Dave, I may be quite wrong, but I've always considered that the day the primary fermentation is complete as a starting date for a particular wine; meaning I put that date on my bottles, and I use that date as a basis for bottling and aging. Since most of my primary ferments last about a week (meaning the SG is 1.000 or below), I start counting that wine as complete, even though it still needs to be racked, bulk aged, bottled, and bottle-aged. I've followed a number of Jack's recipe's with this idea in mind. I believe if he says bottle and age a year, then I would age a year. But this doesn't mean I wouldn't try a bottle before hand just to see how it tastes. Everyone's taste buds are different - its your wine... I realize this is a long time to wait, but if you alter the types of wine you make right now, then you can have enough to drink while you're waiting for the others to age properly. I alternate between making wines which need a long time to age (like pumpkin, carrot, blackberry, plum) and wines that will mature quickly, like strawberry and some of the frozen concentrates which are ready to drink at 6-9 months. I believe it took me about 2-3 years of making wine to get my cellar going, so that I can pick and choose from what's available. Darlene
Bordeaux Style 100Andy You have made some valid points. The whole problem as I see it is the naming of BLENDS. Naming a wine after a single varital is no problem. Surely, however, you have...
Floor corker malfunctioningThe following is a scenario I've seen on 2 separate Italian corkers: as the handle is brought down the side links start to push the jaws closed; just before the bent...