# Burying your wine



## Thig (Oct 12, 2012)

A lady at my table at Rotary lunch today mentioned she had made some Muscadine wine and had buried it for 6 weeks. My ears perked up of course. Would there be any benefit other than consistent temperature and no sunlight to burying wine to age?


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## ejiang (Oct 13, 2012)

Thig said:


> A lady at my table at Rotary lunch today mentioned she had made some Muscadine wine and had buried it for 6 weeks. My ears perked up of course. Would there be any benefit other than consistent temperature and no sunlight to burying wine to age?



Not sure of the mechanism, but the Chinese has long been used to bury their rice wine or liquors since the recorded history


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## Bartman (Oct 13, 2012)

I had to re-read that title - I had seen an "f" in place of the "n" in 'wine'!! Having just read the thread about the wife not liking the smell of fermentation in the house, I was instantly intrigued.


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## Thig (Oct 13, 2012)

Bartman said:


> I had to re-read that title - I had seen an "f" in place of the "n" in 'wine'!! Having just read the thread about the wife not liking the smell of fermentation in the house, I was instantly intrigued.



I can see the advantage of burying the wife (just kidding), but not the wine.


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## Bearpaw (Oct 13, 2012)

If you burry you wine there are no circumstances which can change the taste of the wine. Also, if you burry your wine in a glass pot and you put fruits in it and seal the pot, the wine get the fruit taste and the fruit get the wine taste. For this process it is important you burry it, otherwise the yeast will possibly become active. The ground is most of the time cold and wet (where i come from) and hold the right temperature to ripe the wine when you burry it far enough. It doesn't matter if it is summer or winter, at 1 meter depth it is always 10 / 14 degrees. 
Good luck


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## dralarms (Oct 13, 2012)

I've made a couple of batches that I wished I could have buried.


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## Arne (Oct 13, 2012)

If Julie sees you talking about burying your wife, you are going to have to sit in the corner for sure. Lol, Arne.


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## Fabiola (Oct 13, 2012)

Some people in Mexico bury their wine carboys in some type of pits, similar to the ones used to make undergroud barbecue, they do this in order to preserve the temperature unchanged from winter to summer, so they don't need to worry about checking it for a long time, they call it "peasant wine" and this technique is merely for temperature purposes, it has nothing to do with flavor...


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## thegypsy (Oct 18, 2012)

Hi everybody, I just wanted you all to know what I have seen in someone's house. The owner of the house had his wood barrels buried, in his wine cellar, with sand.. He claimed it kept the temperature constant. Unfortunately never got a chance to taste the wine. P.S. We (my mother and I) were visiting the house as prospective buyers, this happened in the late 70's early 80's. All of this to say that I have heard of this and seen it, but never tried it...


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## Thig (Oct 18, 2012)

thegypsy said:


> Hi everybody, I just wanted you all to know what I have seen in someone's house. The owner of the house had his wood barrels buried, in his wine cellar, with sand.. He claimed it kept the temperature constant. Unfortunately never got a chance to taste the wine. P.S. We (my mother and I) were visiting the house as prospective buyers, this happened in the late 70's early 80's. All of this to say that I have heard of this and seen it, but never tried it...



That's interesting, I still believe the only benefit to burying it would be the consistent temperature and no light damage, both of which I believe could be accomplished much easier than burying.


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## Dend78 (Oct 18, 2012)

it also eliminates excessive taste testing, out of site out of mind, gee honey i dont know what happend to all of my carboys....guess its time to buy some more


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## keena (Oct 18, 2012)

Dend78 said:


> gee honey i dont know what happend to all of my carboys....guess its time to buy some more



Genius! Haha. 


When I hear people say bury, all that I think of is worms and insects trying to get into the wine... I'd be devastated if I buried wine for a year and then took it out to find it ruined.


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## Arne (Oct 18, 2012)

Dend78 said:


> it also eliminates excessive taste testing, out of site out of mind, gee honey i dont know what happend to all of my carboys....guess its time to buy some more


 
Wine gremlins. Them little buggers get into everything. Don't seem to be anyway to keep them out. LOL, Arne.


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## joeswine (Oct 18, 2012)

*Old world wine making*

IF YOU FOLLOWED MY THREAD ON GEORGIAN WINES,THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THE SAME EARTHEN FERMENTATION SINCE 400 BC,IN CROCKS OF ALL SIZES,WITH A WOODEN LID,THEN PLACED IN A HOLE AND COVERED BY EARTH..READ GEORGIAN WINES IT'S A GREAT TOUR OF ANCIENT WINE MAKING ART STILL GOING ON TODAY.


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## thegypsy (Oct 19, 2012)

keena said:


> Genius! Haha.
> 
> 
> When I hear people say bury, all that I think of is worms and insects trying to get into the wine... I'd be devastated if I buried wine for a year and then took it out to find it ruined.


 

The cellar I saw the wine barrels in, the barrels were covered in sand, clean dry sand, and the front of the barrel was not covered. So that the owner wouldn't lose his barrels.


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## Dend78 (Oct 21, 2012)

yeah its all good just make sure you mark the area


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## Arne (Oct 22, 2012)

Dend78 said:


> yeah its all good just make sure you mark the area


 
Yeah, the whole backyard dug up except where the wine got buried. Shoulda put a bone on top of the wine keg so the dog would find it. LOL, Arne.


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## andy123 (Oct 22, 2012)

One of my favorite storys is " Bob Days Donut wine". Bob was a homeless type living in Saint Thomas,USVI. He made a wine from Dunkin Donuts jelly donuts. The manager got so tired of of evicting Bob from his dumpster that he began leaving old jelly donuts in a bag beside it. Bob would make his wine in trash bags burried on the tropical island. With his "Treasure map" and a long straw Bob would make the rounds and test his batches for readyiness.


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## Dend78 (Oct 23, 2012)

andy123 said:


> One of my favorite storys is " Bob Days Donut wine". Bob was a homeless type living in Saint Thomas,USVI. He made a wine from Dunkin Donuts jelly donuts. The manager got so tired of of evicting Bob from his dumpster that he began leaving old jelly donuts in a bag beside it. Bob would make his wine in trash bags burried on the tropical island. With his "Treasure map" and a long straw Bob would make the rounds and test his batches for readyiness.



i would say this man had it all figured out, once jelly filled doughnuts check, wine buried everywhere check, 6 foot long bendy straw check, great sun tan cause i live on a tropical island check!


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## banannabiker (Oct 29, 2012)

For those of us who live in this era of climate controlled homes, burying our wine is probably not a sensible idea. I suspect that not too many years back (and in many places even today) when home temperatures varied a lot, that burying your wine wasn't such a bad idea. This might be an option for those who are running out of storage space in your house and are willing to let the wine 'sit in the ground' for a few months. I am curious if you would need to seal the bottle in a case like this, or if you would have to have a vent running topside? I would bet it would have to be sealed-at least in fire ant country.


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## Tom_S (Oct 31, 2012)

Luckily we've got a cellar so I keep my wine down there. And "out of sight, out of mind" also helps because I don't go down there all that often. I even have my own guard snake keeping watch over the wine so nobody steals it.

One of these days I need to build a wine rack for the cellar, especially if I want to bottle more batches. Right now I have my wine sitting on shelves in wooden wine boxes from a liquor store.


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