Having problem maturing wine

[richmke]

I made a few kits, and now I have a maturing problem. I started making the top of the line kits, figuring if I am going to spend that much time, I might as well spend a few extra bucks and make good ones. However, now that we have a lot of decent wine around, we are drinking them young, well before they have matured.

I guess I should have started with early maturing wines first. So, my next kit will be the WE Australian Petit Verdot, which I am told will be nicely drinkable after 9 months, and peaks around 2 years.

I think I need to plan my wine drinking/gifting 2-4 years out.

So far all my kits have been WE. That is what all the LHBS carry. Although I did find one that carries Cellar Craft. Any of their reds you would recommend for either quick drinking or long-term aging?

BTW: I actually like the taste of the kits much better than the expensive bottles of wine. They may not have the "complexity", but they are a lot more "drinkable" to me.

 

[Boatboy24]

The Showcase line of kits are very good. If you like Syrah, look into the Yakima Syrah - it is very good from what I've been told and it is being discontinued. I have one at home now, but haven't started it yet. I've done the Red Mountain Cabernet which is excellent. The Lodi Old Vine Zin is very good as well.

Don't be afraid to look online for kits. I've found that even when paying for shipping, I can get them cheaper on line than I can locally. Brew and Wine Supply (one of this site's sponsors) and Fine Vine Wines both have ~$10 flat rate shipping on kits.

I'm still early into this hobby and have a similar problem with aging. What I've started doing is boxing up a case of each wine I make. Those cases are stashed away. The remaining wine is put on the rack. I'm bottling most kits at 6-8 months and try to limit consumption for the first year. Sometimes that works, sometimes not. My goal is to not touch the wines in the boxes until they are at least two years old - but I can still enjoy the wines when they are younger. I also have made a lot of wine and now have enough that I can slow production down and will be able to age things a bit without worrying about a dwindling supply.

 

[jamesngalveston]

a friend brought over a Jerry Garcia Sonoma County Cabernet...we opened it, and it was ok..while he was in the bathroom i opened on of my black berrys and poured a glass, and when he came out i told him to try it.
He said he liked it but, wouldnt pay more then 20 bucks for it.
I told him , it was mine, and the cost was like 1.30.....
new wine maker right there....lol

 

[JohnT]

You seem to have the same problem that most of us have. It is HARD to leave a bottle or two in your winerack knowing how good it is.

Here is what you do... Do not age in the bottle. Age in bulk instead. This helps to remove the temptation.

I age all of my wines for 2 years for just this very reason.

 

[sour_grapes]

Not that I am too far into this, but one thing that has helped me is to have lots of other wine on hand! Before I heard of kit wines, I experimented with aging inexpensive commercial wines. I bought cases of bottles that I thought would benefit from a few years aging, and laid them away. My plan was/is to age them for a couple of years, then consume the bottles at regular intervals over a few years. I wrote a spreadsheet that tells me when it is time to drink the next one from each case. I am doing the same thing with my kit wines. For me, at least, this makes it easy to keep my hands off. In the meantime, I also drink lots of non-aged commercial wine.

So far all my kits have been WE. That is what all the LHBS carry. Although I did find one that carries Cellar Craft. Any of their reds you would recommend for either quick drinking or long-term aging?

Hey, fill me in! The only LHBS I know of is the one I referred to the other day, Northern Brewer on S 108th. I imagine this is the "one that carries CC" that you referred to. (For the rest of you, they carry both CC and WE, but seem to have a better selection of CC at the top end, and a better selection of WE at the low end.) But rich, where are any other LHBS's? I haven't been able to find any others.

So far, for long-term aging, I have purchased CC Showcase Amarone, Lodi Old Vine Zin, Red Mtn. Cab, Yakima Valley Syrah, and Rosso Fortissimo; also bought WE SI Argentinian Malbec and LE Oregon Pinot Noir (arriving in March) for aging. For quick drinking (and early learning), I made CC Sterling Merlot and WE Mezza Luna Red.

 

[Boatboy24]

For quick drinking (and early learning), I made CC Sterling Merlot and WE Mezza Luna Red.

I have a Sterling Merlot that is coming up on 18 months now. Put some away for a year or two. Mine is starting to come around nicely now. I also thought it'd be a quick drinker, but ended up not even bottling it until it was 6 months old.

 

[sour_grapes]

Okay, thanks for the heads-up. To be honest, I bought it as my first kit as a not-so-expensive way to learn how to do a kit with a grape pack. I totally intend to age it. In my response above, I was just kinda embarrassed, for some silly reason, to lump it in with the Showcase kits, so lumped it in with the Mezza Luna kit. This was bad advice, as you point out; the Sterling kits will likely need to age about as long as the Showcase ones.

Thanks!

 

[the_rayway]

I've done a CC Sterling California Cabernet, Malbec/Shiraz, and an Amarone. They were all excellent early drinkers (at about 3 months). The Cab didn't make it past the 9 month mark it was so good!

Thinking I'll pick another of that one up now that they're on sale for $70.

