Cellar Craft OK, I wished I hadn't done that

[FABulousWines]

The Argentine Malbec has been on the Hungarian cubes for two weeks, so I took a taste.
I wished I hadn't done that. IT IS SO GOOD, OMG! A very smooth, smokey flavor, with excellent mouth feel. I don't know how I am going to resist this one, but I must. Even as green as it is, it is better already than some of the commercial malbecs I have tried.

It took all of my will power to keep from picking up the carboy and start chugging away!
I let my wife smell my breath and she said it was very nice, LOL.

I have no experience with oaking so I will have to see where it is next week. If it gets any better than this (and I am lead to believe it will), then I am in big trouble! I am going to have to do one of these every year for sure!

Thanks for letting me share my excitement!

 

[Julie]

Well the solution is to start another one! And I would leave the oak on for at least 6 weeks. While you are getting a good taste of the oak now, it will fad some.

 

[FABulousWines]

Thanks Julie, I will do that. I've got Watermelon White Merlot in the carboy clearing now and then I will do a Peach Chardonnay. I also have a Washington Merlot in the queue, so no shortage of kits to do right now. I am going to have to pick up another carboy soon!

I'll defer the next taste for 2 weeks and remove the temptation, but I am thinking I will go 6 weeks before I rack it off.

 

[Julie]

I don't think you will be sorry. Hungarian oak is my favorite. I use it in my blackberry all the time and six weeks works well.

 

[FABulousWines]

The kit came with a small amount of medium and light toasted French oak chips in the primary. I definitely noticed the effects of that when racking off to the carboy, but this Hungarian is coming on strong and in a very GOOD way.

My Washington Merlot kit only has American oak powder (I think) which goes in the primary so I may think about adding some Hungarian cubes to this as well. Truth be told, I haven't done a single kit yet exactly by the instructions.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Just be sure to really give the wine time to age and develop. Things will change some once you remove the oak, but it will definitely be better after 1-2 years of aging. I agree with Julie's suggestion of leaving the oak in the wine for at least 6 weeks. Usually oak cubes are fully extracted by 6-8 weeks, anyway.

 

[FABulousWines]

I hear you loud and clear. I already knew that (at least academically), but my real reason for posting was to get encouragement to bolster my will power. Do we have any group therapy sessions for those struggling with the aging of their wine? Maybe I should lock this in a closet and give my wife the key. No wait, that won't do as I will come back in a year to an empty carboy anyway...I shouldn't have let her smell my breath. Dang!

Current thinking is to bottle around the New Year and then forget about it until at least Christmas 2014. I am thinking around Christmas 2015 it should be real nice.