It is not unusual to have to degas several times over a few months if you
bother to degas. You might move it into a warmer part of the house first.
Cool wine will hold more CO2 than warm and is therefore harder to degas.
The vacuumed is questionable. I have never used that technique but some say
that you will loose a lot of volatile compounds that will effect the bouquet
and taste that way. Another trick is to use a bottle brush. Break the
plastic handle off so you can fit it in an electric drill, insert it in the
carboy and let it do the work. You may need to draw off some wine first so
it does not climb out of the carboy when you are doing this.

Ray

"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> I'm still learning how to make wine from kits. I have a chianti in a
carboy
> with airlock that I started in October. Whenever I take a little sample
it
> tastes fizzy. I tried degassing by vigorously stirring the wine a few
> months ago, but I suspect that I didn't have the patience or strength to
do
> it enough.
>
> So recently I rigged up a little vacuum system using a Vacuvin device,
some
> tubing, bung, and carboy cap. I did that 3 nights ago. It took a bit of
> time to master, but now I can apply a fairly good vacuum. Each time I
> refresh the vacuum I get a large number of bubbles racing to the surface.
> On the one hand I'm really happy because I think this is what I wanted.
On
> the other hand I'm wondering if this is right. Why is there so much CO2?
> Can I be sure that it's CO2? Am I doing something wrong? How many more
> days will it take to draw it all out?
>
> Does anyone here have any experience using this degassing method? Is what
> I'm seeing normal?
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
>
>