 

[ibglowin]

Just remember the cheaper the kit the faster it will peak but also the lower that peak will be. I would continue to make higher end kits fast for the first few years then after a year or two you can start to taper off. Like JohnT said, bulk aging has many advantages. One of the biggest is that kit wines with grape packs will drop fine sediment for at least 6-9 months. You bottle per directions and I can guarantee you will have sediment in your wine down the road no matter how well you rack. Avoid temptation, look around for a Trader Joe's etc and start looking for things that are "case buys" so you avoid temptation on your young wines that need to age as well as a source of bottles in the future. I started with kits for a year or so and now make wines from grapes exclusively for my red wines. I have some kit red wines that are now 4 years old. These were all CC Showcase kits. Every time I get to the last bottle I wish I had 6 more. They will continue to get better and better with each year you lay them down.

 

[bkisel]

Wow! I and my wife and a bunch of friends and family are apparently easily pleased. We start drinking the wine no more than a month or so after the kit instructions indicates ready for consumption - generally 2-4 months after bottling. I have, because of what I've learned here, begun to do some bulk aging with my most recent kits. I like the suggestions I've gotten about stashing away some bottles from each batch for later consumption but to my taste I simply do not see the need for waiting a year or more before starting to drink my kit wines.

 

[ibglowin]

No need to hold back on the low/er end kits they peak early and do not get much better after 3-6 months time so drink away. The High End or "Ultra Premium" kits continue to develop for years just like any good wine. Yes, you can drink them at 6 months but they will be soooooooo much better at 18-24 months. They are worth the wait.

 

[richmke]

I've been lucky and have driven by Akron, OH twice this year and picked up kits from Labelpeelers. They are the cheapest I have found. But, you add $20-$30 for shipping and ... I'll check out the online stores Jim mentioned, especially with B&W 10% off (better order quick).

LHBS in Milwaukee area:
Northern Brewer on Highway 100
Brew and Grow in Waukesha, near Home Depot/Sams Club.
Purple Foot in Milwaukee

The following are more geared towards you doing it there, but also sell kits:
Water2Wine, brookfield
vinestocellar, port washington
The benefit of these is you can sample many of the kits, and buy a bottle. Great way to find out if you like the wine before you buy the whole kit.

In Gurnee, IL, there is Brewmasters (stop off on trips to Chicago). Good prices when they have a 20% off sale.

Grape Grain and Bean in Manitowoc.

Unfortunately, Wisconsin is a Beer state, so most of the shops are more geared towards beer. Seems like all the shops carry WE, and hard to find any other lines.

 

[sour_grapes]

Rich, thanks for writing all that up for me. I have not heard of, wellll, any of those! Thanks.

Seems like all the shops carry WE, and hard to find any other lines.

Well, at least you know where you can get CC now. That should cover you for a while!

 

[dburling]

Sour grapes - Can you provide some feedback on the WE Mezza Luna kit? I just bottled mine about 2 weeks ago. Wondering how long to let it sit before I start drinking.


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[sour_grapes]

Funny you should mention this. I just had a slug last night and it was pretty good, but it bears some explanation.

I bottled the Mezza Luna mid-September. I first tried it after 6 mos. It still tasted quite young to me, and with what I assume is "kit taste" (KT). I assume that, because it is not a taste I am familiar with from commercial wines, and a number of my kits have that same tang. I decided to wait until 9 months before trying another.

Well, I opened one a week or so ago to use as a cooking wine. It is about 8 mos. old at this time. When I opened it, it still had KT, but was a bit better, I think. After letting it sit for a week (or maybe more), it was much improved. I was surprised -- it did not taste oxidized to me. On commercial wines, I would have expected obvious oxidation after a week sitting with just a cork in a half-empty bottle. (Perhaps my sulfite levels are high? Who knows, no test kit.)

 

[ColemanM]

I have the same exact experience with my mezza Luna. Mine is about 13 months old, but still has a very acidic tang to it. Improves nicely over two or so days after the bottle has been opened. I didn't like it at first, but now I actually crave it in an odd way. Still a low end kit.


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[Uvas]

I made a batch of Mezza Lune Red several months ago and it has a fragrance of minerals that I haven't noticed in a kit before. It smells distinctly like "minerally" well water, although i used the plain water I always use for kits. Had anyone else had this experience?


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[sour_grapes]

I made a batch of Mezza Lune Red several months ago and it has a fragrance of minerals that I haven't noticed in a kit before. It smells distinctly like "minerally" well water, although i used the plain water I always use for kits. Had anyone else had this experience?

By the way, the minerality in wines does not come from actual minerals in the wine. It comes from small, organic molecules in the wine that have that characteristic petrichor aroma.

 

[seth8530]

I suppose I am luck to have never made a kit abd this have not really been tempted by early drinking wines. I bulkage all of my wine until I deem then ready to drink before I bottle too, so that also helps.

 

[Uvas]

Sour grapes, VERY interesting links. Thanks!


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