# wine in carboy too long



## fbtjcd (Aug 5, 2014)

Can help me please. I have wine sitting in a carboy for 10 months now and it has only been racked once, has it spoiled. The better question how does this lack of racking affect the final product.?


----------



## dralarms (Aug 5, 2014)

Have you tasted it? As long as it was protected it should be fine.


----------



## MrKevin (Aug 5, 2014)

As long as it has been topped off and under air lock it should be fine. I have carboys that have been sitting for 18 months. Though I occasionally add kmeta I'm not one to rack every 3 months.


----------



## Tom_S (Aug 6, 2014)

As long as the airlock hasn't run dry, it should be fine and well aged. I just recently bottled a 5 gallon batch I had sitting for a year & a half and it turned out great. I had to laugh at the title of this thread because there's almost no such thing as leaving it in the carboy for too long. 10 months is fine.


----------



## fbtjcd (Aug 7, 2014)

Tom_S said:


> As long as the airlock hasn't run dry, it should be fine and well aged. I just recently bottled a 5 gallon batch I had sitting for a year & a half and it turned out great. I had to laugh at the title of this thread because there's almost no such thing as leaving it in the carboy for too long. 10 months is fine.


It was more about being racked only once and sitting in it's lees. I was afraid it might affect it and not in a good way


----------



## Arne (Aug 7, 2014)

The lees can possibly affect the taste. Only way t o find out is draw a little and see how it tastes. If it is fine, you can rack it off what lees it sits on, back in another carboy, and let it sit for another 10 months if you want to. Just make sure it is topped up and liquid in the airlock. You probably have a dry wine now, when you taste it remember that. To make it a sweeter wine, you have to add some kind of sweetener as in sugar or honey or a few others. If you are going to sweeten it, make sure you stabalize it first. If not sweetening, add some k-meta before you let it sit in the carboy again or before you bottle if that is your choice. Good luck with it, Arne.


----------



## Turock (Aug 7, 2014)

You should never allow wine to sit on alot of debris. When you see that it has dropped that sediment, rack it off. All sediment is unstable and it's a great thing to bulk age wines for 1 year,at least, in order to get the sediment and offending esters off of a wine. This is what stablizes a wine. The only debris that should remain is a fine dusting off lees on the bottom. But then, you go to bottle, you rack the wine to a clean carboy and leave that dusting of lees behind.

As others said, you need to be sure there is enough free sulfite to protect the wine. So adding 1/4 tsp of meta should also be done, if you haven't done it yet. The best way to know how much sulfite your wine needs is to know the PH of the wine and test for free sulfite.


----------



## Tom_S (Aug 7, 2014)

Yes, you don't want it sitting on the lees that long. Dead yeast will drop out of the wine and settle in the lees, and what few remaining yeast are still active will feed on the dead yeast and create an odor in your wine. You'll need to smell and taste it to make sure it's still good. I don't like to let my wine sit on the gross lees more than a week, and any fine lees more than a few weeks.


----------



## jethro (Aug 8, 2014)

Ten months? Gimme a break. I've waited eleven months for my must to turn into wine, after racking into a carboy. I'm waiting another month before I consider it to be wine. Then I'll either drink it or bottle it, or both.


----------

