Aging in bottle
- Thread starter qyhcat
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In my experience, aging in a carboy vs. aging in a bottle allows me to make more easily any adjustments to the wine and, because I do not use fining agents unless absolutely needed, allows for natural clearing. It would seem to me that bottling sooner would lock some additional sediment in the bottle. From a finished product standpoint, I have seen little other difference.
Floandgary
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Aging in the carboy under airlock allows K-meta AND CO2 to dissipate and vent. Don't have to worry about degassing issues. In addition, you can address sediments from clearing before you put them in the bottle!! The process of the wine aging will take place no matter the vessel,,, it's the residuals and consistencies of tweaking that a carboy/barrel gives you access to.
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The key difference is this: aging wine in a carboy prevents you from digging in to your work product before it has fully matured. [emoji6]
Noontime
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As others have said, if there is any tweaking you want to do or clearing needed, having it in the carboy gives you the opportunity to do so. However if you're done messing with it and it's just aging, the bottle is probably a better place for it in my opinion. The surface area of wine to O2 exposure is different in bottles and carboys, and the O2 transfer through the cork is a lot different than whatever you're using on the carboy. It's certainly a nuance, but not a trivial one. And there's no absolute rule... 2 respected experts in home wine making do completely different things. If I remember correctly, Tim Vandergrift bottles as soon as appropriate, while Danial Pambianchi has carboys of wine a decade old.
