Got a question about degorging.

[swillologist]

I made my first batch of wine last fall. I made it from scratch with grape that I grew. I'm sure I did a few things wrong. One of them was bottling it to soon.I pretty well followed the instructions in my recipe book. It said "When wine is clear and stable tobottle it." If I would have found this website before I did this I would have known better. But now I have sediment in my bottles. I have been reading about sparkling wines. I was wondering ifI could riddle and degorge regular wine? With the lack of a corker at the time thatI bottled it. I put it inscrew cap bottles.That might have turned out to be a good thing if I can do this. I turned a couple of bottle over and all of the sediment went into the cap. Degorging might just work.I think the wine is starting develop in to something good. So I don't want to ruin it. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Joanie]

I don't see why you couldn't riddle, degorge then re cap with screw caps. Sounds like a plan, Swill!

 

[Wade E]

Personally I think that the temp change would not be that good for it and it would be a lot of work that way. Do you have a gravity filter as thats what I would do or just rack off all these bottlesinto a primary with spigot and re bottle.

 

[Joanie]

Wade, the temperature change doesn't ruin the sparkling stuff tho, right?

 

[Wade E]

Touch et! I dont think it will ruin it but just dont think its great for it. And when it is a sparkling wine the sparkling hides alot of stuff and that is why they usually use a lower quality wine to make sparkling as you can get hide a lot of imperfections.

 

[swillologist]

Thanks Joan and wade!I should have told you in my first post that I don't have a filter. I will rack it into a primary and re bottle it. But I think I will degorge one bottle to see if I can tell any difference. Edited by: swillologist

 

[Wade E]

I think you need the pressure from a sparkling beverage that pushes out the frozen plug to do this!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Give it a try Swill...you have nothing to loose.


Personally I think you could riddle for a short time, freeze the neck of the bottles...the plug will come out hopefully with the cap...Let us know how it turns out.

 

[swillologist]

You are probably right wade. I won't be out much if I do the one bottle before I rack the rest of them. But then again if it does something to that bottle, I wouldn't want to mix it with the rest of them. We'll see what happens. I will let you know how it comes out.

 

[smurfe]

How much sediment do you have in the bottles? If it was minimal I would just leave it. Shouldn't hurt anything. It was common in the old days. That's what the punt in the bottles was developed for.

 

[swillologist]

Not a lot but very noticeable. When i turn the bottles over and it falls into the capI can't see it.