I believe bottle aging and bulk aging are both important in helping a wine
mature. Because I'm relatively new at this, I have not had a chance to bulk
age as much as I would like to. Usually after 7-9 months of aging in bulk,
I bottle, and then hope the wines age nicely. As soon as I build up my
cellar, I would like to bulk age more (that's a goal). Anyway, I opened a
bottle of raspberry and cherry this weekend. Both should either be at or
very close to their proper age to enjoy. Since I had tried them out about 6
months ago, and they tasted good, I had hopes of improvement. Anyway, the
raspberry seems to have gotten more tart, while the cherry taste seemed to
have diminished. Both improved after sweetening, which made me feel a
little bit better. I don't know that I would replace bulk aging with bottle
aging. Both are important.
Darlene

"Analogueman" > wrote in message
news:Pfs_b.45137$Ff2.37259@clgrps12...
> I normally let my wine sit in the secondary fermentor (with several
> rackings) until about March, then rack into nitrogen charged 54 litre
> stainless beer kegs and set aside in my cellar for a year or two to
mature.
>
> Recently an experienced fellow at a wine club told me that it would be
> better to age wine in bottles rather than large containers.
>
> Comments are appreciated.
>
> Roger
>
>