Wine a little "bitter" - Time to bottle?

[dmrevis]

Just had a little taste of my wine. SG is 1002, and it tastes of wine but has a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Will this mature out in the bottle, or is the whole batch wasted?
Its about 6 weeks old, and i fined it last weekend. It hasnt cleared much though only a little.
Should i bottle or chuck the lot becuase of the taste? Its a totally home made (i.e not from a kit) wine.

 

[Moley]

Yes, it will probably mature out, given time. It will probably drop crystal clear, given time. Six weeks isn't giving it time, and it's obviously nowhere near ready to bottle yet.

Move your demijohn somewhere cooler and forget about it for a month or two. If it still has a bit of an 'edge' to it, rack it again and leave it somewhere cool and dark for 6 months. Never throw one away unless there's an obvious infection. In the past I've put a DJ of something fairly horrible away, re-discovered it a couple of years later and it was superb.

 

[Aleman]

It depends on the wine, and the ingredients TBH. It could fade with time, but peversely it could linger. What was the wine, and how did you make it?

 

[dmrevis]

I attempted a strawberry wine. Grape juice from carton, tinned strawberries, tannin, nutrient, yeast and sugar.

Well i've bottled it, i figured all i'd lose was 6 corks if it doesnt come good. Thought that there isnt much difference it sitting in a DJ or sitting in a bottle. Or am i wrong?!

 

[Aleman]

It could just be a case of too much tannin . . . which will fade over time . . . . Wine ages better in bulk

 

[Moley]

Thought that there isn't much difference it sitting in a DJ or sitting in a bottle. Or am i wrong?!

'fraid so

 

[dmrevis]

would you like to elaborate?

 

[Moley]

Nope, I gave an opinion at post #2 and you chose to ignore it. That's fine, it's your prerogative. However, just because I've come to this forum knowing next to damn-all about brewing beer doesn't mean I'm a complete numpty on all other matters and that advice was based upon experience, albeit back in the dim and distant.

Six weeks may be enough for some of these kit wines, I wouldn't know, I've never made one and never will, but I expect country wines to take several months to a year. Your grape juice and tinned strawberries would be somewhere in between, same as my grape juice and fruity 'tea' bags.

Anyway, Aleman has summed it up quite succinctly:

It could just be a case of too much tannin . . . which will fade over time . . . . Wine ages better in bulk

Apart from being less susceptible to temperature changes and stuff like that, I don't really know why wine ages better in bulk, it just does. Give it time.

BTW: how much tannin did you add, and did you add any citric?