Sparkling Wine Secondary Ferment Time

[Pavel314]

I just put a batch of apple wine from last fall into champagne bottles for the secondary fermentation. I usually leave them for about six months before riddling but occasionally I get a slight yeasty taste. How long do most winemakers leave their sparklers in the secondary ferment stage?

Paul

 

[RobGlug]

I have some rhubarb raspberry fizz that I tried at 1 year old and it was terrible... 3 years later I opened a bottle and it was great. Not just good, but great.

Elderflower was good at 1 year but really good at 2.

Just about to bottle some grape flower and prunings wine, which is a nice wine now, so I'm hoping that 6 months (Christmas?) it will be good.

 

[JohnT]

It seems like most of the champagne makers I have talked to age theirs for 18 months or so before disgorging. The claim is that the longer you age under pressure, the smaller and longer lasting the bubbles. I have no idea if this is true, but they do seem to age 18 months as a standard.