New to wine making

[CSIJon]

Ok, here goes. My wife has gotten me hooked on drinking wine, in fact, I have had very few beers or other drinks since. We are more of white wine drinkers and have not found a red wine we really like. We usually choose a Riesling or Pinot Grigio. I bought my wife a starter wine making kit from local store and a boxed Riesling wine kit. As it turns out I kind of took over the entire process. This wine kit was one that was ready to be bottled in 28 days, and in fact that day was yesterday. I was very anal about the cleaning and sanitizing of the equipment. The wine was racked and degased per instructions. The wine was very clear for bottling. In fact once bottled, I held it up to a store bought bottle and could not tell the difference in a clear glass bottle.

My question/concerns are that it smells like wine and taste like wine, and I know you should leave it bottled for a few months, but it was just not all taht great tasting while bottling (even over ice). I boiled water, covered pot and let water cool a bit and soaked corks for an hour or so. I weighed them down with a smaller (sterilzed) lid.

Will my wine get much better with time? As of right now it is a little more dry than most Rieslings I am used to and taste a little more like a Pinot Grigio. I know this is the million $ question, but is there anything I did wrong, or are the box wine kits just so-so wine? I used #9 corks and I was told that they are only good bottled for about a year. Will this be a problem?

I know this is a big post, but hey I'm new and its my first.

Thank you for your help,

 

[umbrellalady]

Reisling

I had made a Reisling wine quite a while back and found that it came out pretty awful. We later discovered, after losing several batches of wine, that our plastic carboys were the problem. We discontinued those particular ones and purchased some new ones and the problem seems to have disappeared.

 

[CSIJon]

I would not say it was awful, its just not like I thought. What was the problem with yours. Mine is from a kit and it made for food use.

 

[ffemt128]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

Not sure what kit you made or where your ending sg was. You may have benefited from back sweetening a bit if it was too dry. Even a little after it is stabilized will bring out a good bit of flavor. Next bottle you open try adding a little sugar to the glass of wine and see if the flavor changes to something more likeable.

 

[Brintk]

CSIJon,

Although I have never made a white wine kit, only reds, I can tell you from my experience that all of the wines that I have made were pretty raw and disgusting after only 28 days. As a matter of fact, most of them weren't that good after 6 months. However, at around 9 months to a year, they all made a dramatic turnaround are quite drinkable.

My suggestion to you is to put these bottles in a cool dark place and set your alarm clock for 9 months from now. At that time open one bottle. Drink it slowly, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. I'll bet that it will be a lot closer to the taste that you are expecting.

In the meantime, buy commercial wines to drink and make a few more kits to begin the same aging process. At the end of a year, you will be happy that you did.

As to your question on corks; Good quality #9 corks should last much longer than 1 year - probably longer than your wine will. However, soaking your corks for an hour in boiled water sounds a bit too long. 15 minutes should be sufficient.

 

[CSIJon]

I was not able to bottle all of the wine from carboy last night and plan on doing it today or tomorrow. Would it be possible to add sugar to it now or is it too late? I did not have the right container to check my SG but I will tonight.

As for the corks. I did let the water cool first I just boiled to make the water cleaner. Dont know if this changes anythings.

Thanks for the tips. I am wanting to start a new batch really soon. We live in the south and muscadine are available fresh here. does anyone have good directions on doing these from scratch?

 

[Runningwolf]

CSI, Welcome to our forum. Give the wine more time. As far as the corks go I never soak or boil corks. This will cause more problems quicker then anything. Put a k-meta sanitizing solution in a bucket and put your corks in a colander over it. Now place a towel over the colander. The vapors will sanitize. Soaking your corks will cause them to break down quicker.

 

[Woodbee]

Welcome.
It is not too late for some back sweetening. But you need to treat with some sorbate first and then wait a week or so before adding any sweetening so that it will not start fermenting again.
Brad