aging my wine

hello all, i've got a question regarding aging my wine. my plan is to save one bottle of my best batch from the year with a picture of my daugther that year for the label. then when she turns 18 i'll start giving her a bottle every year for her birthday. starting with the one i made 3 years ago when she was born.

my question is, if i'm trying to long term age this do i need to add anything to the bottle? or can i simply keep it laid on it's side for the next decade and a half?

thanks,
ben

The main thing you need to do is make sure the ABV is 10% or more. In wine the alcohol acts as a preservative. on short term wines, (less than 3 years) a lower ABV is just fine but on long term wines you need the high ABV to insure it is well preserved. Also some corks are long term and some are short term so make sure you are using high quality corks with a long term life span.

I've seen where they have those synthetic corks, i'm assuming i can just swap out the regular corks i have for the synthetics? the abv should be very near 10%

LoneTreeFarms said:

I've seen where they have those synthetic corks, i'm assuming i can just swap out the regular corks i have for the synthetics? the abv should be very near 10%

Click to expand...

Sure- I've used a synthetic called Normacorks (or something like that) and they are great.

Unfortunately a 10% wine won't keep very long at all- most wines are 12.5% or higher just because they are preserved better over time. A 10% wine may not be good in a year or two. You can try sulfites to help, but it's sort of a losing battle with a 10% wine.

Yooper said:

Unfortunately a 10% wine won't keep very long at all- most wines are 12.5% or higher just because they are preserved better over time. A 10% wine may not be good in a year or two. You can try sulfites to help, but it's sort of a losing battle with a 10% wine.

Click to expand...

It has been my experience that 10% is the threshold. I had some wine sitting in the secondaries for 10 years (50 gallons of it) one 5 gallon carboy and 45 1 gallon batches. When I finally did something with it exactly half was still good. Of the ones that were good they were all around 10% (with the exception of some apricot which was around 7%) The ones less than 10% had to be dumped. When I said 10% that was the bear minimum. remember the alcohol IS the preservative more than 10% would be better.

thanks guys, i'll try the synthetic, i don't know the exact abv, because i didn't bother to figure it. i thought for sure the stuff would be gone long before a year was out. then swmbo had the idea of saving a bottle a year for our daughter. I'll try the synthetic corks for the first few bottles. I've gotten better at taking notes when making the wine so it shouldn't be an issue with this years bottle just the previous 3 that may end up like vinegar when she opens it. what about wax caps on top. would that also help preserve this?

here is a thought, if you are worried about the ABV and want to make sure the wine lasts, fortify it with some hard alcohol like everclear. You won't need to add a lot and it should not effect the flavor if you go easy especially since you are talking about aging it for 15 or more years. Example if you are at an ABV of 10% in a 750 ML bottle and you get the 190 proof everclear it would only take 18ml or about 3.5 TSP to get it up to 12%.

This is a great idea!
I have a 3 year old son and a 1 year old son and this would be a great idea to do for them.
I have no clue about making it last that long, but great idea!

My Dad made a batch of dandelion wine when I was only a few years old. He made two bottles, one broke during moving, but when my brother turned 21, we cracked open the bottle and all 3 of us drank it. It was pretty hairy and we basically had to do shots of it, but it was a good time and no one went permanently blind...only twitched a few times.