Packlab How long to age Cornucopia (Packlab) kits?

[FABulousWines]

My Tropical Riesling has been clearing for a week and I plan to filter and bottle sometime over the long weekend. I will be using the 1 micron filter in the whole house filtering system with the All In One pump.

I'd appreciate some guidance as to when will this wine peak. The instructions state that on day 28 it is ready to be consumed, but my gut instinct tells me that some age on this would improve it. I also have read that "fruit" wines (if you can call this that) will diminish the fruitiness over time. Also, it being a Riesling base I am guessing the age is shorter vs. a red based kit? So where is the optimal spot? 1 month? 3 months? 6 months?

I know my wife and daughter will be anxious to try this and I don't want to disappoint them with a green wine. It would be helpful to give them an authoritative answer in the event that the response is to wait. I can figure this out for myself over time, but I thought I would ask what experience other folks have had with these sorts of kits.

 

[saramc]

I made the white coconut frascati. It was bottled about 3 months after it had f-pac added, first bottle consumed 6 weeks later. All but a few bottles were gone within 6 months. Ended up filling 3 1-gallon jugs and bottled the remainder. It made a great tropical sangria base by mixing with Twisted Mist Strawberry Margarita, homemade limoncello & coconut vodka or rum. I cannot recall the OG on the Cornucopia kit, so just remember that the ACV will control the amount of time you keep this around. Oh yeah, coconut rum/vodka made a nice add-in for fortification & I do have a few of those bottles in the cellar tagged for the summer.

 

[dralarms]

The cornucopia kits are designed to be able to drink right after bottling. I did a pear Chardonnay and it was good out of the gate. Now after 6 months it was a totally different taste.

 

[FABulousWines]

I bumped the starting SG up to 1.085 and it finished out with an ABV around 11%. So it should last a while from that standpoint. I also adde only 1/2 the f-pack at the end so it isn't as sweet if that matters. It finished at 1.012 after sweetening with the f-pack. The kit by the instructions finishes about 6.5%.

My gut was telling me around 3 months to 6 months, although I don't really think this batch will last that long, LOL.

dralarms, when you say it was totally different at 6 months, how so? In your opinion was it better, or not so?

 

[dralarms]

It was better, but to me it didn't even taste like the same wine.