Okay, I couldn't find any mention of this in our archives.....
Is there a guide somewhere to which fruit/veg wines are worth aging and which are not?
I observe that some contributers claim they have nothing in their cellar older than two years.
I am currently a learner, and have been using Terry Garey as my basic 'textbook'
I had intended to stick mostly to gallon batches and get a large number of single gallons, drink maybe a bottle a year of each, and let the rest continue to mature and make annual tasting notes whilst sinking that years bottle. That way each batch matures obviously five or six years.
I have fifteen or so single gallon batches of fruit, veg and flower wines on the go.
Is my plan feasible, or might some of you say "Sean, nice idea, but really, wine made from (x) should be drunk young and doesn't improve after (y) years." ?
See what I mean?
Do our collegaues with nothing in their cellar old than 24 months know something I don't, or do they just make wine so good they can't keep the corkscrew out of their hands ;)
Sean, I make a lot more grape than fruit, but here is what I can tell you. I have some cherry wine that is 3 years old and I think it's better now. I am down to one bottle so that experiment is about to end. My strawberry is only a year old and I can see the color has changed to more orange, it was closer to a blush color to begin with. It's still very good.
Mead is not fruit wine but it definitely benefits from age. I have some that is close to 10 years old and it is much better in all respects now.
Some make port style wines from blueberries or blackberries and that sounds like aging it would be a great idea. I wish I knew more but just don't have a lot of experience here.
Sean, I have not seen a guide for fruit/veggie wines, but Terry Garey does give you a starting point, and then it should be up to your particular taste buds. Strawberry wine (matures early and some believe done by a year) and a lot of the wines made from frozen juices mature at a year, although I like mine at 1 1/2 yrs. Most of the veggie wines need to mature a year or more (carrot especially) before they are drinkable. Blackberry, cherry, pumpkin, rhubarb seem to taste better beyond a year or two. Your ideas on figuring out what you'd like to do, are good. That's how I did started. The thing is, it is hard in the beginning to "save for later", but it can be worth it. Now that I've been at this for about 5 years, I can pretty much go down in my basement and pick something out. But, one does need to be aware of what one has and doesn't, so something like strawberry doesn't lose everything before you try it. Keep track and write things down. I make 1 gallon batches as well, and of the 20 batches I make in a year I try to make wines which will mature early, some that will take time, and I always try to make something different each year. I also have a list of favorite wines which I make every year. My oldest homemade wine is a rhubarb wine made in 2001. Good-luck and trust your own taste-buds, that's who you are making the wine for (that and significant others & friends). Darlene
"snpm" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Now that I've been at this for about 5 years, I can pretty
Aye, I think you may be me in four years time. I think actually though from all advice here I will go to five gallon batches on the stuff I know by then that I love. Prickly pear fruit is looking like a serious contender. And the monster mass of beetroot I am having my wife put in the ground for this fall :)
But that way, you only get to drink one bottle per year for every batch of wine that you make. Will you be buying a lot of wine? I find that if I have something good in my cellar, I find an excuse to drink a bottle per week (assuming no company comes over), and I can't see myself making 52 gallon batches per year.
As far as aging fruit wines, it depends on your recipe. My first peach wine was made following a canned fruit recipe, and it only had peach flavour for six months or so (it tasted best the week after I bottled it). Other batches of peach, made from fresh fruit, have lasted much longer.
A lot may depend on how you make it. A lot of people make fruit wines at a lower alcohol level. 9 to 10.5%. It will not keep as well but it may have more fruit character. If you make it full strength 11 to 13%, then it will keep beter but other problems may occure. Some fruit wines loose thier color or have other problems when kept too long. Try looking at Jack Kellers site,
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He gives a lot of information about things like how long it takes for a wine to become drinkable. His sight is a welth of knowledge about fruit/vegi wines.
As a rule age worthy wines must have 4 things depending if they are red or white. Both red and white: high enough alcohol to preserve the wine and allow for character developement High enough acidity to preserve the wine and allow for development (both acidity and alcohol drop over the lifespan of the wine)
and for reds you need tannin. Tannin protects the wine from oxidation and balances out the acidity and alcohol.
for whites you need enough residual sugar to protect and allow gradual oxidation and balance out the acidity and alcohol.
Finally, both reds and whites need enough fruit (flavor) to survive the aging process.
For fruit wines it is no different. Wines from fruits that are very acidic and tannic will age well. Elderberry is the classic example. Many many elderberry wines are not even drinkable for 5 years. Wild plum is another, although it is closer in color to a white wine, wild plums are very tannic and acididc and need a few years to balance out. Even if you adjust tannin and acidity some fruits do not taste right when balanced that way (watermelon for instance) or they just do not have the fruit character that survives well withh aging (strawberry).
Look for small dark berries, acidic (such as blackerry) or not (mulberry) make them with an emphasis on fruit and then aim for a bit more acidity than you would want for a quick drinker....maybe in the
0.7-0.8 range. Ferment to at least 12% alcohol.
The other route would be to make a alcoholic (!5%) white wine, with a very assertive acidity (0.9-1.0% TA) and really lay in with the fruit....use extra dried fruit in it is necessary to up the fruit ante. Some of the most prized age worthy white wines are made from botyrtized grapes, which are pretty close to raisins at that point.
Even anot route to go would be fortification. this year I made a blueberry prot that I am fairly confident will last at least 10 years. But that can get pricey....I spent well over 90 bucks to make that 5 gallons (6 lbs of blueberries per gallon).
if you are gonna go through all that trouble use only the highest quality cork you can get. Make sure you get nice long corks too.
Our colleagues with nothing in their cellar older than 24 months are missing out on a good thing. Mead, like wine, responds very well to aging. Even a white wine improves with a year or two of aging. Every batch will age differently, based on the alcohol level, tannins, pH, residual sugar, and a thousand unknown and unknowable factors. But make no mistake, any mead will improve with age. I bulk age my meads for
9-12+ months, and try as best I can to age them after I bottle. I find that most meads reach their peak at about 3-5 years of age. Depending on the entire picture some meads may not improve past a year or two, but most will.
It's up to the mead maker to determine the right time to consume their product. But aging and tasting should be considered a part of the mead making experience.
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