Fluctuating Taste?

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crushday

grape juice artisan
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Is it normal that the flavor profile of wine fluctuates so much? For instance: Two nights ago I opened the second bottle of a LE kit from Winexpert called Spanish Milagro - a blend of 5 varieties. I made it according to the instructions. Here are my truncated notes:

Spanish Milagro (WE) Started 9/2/2017. Bulk aged 10/12/2017 in carboy with two medium American spirals. Bottled 4/16/2018. Opened first bottle on 8/17/19. Good color, nose a little acidic but not much aroma. Fruit forward attack on the pallet but very drinkable. A bit light on the mouth feel. Opened second bottle on 12/7/2019. Not a good experience. It needed 2 hours of hang time in a decanter to really become drinkable. In a word, harsh. Disappointed.

Four months ago I was pretty excited about this wine. Now, super bummed.

I’ve noticed this on a smaller scale with other wines but this has me baffled. How long should I give this batch to come around? And, in your experience, is this normal activity? Does wine get good, regress, and get good again?
 
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Sounds unusual. The progression have seen is that it gets better over time within reason. I've never seen a home made wine get better and then get worse again. Maybe there's something wrong with that 1 individual bottle?

To avoid over-bummedness, I might open another bottle in the case and see if it confirms your suspicions.

My 2017 was too fruity and immature at 1 year, but at two years I've been quite happy with it, drinking it here and there and giving it to wine making friends. In fact I only have 2 cases left of Primitivo and 1 of Cabernet.
 
wine can fluctuate as it ages. envision and oscillation(+to-to+ etc) that reduces it amplitude with time to nothing. taste of wine can be similar. just hang in there try another bottle soon and keep tract.
 
Don't stress about it. So much affects our taste buds. Try the next bottle with different food, different serving temperature, different room, glass, music, so on and so on. Decanting is not terrible thing either. Worse case - you end up blending with something. Stressing about it makes the taste different as well.
 
With both kits and wine from grapes, I've noticed lots of ups and downs during the aging process, most notably for my wines when barrel aging. Have had them go in full and fruity, taste like oak water with astringent tannins months later, only for the fruit to re-emerge later down the road. Despite the ups and downs, they've always seemed to come around before their time in the barrel was done, and it seemed that the most dramatic improvement was during the time after being bottled and sitting undisturbed in bottles for a year or two.

I wouldn't get overly stressed about taste fluctuations in young wines, let them go through their chemical changes. If it tastes bad at 2 - 3 years old, that's a different story.
 

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