Perhaps missed opportunity to add oak chips to wine...

I brew beer. I've done some reading re: wine making, but not much. I am making wine because my sweetheart asked me to make some wine. Admittedly, I have not been attentive to the wine.

To the question: I bought some fresh cabernet grape juice trucked in via reefer to the LHBS. The store had yeast starters active and ready to pitch - bought it. Also bought a Malo-lactic culture.

3 weeks on yeast, racked. Pitched ML because attenation was in appropriate zone. Left it on the ML for 3 months. Racked again.

I realized I never put in oak chips. Is it too late? Thoughts?

Thank you

If you are planning on aging it then you can add the oak chips now but if your going to drink it young then there isn't much of a reason to add them. Next time add them when you rack for the first time.

Honda88 said:

If you are planning on aging it then you can add the oak chips now but if your going to drink it young then there isn't much of a reason to add them. Next time add them when you rack for the first time.

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I am planning to age. Thank you for the advice.

Next question: when I add, how long to let them sit?

Finally, I'm assuming I'll need to keep the carboy full up. No racking back into headspace, right?

Thank you for any further thoughts

I left my merlot sit on oak cubes for 8 weeks (after stabilizing and a long secondary) and it got a nice oak flavor. Medium toast french cubes.