Coffee Wine, it is still Jet Black after fermenting and one racking, hope it stays that way, would be great for Goths :D
 

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