Bottle Shot

[urjo]

Hello everyone,
My name is Urjo ( Ancient Indian name ) from NJ and I am new to this forum. I made ½ barrel of Chateauneuf du pape and Barbera petite sirah last year with a winery in NJ. I had heard of them a few years ago and had been to their 2-3 wine tasting events which I really enjoyed so much that was enough to jump in to making the wine.

I was involved in crushing the grapes, a week later squeezing and getting the juice in to the barrel, and 8-9 months later, in final bottling which happened last month and that was it. They managed all other work including maintaining the temp, sugar level etc…

At the time of bottling the Barbera Petite Syrah was a little young but okay at that point but the Chat was excellent. Now, after just 2-3 weeks (now) the Chat is good, but not as good as that my friends and I had the taste just a few weeks ago, and the BPS is really strong. Not only the BPS is strong, but just after 1 day of opening the bottle, if I try to drink that the next day from the opened bottle, it tastes horrible.

Some people say the wine is still in a bottle shot and should taste much better after 2-3 months, but I am a little impatient. Do I have any hope?
Did anyone else face similar issue?

Thank you ~Urjo.

 

[Tom]

1st WELCOME to a great group
Where in NJ are you and what winery did this? Reason is I run a large home winemakers group in the S.Jersey area.
Bottle shock is real. I would keep it at cellar temp if
possible for at least one month. What grapes did you use?

 

[urjo]

1st WELCOME to a great group
Where in NJ are you and what winery did this? Reason is I run a large home winemakers group in the S.Jersey area.
Bottle shock is real. I would keep it at cellar temp if
possible for at least one month. What grapes did you use?

It was made at Grape Expectation in Bridgewater NJ. I live in Edison NJ. I am new to wine making and can't remember which grapes I used as it was last year.

 

[urjo]

I am storing it at the room temp at the moment at about 70-72 deg. I have about 500 bottles that I have stored in one of my room in my apartment. The only way I can get the temp down is by leaving the AC on all the time. I am not sure if that will change anything for better or what?

But regardless, when the wine is in the period of bottle shock, does it really goes through that much of a change and can it taste wierd too?

 

[Tom]

yes it can. give it somr time. Have you asked the place you made it for their tasteing of the wine

 

[Wade E]

Welcome Urjo, bottle shock is real like Tom said and is caused from compressing air into your bottle y corking it. Some wineries will fix this problem by displacing this air with argon gas or C02 or some other inert gas. Your wine will go through many stages over the next year, almost all for the better but if you dont have stable temps there will be some negative effects also but dont worry about that too uch unless you are planning to keep these bottles for many years. Wine making is a hobby that needs patience you its something you will have to learn, in the meantime you can start making beer as beer making doesnt take much time at all.