Can I use sodium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate together before bottling?

Question

I had fermented mango wine weeks back. After a week I did my first racking to remove pulp. The Brix value is not moving down so assuming fermentation is over, I'm planning to bottle it. Initially, after a week, it was very sour then sourness got reduced and it was tasting bitter. Now it tastes flat.

Can I add sweetened, thinned homemade mango juice to give it a flavour?

Also, can I add metabisulfite and sorbate together? I haven't used any of them yet.

If I can use them together how much should I use for approximately 3-3.5 litres of wine with back sweetening?

How should I use them?

Answer 1

Not only can you, but you should! Especially if you sweeten it.

It effectively can kill all the life in a wine, which improves stability.

On the other hand, if you want effervescence, or a small secondary fermentation such as in some ciders/apple wines (malo-lactic "fermentation", actually with bacteria not yeasts!), complete sterilization can be undesirable. But it sounds like not so in your case.

Warning

If you decide to backsweeten with something fermentable (mango juice) it's imperative you use meta and sorbate, in the appropriate doses. Otherwise, you'll make a huge mess, and it could be dangerous.

Another option is to sweeten with xylitol - which has no aftertaste and is not fermentable (unlike most other sugars). It works a treat if you like a fruit wine just off-dry, but gets less good (and more expensive) the sweeter you want to go in my opinion.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Yes, you can add them together.

Use 1/4 teaspoon per five gallons to add 50 ppm. Can throw juice, metabisulfite, sorbate and bottle.