I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to top
up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At worst
I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?

How big is the gap?
Stephen SG
"santos" > wrote in message
...
| I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
top
| up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
| that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
| wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
| much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
worst
| I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
| ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
|
|
|

> "santos" > wrote in message
> ...
> | I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
> top
> | up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
> | that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
> | wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
> | much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
> worst
> | I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
> | ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
> |

You can use sanitized glass marble that will raise the level of the wine.

Sebastien Mailloux
President AVAQ
www.avaq.com

Sebastien,

Just out of interest, what is the AVAQ. I would assume from your name
that it is an association of Quebec home winemakers.

Cheers and best wishes,

Glen Duff
Rockwood, Ontario
---------------------

seb wrote:

>>"santos" > wrote in message
...
>>| I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
>> top
>>| up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
>>| that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
>>| wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
>>| much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
>> worst
>>| I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
>>| ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
>>|
>>
>
> You can use sanitized glass marble that will raise the level of the wine.
>
> Sebastien Mailloux
> President AVAQ
> www.avaq.com
>

Sebastien,

Just out of interest, what is the AVAQ. I would assume from your name
that it is an association of Quebec home winemakers.

Cheers and best wishes,

Glen Duff
Rockwood, Ontario
---------------------

seb wrote:

>>"santos" > wrote in message
...
>>| I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
>> top
>>| up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
>>| that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
>>| wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
>>| much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
>> worst
>>| I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
>>| ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
>>|
>>
>
> You can use sanitized glass marble that will raise the level of the wine.
>
> Sebastien Mailloux
> President AVAQ
> www.avaq.com
>

Why not try it out on a small scale first? My bet is you will not
notice any difference and can safely go ahead.

"Stephen SG" > wrote in message >...
> How big is the gap?
> Stephen SG
> "santos" > wrote in message
> ...
> | I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
> top
> | up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
> | that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
> | wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
> | much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
> worst
> | I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
> | ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
> |
> |
> |

Have you considered this if you filter the sludge and add a little spring
water,
you may get what you require to top up.
Stephen SG
"K.J.Kristiansen" > wrote in message
om...
| Why not try it out on a small scale first? My bet is you will not
| notice any difference and can safely go ahead.
|
| "Stephen SG" > wrote in message
>...
| > How big is the gap?
| > Stephen SG
| > "santos" > wrote in message
| > ...
| > | I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available
to
| > top
| > | up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I
tried
| > | that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some
white
| > | wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the
taste
| > | much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
| > worst
| > | I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white
being
| > | ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
| > |
| > |
| > |

"Stephen SG" > wrote in message
...
> How big is the gap?
> Stephen SG

the gap is about 2 inches from the bottom of the neck, so it needs to be
raised up about 2 inches so that it is only a small surface, right now it is
close to the entire top surface... as for the suggestion of spring water, i
have tried this before with white wine and found that it ended up giving
more of a watered-down taste then i would have liked, i may attempt the
white wine top up on one of the bottles and see, i dot think there will be
much of a difference as the red certainly has alot more body and taste than
the much lighter white, but was curious if there were any known problems in
mixing the two together... the siggestion about the marbles was a good idea,
tho i'd have to go buy those also, and if thats the case i may as well buy
some red wine also i'd hate to have to mess with them in the sludge
later. I'll post results before bottling to see how things go, thanks
everyone for the replies.

The amount of space does not warrant topping of.
However if you feel you must; the white wine would not make any difference
assuming the wine was of a similar format.
Stephen SG

"santos" > wrote in message
...
|
| "Stephen SG" > wrote in message
| ...
| > How big is the gap?
| > Stephen SG
|
| the gap is about 2 inches from the bottom of the neck, so it needs to be
| raised up about 2 inches so that it is only a small surface, right now it
is
| close to the entire top surface... as for the suggestion of spring water,
i
| have tried this before with white wine and found that it ended up giving
| more of a watered-down taste then i would have liked, i may attempt the
| white wine top up on one of the bottles and see, i dot think there will be
| much of a difference as the red certainly has alot more body and taste
than
| the much lighter white, but was curious if there were any known problems
in
| mixing the two together... the siggestion about the marbles was a good
idea,
| tho i'd have to go buy those also, and if thats the case i may as well buy
| some red wine also i'd hate to have to mess with them in the sludge
| later. I'll post results before bottling to see how things go, thanks
| everyone for the replies.
|
|
|
|

"santos" > wrote in message
...
> I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
top
> up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
> that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
> wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
> much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
worst
> I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
> ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?

Go buy some similar red wine and top up leaving no headspace. If you're
using a rubber stopper to seal the carboys, leave a _little_ headspace, but
be sure your free SO2 is up where it should be.

I rather like the pop-off plastic caps that come on carboys of bottled
water. You can top completely full, and not worry about thermal expansion
blowing the bottom out of a carboy.

Tom S

Keep the air space to a minimum by topping up with a similar red wine.
Excess oxygen will spoil your wine. Adequate levels of sulfite will
help prevent over-oxidizing your wine but cannot prevent the wine from
spoiling if it is exposed to excess headspace for a long period of time.
You should definitely avoid water for the reason you have
experienced. It is rarely desirable to dilute wine, often desirable to
concentrate it such as in barrel ageing.

You can also rack into a series of smaller containers but that can be a
nuisance at this point. Most winemakers try to make wine in quantities
that are a little more than the volume of their secondary carboy(s) and
keep 10-20% in smaller containers for topping off after racking.

Leaving too much headspace for a significant amount of time will cause
oxidation of the wine and both reds and whites will take on a brownish
tone and a distinctively bad taste, usually making the wine undrinkable.
Once a wine is over-oxidized I am not aware of any practical way of
reversing it. Exposing a wine to excess oxygen is probably one of the
most common mistakes made by beginners and even experienced winemakers
who might become a little sloppy.

Good luck,

Glen Duff


Tom S wrote:

> "santos" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>I just finished racking 2 carboys of red wine and have none available to
>>
> top
>
>>up with and would like to top them without having to add water, as I tried
>>that in the past and ended up with a weak result... I do have some white
>>wine that i can use easily, but I am wondering if it will effect the taste
>>much? or if there are any other reaosns it would not be suitable? At
>>
> worst
>
>>I'll break down and buy a bottle of red tommorow but with the white being
>>ready at hand seemed like an easy fix... any suggestions?
>>
>
> Go buy some similar red wine and top up leaving no headspace. If you're
> using a rubber stopper to seal the carboys, leave a _little_ headspace, but
> be sure your free SO2 is up where it should be.
>
> I rather like the pop-off plastic caps that come on carboys of bottled
> water. You can top completely full, and not worry about thermal expansion
> blowing the bottom out of a carboy.
>
> Tom S
>
>
>