WineXpert First bottling

[physics911]

I just bottled my first homemade wine.
I ended up with 28.5 bottles each of a Wine Expert Riesling and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were started about mid-April of this year.

Riesling -
I like how this came out for the most part.. I would have liked for it to be just a bit more dry, but it is a good wine for me nonetheless. It is on par with a $12-$15 bottle from the store. At bottling the free SO2 was about 18.

What can I expect of this wine over the next 6-12 months?


Cabernet Sauvignon -
This was just OK. It tastes kind of flat when I first take a sip, but finishes fairly dry and fruity. It definitely improves with aeration, but overall I would say it's like a Yellow Tail at this point. When I first checked the SO2 before bottling it was down around 4; I brought it up to 18 before bottling.
I'm concerned it tastes flat because I worked too much oxygen into it while degassing, but again, this is my first batch so I don't have the knowledge or experience to judge.

What can I expect of this wine over the next 6-12 months?

Thank you,
Chris

 

[djrockinsteve]

Wines will get better over time before losing quality. Reds tend to peak @4 years, whites earlier. Sample a bottle every few months and see.

 

[physics911]

Other than just waiting to see if the red continually improves, how do I tell if it is just a young wine versus me over oxygenating or something else?

 

[wineh]

Other than just waiting to see if the red continually improves, how do I tell if it is just a young wine versus me over oxygenating or something else?

I keep telling my wife that I'm not a doctor, so I don't need patients. She tells me I need to have patience, which is what you need o get your wine to a better place. Decanting your wine in a quick fashion and waiting a couple of hours can help, but it really needs time. You can use that time to make some more wine...
Good news though; if you think your wine is flat, at least you didn't leave any CO2 in it.

 

[salcoco]

I would have upped the so2 to about 30-40ppm. better for long term storage. the Riesling will improve slightly after a month or two once over the bottle shock but will not change much after that. the red being flat makes me wonder what was the ph of the wine when it was ready to bottle. Something I do before I bottle the wine when sampling is sprinkling sugar or acid into the wine, whichever it requires, like adding salt to food. this is just a check to see if either will benefit the wine. if it does that I conduct a measured bench trial to determine the level of either for final results.

 

[physics911]

Salcoco - That's a good point. Could part of it possibly be bottle shock or the recent addition of more metabisulfite?

I filtered into a new carboy and adjusted the SO2 on Saturday, but did not taste it.
On Sunday I bottled and tasted.
The last time I tasted it before bottling was about a month earlier during a racking. At that point it had a bright flavor.

As this is my first batch, I don't expect miracles. What I'm most interested in is learning the process and the science behind how/when/why adjustments are made.

 

[calvin]

I only started making wine around Christmas time. My first kits are about 6 months in the bottle now. I thought they were pretty good/ ok before. They are outstanding now! I read on this forum and every one says to age your wine. Your kit instructions even say to drink after a month. All I can say is make as much wine as you can otherwise you will never have aged wines to drink. With my red kits I have bottled I tell myself to wait 1 month before I pop a cork again. It's working ok.... If I ever get 30 month old wine it will be a miracle. Make dragon blood every other 6 gallon batch until you have 200 bottles of it laying around. The stuff is awesome

 

[salcoco]

I assumed your taste test were done before bottling. recent so2 additions should not affect taste unless the dosage is excessive. normally to much so2 will give a odor to the wine of a burned match, which can carry over to taste. a wine should rest at least a month after bottling to let it settle down from bottle shock, taste test at this time should be tempered by the fact that it is a young wine. age will definitely improve the taste.