New here, though we've been making wine for a little while.
We've added the stabilizer to the wine (can't recall exactly which).
Fermentation is obviously done, (started late Oct.)
We purchased the juice from a new place this year, and they said after
adding the stabilizer, to keep the wine at 20-22 Celcius, for another
2 months.
My instinct (and what we've done in the past) says to just put it in
the cellar now, with fermentation lock (cellar is 12 Celcius)
The wine has been racked at least once already.

Thoughts appreciated.
(or let me know if more details might be needed and I'll try to
provide)

Peter

You didn't mention what type of juice but if you've added
potassium metabisulfite and keep it topped up then another
6 months in the carboy wouldn't hurt. Your temp of 12C
sounds better than the suggestion of 20-22C (room temp?).
You might check the oak level before bulk aging. Rack it
off any lees and perhaps give it another racking and 1/4 tsp
of sulfite at 3 months.

Don

> New here, though we've been making wine for a little while.
> We've added the stabilizer to the wine (can't recall exactly which).
> Fermentation is obviously done, (started late Oct.)
> We purchased the juice from a new place this year, and they said after
> adding the stabilizer, to keep the wine at 20-22 Celcius, for another
> 2 months.
> My instinct (and what we've done in the past) says to just put it in
> the cellar now, with fermentation lock (cellar is 12 Celcius)
> The wine has been racked at least once already.
>
> Thoughts appreciated.
> (or let me know if more details might be needed and I'll try to
> provide)
>
> Peter

Thanks for the help.

The wines are actually juice (we *were* going to buy grapes this year
but 2003 was absolutely horrible in Niagara. There were almost no
grapes available to growers as the wineries bought whatever decent
that was grown)
Anyway, there's 1 carboy of inexpensive Zinfandel, and much better
blends of Cab/Merlot (2:1) and Shiraz/Cab (2:1)

So the wines were racked for the first time, and the potassium
metabisulfite added about 2-3 weeks ago.
I am thinking of racking again (necessary?) before putting in the
temperature-controlled cellar, and racking again in about 3 months,
more depending on how clear the wine is.

The sulfite you mention adding is prior to and for bottling right? As
a preservative for bottle ageing?

Peter




(Don S) wrote in message om>...
> You didn't mention what type of juice but if you've added
> potassium metabisulfite and keep it topped up then another
> 6 months in the carboy wouldn't hurt. Your temp of 12C
> sounds better than the suggestion of 20-22C (room temp?).
> You might check the oak level before bulk aging. Rack it
> off any lees and perhaps give it another racking and 1/4 tsp
> of sulfite at 3 months.
>
> Don
>
> > New here, though we've been making wine for a little while.
> > We've added the stabilizer to the wine (can't recall exactly which).
> > Fermentation is obviously done, (started late Oct.)
> > We purchased the juice from a new place this year, and they said after
> > adding the stabilizer, to keep the wine at 20-22 Celcius, for another
> > 2 months.
> > My instinct (and what we've done in the past) says to just put it in
> > the cellar now, with fermentation lock (cellar is 12 Celcius)
> > The wine has been racked at least once already.
> >
> > Thoughts appreciated.
> > (or let me know if more details might be needed and I'll try to
> > provide)
> >
> > Peter

> The wines are actually juice (we *were* going to buy grapes this year
> but 2003 was absolutely horrible in Niagara. There were almost no
> grapes available to growers as the wineries bought whatever decent
> that was grown)

So I take it, it either was a good year in Niagara and producers
brought up everything they could to make as much wine as possible
or Ontario producers are selling way more than last year and are
trying to keep up with demand. Either way, good for Ontario wines.
Or perhaps kit makers were buying up the produce.

> So the wines were racked for the first time, and the potassium
> metabisulfite added about 2-3 weeks ago.
> I am thinking of racking again (necessary?) before putting in the
> temperature-controlled cellar, and racking again in about 3 months,
> more depending on how clear the wine is.

I would think the racking would be driven by the amount of lees
and whether the wine would benefit from being in contact with it.
I'm not enough of an expert to say. You'd have to research on your
own or hope for other answers. You could try reading he

http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/Surlie.htm

> The sulfite you mention adding is prior to and for bottling right? As
> a preservative for bottle ageing?

The sulfite additions are added to keep the SO2 levels up. They
are rough rule-of-thumb additions driven by the amount of racking,
more racking means more oxygen and thus the need for more sulfite.
A 1/4 tsp before bottling is probably not a bad idea but as everyone
here keeps telling me, buying a tester is preferable. Jack Keller's
site lists this:

Potassium metabisulfite, 1/4 teaspoon = 225 ppm in 1 gallon,
45 ppm in 5 gallons


Don

(Don S) wrote in message . com>...
> > The wines are actually juice (we *were* going to buy grapes this year
> > but 2003 was absolutely horrible in Niagara. There were almost no
> > grapes available to growers as the wineries bought whatever decent
> > that was grown)
>
> So I take it, it either was a good year in Niagara and producers
> brought up everything they could to make as much wine as possible
> or Ontario producers are selling way more than last year and are
> trying to keep up with demand. Either way, good for Ontario wines.
> Or perhaps kit makers were buying up the produce.

More of the latter; it was a terrible year and the Wineries bought all
the decent grapes they could to supplement poor amounts of wine.
(They're even supposedly being allowed to blend in wines from
elsewhere I hear)
>
> > So the wines were racked for the first time, and the potassium
> > metabisulfite added about 2-3 weeks ago.
> > I am thinking of racking again (necessary?) before putting in the
> > temperature-controlled cellar, and racking again in about 3 months,
> > more depending on how clear the wine is.
>
> I would think the racking would be driven by the amount of lees
> and whether the wine would benefit from being in contact with it.
> I'm not enough of an expert to say. You'd have to research on your
> own or hope for other answers. You could try reading he
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~BRotter/Surlie.htm

Sorry, I meant based on the amount of lees, determines how much
racking (we don't filter)

>
> > The sulfite you mention adding is prior to and for bottling right? As
> > a preservative for bottle ageing?
>
> The sulfite additions are added to keep the SO2 levels up. They
> are rough rule-of-thumb additions driven by the amount of racking,
> more racking means more oxygen and thus the need for more sulfite.
> A 1/4 tsp before bottling is probably not a bad idea but as everyone
> here keeps telling me, buying a tester is preferable. Jack Keller's
> site lists this:
>
> Potassium metabisulfite, 1/4 teaspoon = 225 ppm in 1 gallon,
> 45 ppm in 5 gallons
>
>
> Don

For this year I'm going to lay off the sulfite; I'm too paranoid of
messing it up. My plan is to do a little more reading in preparation
for next year.

Again thanks for the advice

> More of the latter; it was a terrible year and the Wineries bought all
> the decent grapes they could to supplement poor amounts of wine.
> (They're even supposedly being allowed to blend in wines from
> elsewhere I hear)

So wine kits based on ontario grapes may suffer. For instance
my latest kit was a Kendall Ridge Showcase Merlot. I had a
choice of Ontario or BC merlot. I chose the BC because, rightly
or wrongly, I couldn't remember Ontario producing good merlots.

I don't believe they can blend in more than 10% and still be
a VQA. Maybe we will see less VQA and more Meritage styles.


> Sorry, I meant based on the amount of lees, determines how much
> racking (we don't filter)

I think that's what I was answering.

Don