I've only been at this hobby for 8 months, so I still don't know what to expect. But I've noticed a real difference between the reds I've done and the whites. The whites smell good from the start, all throughfermentation, and the bouquet is really excellent after only a few months of aging. The reds are competely different though. They smell very different from whites during fermentation, not really bad, but harsh. Then, after I oak them they smell terrible for a long time. This has been my experience with all three reds I've done so far, two with medium toast French oak and the Super Tuscan with medium toast Hungarian oak. 3 weeks on oak cubes for each wine. Very similar bouquet for all three, so I have to assume this is par for the course.
My first two reds are both 8 months old now, a Cab and a Sangiovese. I blendedthem and bottled them three months ago. I tried a bottle last month, and the boquet was starting to show some promise. More fruit and less oak on the nose. (That's fancy wine talk for "it smells more like wine and less like barbeque sauce") The taste was still what I've come to think of as "young" meaning very tangy, fruit forward, and a bit harsh. I'm assuming these bold tastes will mellow and harmonize with time, and that the bouquet will continue to develop.
Is this really the normal evolution of home made red wine?
