Age

[Tovis]

Curious, have many of you noticed the changes overtime with wines made from fruit?

Like 3mo, 6mo, 1yr, 2yr?

 

[Scooter68]

What changes are you talking about? ALL wine changes to some degree with time.

 

[salcoco]

I had a apple/pea wine lasted 6 years and it was fine.won a gold medal in the fruit wine competition.

 

[Larryh86GT]

I recently opened a bottle of my blackberry wine that was bottled in January 2014 and we noticed it had improved greatly. While it was very good when new it now had mellowed out to being special. I only have 1 bottle left and I don't think it will stay corked much longer.

 

[knifemaker]

Almost all wines improve with age, I've learned to not even open a bottle of chokecherry until it's 2 years old. The high tannins in chokecherries need that time to mellow out, much like a deep red grape wine. other fruits are great after a year. Dale.

 

[Cxwgfamily]

Wine improve over time

I made a strawberry wine as a newbie home wine maker. It was I in drinkable and I contemplated pouring it out. However, I thought, this is a learning experience and I decided to cellar it for a year. After a year, it had gone from in drinkable to just simply bad. But I was encouraged. A year later (in the cellar for two years) I tested it and it had gone from bad to just simply "flawed". I decided to wait another year. When I tested it at 3 years, it was really good. I had to filter it to get the sediment out, but the wine was really good. I was shocked, pleased, proud and amazed all at the same time.

I wonder if others have had the same experience????

 

[guarddog]

I got some wine that is 19 years old that is still excellent

 

[danceswithphones]

I know this is going to sound awful/crude/amateurish, but...

I've been making wine from frozen fruit (strawberry, cherry) and need advice about aging.

My current practice is:
1 week in the primary bucket
1 month in the carboy
Racking into another carboy to get rid of debris
1 more month in the carboy
Racking into another carboy to get rid of debris
1 more month in the carboy
Back sugaring and stabilization and racking into another carboy
1 more month in the carboy
Bottling into 750ml bottles with #9 corks

The bottom line is that I'm bottling at 4 months old. I always set aside a plastic bottle for the wife and she seems to think it tastes fine at 4 months (I don't drink/friend of Bill).

Does any of this sound reasonable?
Will my wine get better with aging in the bottle?
Will a #8 cork vs. a #9 cork make a difference in the aging process?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Julie]

You need to rack from primary to carboy based on your hydrometer reading. Normally around 1.010 you rack to a carboy or snap the lid down on the primary and let it ferment to dry. If you rack to a carboy, I would take a hydrometer reading a few days, once dry, rack again and add k-meta, now I would let it sit for three months before racking again.