Hello,
While I am thankful and appreciative for this Christmas gift, the idea of
drinking cloudy, sediment laced wine, well, quite frankly...I can't quite
bring myself to do it (especially when I know how good the wine could taste
in another couple of months. The wine is very young - about 4 months and
was definitely rushed into bottling. I received 4 bottles of homemade red
grape wine - since I don't make grape wine, I guess I wanted to hear what
you all thought about what I was thinking of doing. My plan would be to open
all four bottles, siphon off the sediment and into a small glass carboy. Let
it sit another couple of months to clear, rack again if necessary, and then
drink or rebottle. If I had to top up, I would use another basic red wine.
Darlene ;o)

Hello Darlene,

Herewith a 'let sleeping dogs lie' approach.
Seal over the corks with wax so that the bottles can be stored upright
for 4-6 months. At the end of that time, remove the wax and corks
with outunduly disturbing the sediment, rack the contents into new
bottles with perhaps 20-30 mg/l of SO2 and the job is done.

Regards
Ian

Ian,
Good point, and I appreciate the 'let sleeping dogs lie approach'. I can
handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment - I'm
talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine be
affected by that much sediment?
Darlene

"Ian Anderson" wrote in message
news
Hello Darlene,

Herewith a 'let sleeping dogs lie' approach.
Seal over the corks with wax so that the bottles can be stored upright
for 4-6 months. At the end of that time, remove the wax and corks
with outunduly disturbing the sediment, rack the contents into new
bottles with perhaps 20-30 mg/l of SO2 and the job is done.

Regards
Ian

"Dar V" wrote in message
...
I can
handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment -
I'm talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine
be affected by that much sediment?

Over time, that'll compact to much less. Furthermore, the wine may very
well benefit from lees contact. Think of it in terms of extended mini-bulk
aging. Lay it down for a year (OK, 6 months) stand it up for a week or two,
carefully decant and taste. You'll know better then what to do with it.

I certainly wouldn't re-bottle it. Don't you already have enough to do?
;^D

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com

Ok, I have assumed that the wine is stable (all yeast/bacterial activity
has completed) and upon reflection my 'wait and see approach' may not be
appropriate. My first comments were based upon keeping handling the wine
and oxygen contact to a minimum.

Is it actually sediment or simply a zone at the bottom of the bottle that
is slightly cloudy? When wine clears, in small glass one may observe a
quite well defined transition between the upper 'clear' and the lower
slightly cloudy zone. I suspect it is to do with the suspended particle
sizes and their affect on light.

Or has some material sucked from the bottom during racking just prior
to bottling found its way into your bottles?

After 4 months the only sediment should be be very fine material. If so
then there is no issue with waiting, the small amounts of dying yeast can
have a beneficial effect on the wine. However, the wine will probably be
still microbiologically unstable and it shouldn't be in a bottle at all
until it is stable. Popping corks and wine foaming all over the place
could be very messy. Have a quiet chat to the winemaker and find out if
he managed to get MLF to complete at the end of primary fermentation.
Seems that this may be a good chance for you to learn a little about red
wine production.

Your original approach may be best. Let the wine settle and rack it after
the coldest part of your winter and again before bottling at the beginning
of your summer. This will allow the wine to partially cold stabilise
and then warm up again so that unfinshed biological stuff can complete.
Look for slight gas production and a very small increase in pH.

Hope this has added to the confusion.
Regards
Ian




On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 01:17:00 +0000, Dar V wrote:

Ian,
Good point, and I appreciate the 'let sleeping dogs lie approach'. I can
handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment - I'm
talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine be
affected by that much sediment?
Darlene

"Ian Anderson" wrote in message
news
Hello Darlene,

Herewith a 'let sleeping dogs lie' approach.
Seal over the corks with wax so that the bottles can be stored upright
for 4-6 months. At the end of that time, remove the wax and corks
with outunduly disturbing the sediment, rack the contents into new
bottles with perhaps 20-30 mg/l of SO2 and the job is done.

