adding sorbate

fuzzmeister · Apr 7, 2009

I bought a kit from costco that was a twinn pack, one was a cabernet sav, and the other was a merlot., I made the cab sav and bottled 9 bottles, the rest went in to a 3 gallon, and a 1 gallon carboy, to bulk age. From the information I have found, they say you can age cab sav for a long time, but in the kit they do not supply any sorbate, to add to the wine. do I have to worry about refermentation after 6 months, or a year down the road? or should this wine be consumed as soon as possible?

Tom · Apr 7, 2009

I don't know who the kit mfg is. What chemicals did you get with the kit? I would suggest to get some potassiun- metabisulfite and Sorbate for this or future wines. Did you get instructions withe the kit? I bet you got k-mata and sorbate. Any more info you can give will help.
K-meta will help preserve your wine and should be added 1/4tsp every 3months when aging. Sorbate is some cases is not needed especially if aging a long time (but is suggested).

Wade E · Apr 7, 2009

Sorbate does help aid in inhibiting bacteria in storage but its main use is is to prevent re fermentation. If this is a dry wine then it is not needed but surely wouldnt hurt. You should though add sulhite if it wasnt supplied or aging will not be a god thing for these 2 kits.

fuzzmeister · Apr 7, 2009

Tom The kit is a europa vina, sold by costco, the kit contained bentonite, which was added at the beginning, after it was degassed the metabisulphite was added, then the kieselsol, and the chitosan, was added to clarify the wine, my question is in order to let it age for a 1 year period should I add sorbate to it or not?