stabilizing before bottling necessary?

[ozzie]

I made my first batch of wine on a total whim. Never made wine/beer before this batch of chokecherry wine. I was scouting a turkey hunting spot, and got into a huge patch of the chokecherries, not really sure why I even picked so many. Anyway, looked online for what to do with them, and found wine recipes. Everything went great through the whole process, it cleared out great in the carboy, and I checked the specific gravity after 3 months. It was about as low on my hygrometer as it has numbers, well under 1.000. (maybe .993 or something) Bubbling/fermentation appeared to have totally stopped. Since it was clear, I sanitized a bunch of bottles and bottled it all on 12/2/14. (harvested my berries and started on 8/26/14) I did not stabilize by adding any campden or anything else. Just straight to the bottles. As I've been reading books and internet sites, looks like I screwed up. Should have stabilized. However, I've had it in bottles for 45 days now, the corks aren't working their way out, still looks clear (through the green glass). Should I pop corks now and add stabilizer and recork, or just let it go. Wasn't planning on opening any of it until 9/1/15.

 

[GreginND]

If it tasted good when you bottled, it should be fine. It appears you did not sweeten it which is good. Otherwise it would start fermenting again in the bottle. Without sulfites (campden) it has a greater chance of not lasting as long, but that is not guaranteed. I think it will be good over the next year. If you plan to drink it up in that time, I think you have no worries.

 

[acorn]

Most of the time, what goes in the bottle stays in the bottle, given it was clean/sanitized and maintains an airtight seal. In your case, as GreginND pointed out, you are better off leaving it as is and drink it sooner than later.