Regards
Ian

Tom S wrote:

"Dar V" wrote in message
...
I can

handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment -
I'm talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine
be affected by that much sediment?


Over time, that'll compact to much less. Furthermore, the wine may very
well benefit from lees contact. Think of it in terms of extended mini-bulk
aging. Lay it down for a year (OK, 6 months) stand it up for a week or two,
carefully decant and taste. You'll know better then what to do with it.

I certainly wouldn't re-bottle it. Don't you already have enough to do?
;^D

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com


Hear, hear on the lees contact aging... gave my Zin a smooth leathery
undertone

Gene

Ian,
The wine was a gift from a relative down south, who doesn't mind drinking
cloudy (very cloudy) wine from bottles with (actual) whitish/yellow sediment
in the bottom of the bottle. He picks the grapes in August, then racks a
couple of times, stabilizes, and then bottles in early December so he can
send them for Christmas presents. This is not the first time I have
received such a gift - I tried sending him a subscription to WineMaker for a
year...I doubt he's concerned about MLF. I do know that he stabilized it, so
I'm not too concerned about about having bottle bombs. I appreciate the
insight. I think I'll leave for 6 months and then decant, since it doesn't
sound like the sediment will hurt the wine. Thanks.
Darlene


"Ian Anderson" wrote in message
news
Ok, I have assumed that the wine is stable (all yeast/bacterial activity
has completed) and upon reflection my 'wait and see approach' may not be
appropriate. My first comments were based upon keeping handling the wine
and oxygen contact to a minimum.

Is it actually sediment or simply a zone at the bottom of the bottle that
is slightly cloudy? When wine clears, in small glass one may observe a
quite well defined transition between the upper 'clear' and the lower
slightly cloudy zone. I suspect it is to do with the suspended particle
sizes and their affect on light.

Or has some material sucked from the bottom during racking just prior
to bottling found its way into your bottles?

After 4 months the only sediment should be be very fine material. If so
then there is no issue with waiting, the small amounts of dying yeast can
have a beneficial effect on the wine. However, the wine will probably be
still microbiologically unstable and it shouldn't be in a bottle at all
until it is stable. Popping corks and wine foaming all over the place
could be very messy. Have a quiet chat to the winemaker and find out if
he managed to get MLF to complete at the end of primary fermentation.
Seems that this may be a good chance for you to learn a little about red
wine production.

Your original approach may be best. Let the wine settle and rack it after
the coldest part of your winter and again before bottling at the beginning
of your summer. This will allow the wine to partially cold stabilise
and then warm up again so that unfinshed biological stuff can complete.
Look for slight gas production and a very small increase in pH.

Hope this has added to the confusion.
Regards
Ian




On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 01:17:00 +0000, Dar V wrote:

Ian,
Good point, and I appreciate the 'let sleeping dogs lie approach'. I can
handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment -
I'm
talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine be
affected by that much sediment?
Darlene

"Ian Anderson" wrote in message
news
Hello Darlene,

Herewith a 'let sleeping dogs lie' approach.
Seal over the corks with wax so that the bottles can be stored upright
for 4-6 months. At the end of that time, remove the wax and corks
with outunduly disturbing the sediment, rack the contents into new
bottles with perhaps 20-30 mg/l of SO2 and the job is done.

Regards
Ian

Tom,
You're right, I have enough to do. Thanks.
Darlene

"Tom S" wrote in message
om...
"Dar V" wrote in message
...
I can
handle a little bit of sediment, but there's a fair amount of sediment -
I'm talking 1/2 inch -3/4 inch in a couple of the bottles. Would the wine
be affected by that much sediment?

Over time, that'll compact to much less. Furthermore, the wine may very
well benefit from lees contact. Think of it in terms of extended
mini-bulk aging. Lay it down for a year (OK, 6 months) stand it up for a
week or two, carefully decant and taste. You'll know better then what to
do with it.

I certainly wouldn't re-bottle it. Don't you already have enough to do?
;^D

Tom S
www.chateauburbank.com