Aging wine

[chrisber]

So these grand cru kits say make wine in 28 days.

So you make the wine. Then they say that it is only good for about a year. And ppl say to age the wine 3 months. That means in 9 months you have to drink 30 bottles.

Why can i goto the liquor store and buy wine 6 years old and then keep it another six before drinking it at my house. It does not go bad


why does the kits go bad and not wine at liquor store.

 

[Sneil]

You just need to add a little more of a specific chemical. lol Im a n00b so i don't know exactly the name but you add this chemical and it ages just fine. Im sure someone here with more knowledge will tell you exactly what u need to do.

 

[Wade E]

Well for one thing they add much more sulfites then we do. They also typically use 2" corks which we do not have very good access to. Aside from that they are not making small kits with lots of water added to it. If you want to make a wine that will stand much more time then make a higher end kit which will be higher in abv and tannins. Both of these put together will make a wine hang much longer. Your wine with proper cellaring conditions will last much longer then stated, trust me, I have a few of these left after almost 4 years and they are still OK but are starting to diminish in quality. I have a few of the mist wines which are very low in abv and tannin that are 3 years old and are still OK too. They just want you to drink them and buy more kits and make sure that when you drink them they are still good not to mention that most new wine makers dont have great cellaring conditions so they are playing on the safe side. The chemical Sneil refers to is Potassium Metabisulfite or k-meta or campden which is pill form.

 

[cpfan]

Also, the first 3+ years of a commercial red wine's life is spent in bulk storage (barrels, tanks, whatever).

Steve

 

[Manimal]

The components that provide ageability to wine are tannin, alcohol, acidity and sulfite. On top of that, the wine must possess enough fruit and extract in order to remain balanced after the aging period is over. Most kit wines are quite low in tannin, alcohol and acidity and are therefore meant for early consumption. It's not so much that the wine will go "bad" but it will not improve with age and the flavours and balance will begin to flatten out. I would also make the argument that very few commercial wines in the everyday price range are 6 years old at the point of sale, and few will also age 6 more years after purchase. Most commercial wines are meant for early drinking. Most whites are released within 6 months to a year of harvest and are best consumed within a year or two. Reds are usually released at 2 years after vintage date and will maybe age for 2-3 more years on top of that. There are definitely exceptions, but unless you're buying ultra-premium wine, most stuff at the liquor store isn't going to age all that well, either.