My father used to make wine (he's sadly no longer capable of that or
much else these days), and I've found a couple of demijohns with
labels dated 20-25 years ago. We're clearing the house and this is
definitely the last of his own wine.

One is apple, with a rubber bung that unfortunately has a hole through
the middle. To counter that he's wrapped paper around the bung, but I
don't think it's even waxed paper. There's a haze, but on taking the
bung out, the wine smells great.

The other is damson. In this case it's "sealed" with a cork, which
seems a little loose. I guess it's dried out -- corked containers
should be stored on their sides to keep the cork moist, right? It was
upright. This one looks slightly better than the apple, but still less
transparent than it should be, and I haven't risked removing the cork
yet, so I don't know what it smells like.

I'm really ignorant, I'm in the middle of my very first batch of kit
wine right now, using some of my father's old gear. What should I do
with these?
--
http://www.robinfaichney.org/

Robin -
About the worst that can happen to wine in a situation like this
is that it can turn to vinegar if it is exposed to enough air. If it
smells like wine and not like vinegar, it should be safe to drink.
Nothing hazardous to your health can grow in wine, assuming an alcohol
level of 10% or greater (which is pretty likely). So if it smells
good enough to drink, it should be safe to do so. I would replace the
old cork and bung with new ones, though.

The other question is whether to try to deal with the haze. Most
wines will clear on their own, given enough time. It's a little
surprising to me that both of these wines are still hazy after 20+
years. I guess I would try the usual line-up of treatments, one at a
time, and give each one at least a few weeks to a month, to see if it
has been effective. First, probably, pectic enzyme. Then bentonite,
then sparkolloid, and finally one of the two-part clearing packages
(e.g., Super-Kleer). One of them should work. The haze is really
just a cosmetic issue, though. If it doesn't bother you, you needn't
do anything to deal with it.

Best of luck, and happy fermenting --

Doug

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:33:25 -0700 (PDT), Doug
wrote:

Robin -
About the worst that can happen to wine in a situation like this
is that it can turn to vinegar if it is exposed to enough air. If it
smells like wine and not like vinegar, it should be safe to drink.
Nothing hazardous to your health can grow in wine, assuming an alcohol
level of 10% or greater (which is pretty likely). So if it smells
good enough to drink, it should be safe to do so. I would replace the
old cork and bung with new ones, though.

I syphoned off a couple of bottles of the damson, which turned out to
be quite clear in the glass, and produced it at my parents' wedding
anniversay yesterday, where it went down very well, in both senses.

As for the other, hazy one, I seem to remember reading somewhere that
the type of haze you find in old wines will never settle -- a protein
haze?

--
http://www.robinfaichney.org/

On Jun 23, 5:08 am, Robin Faichney
wrote:

I syphoned off a couple of bottles of the damson, which turned out to
be quite clear in the glass, and produced it at my parents' wedding
anniversay yesterday, where it went down very well, in both senses.

Bottle the rest of it! Don't leave a carboy with a few bottle's worth
of wine take out- the oxygen in the dead space will ruin the rest of
the batch!

On Jun 23, 12:06 pm, Madalch wrote:
On Jun 23, 5:08 am, Robin Faichney
wrote:

I syphoned off a couple of bottles of the damson, which turned out to
be quite clear in the glass, and produced it at my parents' wedding
anniversay yesterday, where it went down very well, in both senses.

Bottle the rest of it! Don't leave a carboy with a few bottle's worth
of wine take out- the oxygen in the dead space will ruin the rest of
the batch!

Yes, if you have started to take wine out of the carboy, you need to
either top it up somehow, or bottle the rest of it. Leaving wine in a
half-full container will ruin it within a few days or weeks.

If you have wine with a protein haze, bentonite should be effective.
Proteins tend to have positively charged particles, which bind with
the negatively charged particles in the bentonite. The trick with
bentonite is to rehydrate it properly. Sprinkle the bentonite slowly
into a small amount of water or wine (a cup or so should do) while
stirring constantly. Then let it rest for a few hours and stir it up
again before adding to the wine. If you add a lot of bentonite to
water all at once, it will form a big clay-like mess, which is
difficult to deal with.

Doug

On Jun 23, 12:50 pm, Doug wrote:
Yes, if you have started to take wine out of the carboy, you need to
either top it up somehow, or bottle the rest of it. Leaving wine in a
half-full container will ruin it within a few days or weeks.

It doesn't even have to be down to half-full to be ruined. I once
took a single glass' worth of wine out of a 1-gallon batch to see if
it was worth keeping. It was fine when I tried it, but not the next
week when I had time to bottle it.

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:42:16 -0700 (PDT), Madalch
wrote:

On Jun 23, 12:50 pm, Doug wrote:
Yes, if you have started to take wine out of the carboy, you need to
either top it up somehow, or bottle the rest of it. Leaving wine in a
half-full container will ruin it within a few days or weeks.

It doesn't even have to be down to half-full to be ruined. I once
took a single glass' worth of wine out of a 1-gallon batch to see if
it was worth keeping. It was fine when I tried it, but not the next
week when I had time to bottle it.

Thanks very much for that tip, I'd no idea, also to Doug re bentonite.
--
http://www.robinfaichney.org/