RJ Spagnols Cold Stabilization Question

[Thomas]

Hi All,

Well I've been bulk aging my Grand Cru Washington Merlot for about 5 weeks now and contemplated bottling this weekend.
The wine was a little flat following stabilization so I added a little acid blend. While still a little tart, the wine is mellowing out.
I thought about bottling this weekend when I remembered that I have a small beer fridge sitting empty. I gutted the thing to pleasantly find that it fit a carboy perfectly!
My question now is how long to keep the wine in the fridge since its been bulk aging for 5 weeks. Anyone think that the acid will drop out and mellow out my acid blend addition?

 

[ibglowin]

Too late now but acid blend is normally only used in country wines etc, not wine from grapes as it contains not only tartaric but also citric and malic in varying ratios depending on the manufacture. Normally 2-3 weeks is enough time to cold stabilize in a fridge/freezer. Oh and 5 weeks is nowhere near enough time to really judge a wine. Patience, patience, patience…..

 

[Thomas]

Thanks for the feedback! I agree that 5 weeks is no time at all to judge a wine, but this was supposed to be my early drinker being a 5 week kit. I was not too impressed with the Grand Cru kit so I tried tweaking a little.

Its a good tasting wine, just a tiny bit tart now. I might try to balance the tartness with a little bit of conditioner. Any thoughts on that?

 

[salcoco]

I would recommend a sugar syrup addition based on bench trials. make sugar syrup 2 cup sugar to one cup hot water, use a blender. let syrup cool. measure 1/4 cup=60ml or use some other measurable amount into three or four glasses. use the first sample as control, add 1/4 tsp=1.25ml in first, twice this in second, three times this in third etc. taste samples to find the one you like. compute quantity to add to bulk wine. addition of sugar syrup will not make a sweet wine but will balance the tart taste, that is why a bench trial with the samples is performed. If you want to further reduce risk take a large sample say 500ml make selected addition from bench trial wait a week or two and taste as see if profile is still good. when syrup is added to wine make sure you add sorbate and k-meta wait one week to bottle.