leftover wine after racking

[purpletongue]

Not that long ago (2013) kit instructions said to top up with water after stabilizing.

Would stabilizing be the final rack before bottling?

 

[purpletongue]

Oh, the reason I suggested adding the wine was so that you couldn't tell which glass was which, just by looking at it. Maybe it is a small enough difference that you couldn't tell, but I was just suggesting a way to make the test a better "blind" test.

You make a good point though. It was tricky keeping track after the first few sips. If I was to do it again I would of put a label on one of them.

 

[bstnh1]

Would stabilizing be the final rack before bottling?

Not usually. There's almost always at least one more racking before bottling and more often than not more than one. When you stabilize, a lot of sediment normally drops out.

 

[Tom Miller]

I understand that we are discussing adding water after fermentation but doesn't adding water get to the root of the complaint about the new Wine Expert kits? They went from 12-16 liters of concentrate to 10 liters so now you have to add more water. Yeah I know that is a different topic but I believe most of us would want less water in our wine.

 

[Brian55]

I understand that we are discussing adding water after fermentation but doesn't adding water get to the root of the complaint about the new Wine Expert kits? They went from 12-16 liters of concentrate to 10 liters so now you have to add more water. Yeah I know that is a different topic but I believe most of us would want less water in our wine.

The root complaint about kits in general is that they're like "Wine Lite". Shorting the initial water addition, and topping with wine rather than water can help in this regard.

 

[winemaker81]

I understand that we are discussing adding water after fermentation but doesn't adding water get to the root of the complaint about the new Wine Expert kits? They went from 12-16 liters of concentrate to 10 liters so now you have to add more water. Yeah I know that is a different topic but I believe most of us would want less water in our wine.

Yes, this is 2 different topics. The difference is reconstitution vs. dilution.

The Winexpert issue is the quality of the grape juice/concentrate. For a kit, the smaller the volume of juice/concentrate in the kit, the greater the volume of concentrate and (obviously) the lesser volume of juice. The idea is that juice is better as it's not processed, and this makes sense -- in general higher end (higher priced) kits have a much higher ratio of juice to concentrate. Winexpert is claiming that their process is improved enough that the higher ratio of concentrate produces the same quality. [A lot of us are skeptical on that.]

The fact that lower volume kits require more water to reconstitute them is not the issue. A 23 liter kit has to be reconstituted to 23 liters, regardless of the initial volume. This is by design, regardless if the kit contains 8 liters or 19 liters.

This thread is about dilution, adding water beyond what is required to reconstitute the kit.

Kit instructions say to top with water. This is completely understandable by newbies, it reduces a danger (oxidation), and everyone has water. The vendor's end goal is for the customer to produce a pleasing wine, so customers buy more kits. Most customers will not realize any difference.

I actually find the kit vendor instructions to be good. They have to write for newbies and the kits I've made (Winexpert and R J Spagnols) have really good instructions. Anyone who writes documentation knows how difficult it can be to explain nuances to a recipient who lacks background knowledge. Telling a non-wine drinker who received the kit as a present that they should top with a comparable wine probably won't work.

 

[Swedeman]

Actually, WE's current instruction doesn't mention topping up at all. The previous instructions mentioned a "similar wine".

 

[winemaker81]

This shows just how well I've been reading the instructions recently .....

 

[Swedeman]

This shows just how well I've been reading the instructions recently .....

Haha! Well, I had to look it up myself so that makes two of us...

 

[Ajmassa]

Once you are past the clearing stage there really shouldn’t be any significant wine loss. Usually just a dusting by then which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Also, you really don’t need to fear o2 exposure too much from racking. Really it’s the prolonged exposure that’s the killer (Headspace). And I will second that an extra racking to clean the carboy before racking back into it is definitely safe. But always having an open carboy of the same size is preferred and cuts that extra step out.

if bumping to a 5gal, as other guys have said, you can just throw the extra wine in bottles or jugs. But instead of corking a Vacuvin is perfect for this. Just plug the bottles with the included stoppers. And if you’re left with say, 1/3 of a bottle, just plug it, pump with the VacuVin and stick in the refrigerator. Can be as cheap as $10—> VacuVin Amazon listing

sidenote-you can also rig these stoppers to fit on a carboy solid bung for a cheap & easy headspace shortterm fix. And many types will already fit around the nipple of a universal style stopper without any fuss (Arrow in pic))
A VacuVin is def a beneficial little tool when ya don’t have a mountain of carboys, small jugs /bottles, pumps and all that.