Sediment in bottles

[kevinlfifer]

I must have bottled my RJS Super Tuscan to soon. All the bottles have nasty looking sediment. Not Tartate, just sludge. It looked dark but clear when I bottled. The flashlight showed thru the carboy quite clearly. I did follow all the timelines in the instructions and the SGs were all on target or lower.

Will it adversley affect the quality? If not, I can stand it by leaving bottles vertical a week or so then decanting prior to drinking. Some of the best wines I've ever consumed had large amounts of sediment.
or
I could empty all the bottles into a carboy, let it re-settle, then re-rack/re-bottle.

Sugestions?

 

[GreginND]

How much do you have? I don't think it is probably worth it to empty the bottles. As you suggested, stand up for a week and decant. It should be fine.

 

[ibglowin]

You certainly would not want to give any of those away to friends/family. I would return them to carboy and let it settle for a few weeks and then rack once more and then rebottle. This is why many of us bulk age for months and months. Especially on a kit with a grape pack or skins. They will drop sediment for up to 6 months.

 

[Runningwolf]

If it was mine I would dump it back in carboy for several weeks, rack and let it set at least another 3-4 weeks to see if anything else drops out of it.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

You could always keep the bottles upright, let the sediment continue to settle in the bottles, siphon the wine off the sediment in the bottles.

 

[JordanPond]

My first grape skin kits are 6 months into bulk aging. I racked them into another carboy recently and was amazed at how much sediment had settled out. This is after I did the normal clearing process. They'll spend a couple more months in the carboy before bottling.

 

[tonyt]

Yep, just bottled a big red w/grape pack that bulk aged 7 months and still had a layer of sedimont in the carboy. If you do uncork and age more remember to add another dose of k meta.

 

[cpfan]

The Winery Series instructions that I found online suggest bottling after 42 days. That is WAY too early. These kits set a TON of sediment. Patience Patience Patience.

Steve

 

[DoctorCAD]

I just started a grape-skin kit Tempranillo and am doing a 90 day ferment. I will do a medium filter and let it sit another couple of weeks before bottling. Hope that is enough.

 

[g8keeper]

reds in general, especially big reds, even commercially made, have a tendency to continue to throw sediment in the bottle over their lifespan...hence the reason most people prefer to decant their reds prior to serving...with as young as your wine is, i agree, probably better at this point to pour back into a carboy and let it bulk age for a while to at least let more sediment drop out that way....but like i said before, no matter what you will most likely at some point still wind up with sediment in those bottles if they sit for quite sime time....only difference is the amount of sediment, and at this rate, you will have a very large amount of sediment in the bottles if you don't put it back into a carboy and let it age that way....

 

[robie]

Most of the instructions, IMO, have you bottle way too soon.
If you do rebottle the wine, which I would do, I would add 1/8th to 1/4th teaspoon of Kmeta at least a couple days before rebottling.

 

[kevinlfifer]

Thanks All

I'll stand them up for a month, decant them into a carboy, top with some argon and wait and re-bottle into the same sanatized bottles to save the lables.

I don't give the high end stuff away, they always want more.

Thanks for the help

 

[robie]

Thanks All

I'll stand them up for a month, decant them into a carboy, top with some argon and wait and re-bottle into the same sanatized bottles to save the lables.

I don't give the high end stuff away, they always want more.

Thanks for the help

You will need to re-sanitize those bottles just before you refill them.
Using argon for topping off will require you to reapply a layer of argon about every week or so.