No apologies necessary. You're at a point I wish I was at. I'm still
building up my reserves, and I don't bulk age very long. I'm hoping to begin
bulk aging for longer periods of time next year. I basically make fruit,
veggie, herb, and frozen concentrate wines. I agree with you on everything -
we shouldn't fiddle too much with our wines and patience is an important
part. Most of us are not where you are though, with many years of
experience, and with a lot of wines in reserve which have already aged. A
lot of us are new at this or relatively new at this, and it is just a
different perspective.
For example, I'm sure you never have bottle sediment with the extended
bulk aging you do. I usually don't have any sediment either, or if I do, it
is a very light dusting (which I can live with) until I build up my
reserves. I usually bottle at 7 months, which for some wines is early. I
think some of the recent posts we've had are due to bottling the wine too
young and not realizing that more sediment will fall out. And that comes
from experience.
Darlene ;o)
Wisconsin

"pinky" > wrote in message
. uk...
> There might be a bit of a misconception here.
>
> I do not only refer to making wine with kits and I make "country wines"
> ( so called) regularly, though no longer on the scale that I used to do --
> due to lack of storage space in my small flat ( apartment to you in US).
> My well ventilated bedroom is also my fermenting room and bulk store (
> after all I only sleep in my bedroom!) and I can additionally store about
> 200 bottles on racks in my larder. My main country wines these days are
> blackberry ( with a tad of elderberry), apricot ( a favourite of mine) and
> rhubarb -- still a tremendously useful wine to have a couple of 1 gallon
> jars of in reserve and strawberry. I make strawberry every year but others
> now every other year. My fortified elderberry is made every 3 years or so
> these days (but goes through a very different aging process). The trouble
> is that country wines do generally need a couple of years in bulk storage
> ( not strawberry).
>
> In my original post I referred specifically to bulk storage. By this I
> meant the time after which my wine sits in it 24 litre glass carboys and
> is NOT disturbed at all -- not even moved from its position until the day
> I come to bottle it.
> Before this time all necessary interference with the wine has been
> completed and all lees have settled out.
> There will be, inevitably, a very minor dusting in the carboy after bulk
> aging but this will not affect the wine in anyway.
> If, for any reason, I have to check the wine under bulk store, during this
> resting time by taste or other test I might a readjust the SO2 --- but
> very rarely. It would be very very unusual for me to have to rerack the
> maturing wine during this resting/maturing period.
>
> I am not an expert in winemaking by any means except that most of my
> methods are as a result of long experience. One of the prime things I
> learned ( learnt?), many years ago, is that there tends to be too much
> "hands on" interference with wines during all of the wine making process.
> Too many hydrometer readings taken, too many peeks under the lid to see
> what is happening, --- too much being "busy" with the wine. You have only
> to peruse the columns here to see what I mean! Wine benefits by being
> left to get on by itself. It is robust and likes to make itself. Wine
> likes to trundle along in its own way without being rushed -- as, I
> suppose, do I!!
> am sure that I do several things "wrong" by modern standards and long
> experience is by no means necessarily "right" -- but I have only ever
> once thrown away any of my wine -- last year as a matter of fact. I
> came to bottle my last 1 gallon ( imp) of my fortified elderberry (vintage
> 1998 ). which had been sitting gently in a remote corner, sealed off and
> undisturbed for several years.
> It turned out to be neither fortified, nor elderberry, nor indeed wine
> any more. I don't know how the labelling mistake was made but when I
> cleaned off the dust from the jar ( I always write on the carboy as well
> in felt pen) I found it to be a gallon of a kit wine ( out of 5 which I
> had made for a friend) Anyway it wasn't wine any more or of any other use
> and was poured on my flowerbeds!
>
> Apologies for the long ramble! ( or should that be "bramble")
>
> --
> Trevor A Panther
> In South Yorkshire, England
> Remove "PSANTISPAM" from my address line to reply.
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> "pinky" > wrote in message
> . uk...
>> Why are you adding sorbate after bulk aging?
> <snip><snip>
>