This was my first time starting with grapes, california cabernet
shipped to Ohio, everything is going fine and I just racked off the
secondary (lots of lees). The wine has a decent smell, but seems to
have an off taste of coffe or something simular to coffee. Is this
just from the young cabernet wine or is there a problem?

Thanks, Andy

> This was my first time starting with grapes, california cabernet
> shipped to Ohio, everything is going fine and I just racked off the
> secondary (lots of lees). The wine has a decent smell, but seems to
> have an off taste of coffe or something simular to coffee. Is this
> just from the young cabernet wine or is there a problem?

I made my first 5 gallon batch of california cabernet in Sept 2002
(shipped to Massachusetts) and had an off taste in the first couple of
months, but that's natural. I tasted just this month (after 12 months
of aging)and it's approaching the taste I would expect. Since I
expected all along it would take at least 18 months for this type of
wine to reach the drinkable point, I am going to wait another 6 months
before I bottle it.

I have noticed that sometimes kits (what I use) with oak chips added
sometimes taste very bitter at bottling. I had one that was so bitter
from the oak that I thought it was ruined. It took about a year for
the bitterness to go away, and it turned into a very smooth red. Not
sure why some oak chips do this.

If you added oak, that might have caused the taste you describe.

On 28 Oct 2003 13:04:50 -0800, (Luap) wrote:
Thanks for the replies, I will just have to wait and see how it ages.
Yes I did add oak from the start of the primary ferment. And the
grapes were purchased from a local wine supplier here in Ohio.

Thanks Again.

>I have noticed that sometimes kits (what I use) with oak chips added
>sometimes taste very bitter at bottling. I had one that was so bitter
>from the oak that I thought it was ruined. It took about a year for
>the bitterness to go away, and it turned into a very smooth red. Not
>sure why some oak chips do this.
>
>If you added oak, that might have caused the taste you describe.