Velcorin: downsides other than image?

I searched through other threads and found a lot of good information on Velcorin, but I didn’t see this question addressed. I’m wondering if there are any potential downsides to the use of Velcorin. Obviously it’s quite toxic, so it has a bad image among some people, but I’m wondering about actual effects on the wine rather than public perception. Is there anything that can go wrong? Can the use of Velcorin alter the aroma or flavor/taste of the wine? Thanks in advance.

Never had any sensory issues with it. It breaks down to methanol and CO2, and the dosage rate is only 200ppm max, so not anything enough to notice. It breaks down in about 4 hours.

As with anything that does in, it will have an effect on the wine. That being said, it is usually positive in this case. Having tasted trials from Scott Labs with 5+ year old samples- those treated with Velcorin had no noticeable Brett characters. Now these were samples that were below threshold, but had some 4EP/4EG- the Velcorin stabilized it, the untreated had a bit of a bloom and went above threshold.

As said above, it breaks down to roughly equal parts of MetOH and CO2- its biggest uses are in bottled water, “fresh” fruit juices… Wine is just the most recent.

Its a pretty dangerous product to be around if anything goes wrong and its not cheap. The MSDS sheet has a lot of good info that should be reviewed prior to use by all involved in bottling.
http://www.scottlab.com/uploads/documents/downloads/87/Velcorin%20MSDS%206-07.pdf

A good crossflow or other sterile filtration should clean up any contaminated wine for bottling. It is claimed that filtration does not have a sensory effect on wine. I disagree with that for both filtration and Velcorin injection. It appears to mostly be used on unfiltered wines as a extra precautionary measure against spoilage while keeping true to the claim unfiltered.

Its used in a lot of beverages that have sugar and not required to be listed on the ingredients list. To avoid it in non alcoholic beverages you have to dig deep to find out who uses it and who does not. People I know who work mobile booting line mentioned at least 24 hours prior to ingestion of treated product. It also was tested on animals (Dogs/Rats) per the MSDS.

Certainly good to review the MSDS for any chemical you’re using. http://consumer.kpmindustries.com/documents/MSDS%20EN%20Play%20Sand.pdf (if not handled properly, a carcinogen- can cause lung cancer!) In this particular instance, Scott requires a training for all who use it- before they will sell it to you. That, and a $60,000 dosing machine- which certainly does not make it for the casual user. After the initial cost, it’s surprisingly cheap at the proper dosing rate - max 200ppm - about $0.15 a case - a penny a bottle…

When Wine Can Kill You... Literally. People can do what they choose within the limit of the law, would not take that right away- just feel both sides should be represented.

When handled correctly, like any chemicals, it is safe. Having run many wines for Methanol (the biggest wine change post dosing), the highest levels have been in native ferments, followed by velcorin dosed wines, followed by ferments with commercial yeast being the lowest. Those are not definitive, but were the general trend.

I’m personally not advocating for it- I have used it for clients, but have not used it for my own wines. I share your bend Joe, and prefer to do less.

But I’m new to the party here, and just reread most of the discussions on velcorin. I’ll end there… Sorry deadhorse

Thanks for the responses. This is about what I expected based on the reading I’ve been doing. I’m glad the cost factor was discussed. Joe is the first person I’ve encountered who thinks there is an aromatic impact (besides preventing brett bloom), but I’m not surprised knowing how much disagreement there is with filtration as that goes.

Joe, have you done semi-blind comparisons between the same wine treated and untreated?

I have not done any formal comparisons as I have not worked anywhere that has used it. My informal comparisons have been with wineries who started using it at the same time I was not liking their wines as much. After inquirers regarding change of winemaking re: barrels, stems, native/inoculated, filtering, etc. there seemed to be not much else that changed. This is regarding mostly early 2000’s vintages so its been a while now.

I have had first and last offs from a friend who ran a mobile bottling line. The wines dosed seemed to take a little longer to recover from bottle shock. All the wines were unfiltered PN which he knows I love so he gave me some often. He was the one who was the reason my wife wrote that blog post. The first time their mobile truck used it no one mentioned to the line workers to wait to drink the bottles they took home. 2 of the workers drank the dosed wine that night and ended up in the er late that night for pretty severe stomach/intestinal pain. They missed the next 2 days of work.

Killing or removing any present microbes via, So2, filtering, or Velcorin seems to me to have a sensory effect on the wine. Given a wine with need to be treated for spoilage I would personally go crossflow (also very expensive) as it seems to have the least effect on finished PN to me given all the options. If scorpions or plating come back clean enough to bottle unfiltered I just don’t understand the need to dose. A good sterile filtration will clean up a wine enough to not need to dose either.

They tell people not to drink the wine for 12-24 hours, but you can safely drink Velcorin’d wine after two. Correlation is not causation.