Aged 6 Months Cider ready to bottle

I am ready to bottle my cherry apple wine that has aged about 6 months. It is completely clear and tastes pretty good. It is about 12-14 %. I used E1118 yeast. Only very tiny bubbles come up the sides once in a while (I assume dissolved CO2). The airlock is completely still.

I have a few questions:

1) Would you carbonate it? If so, would I need to add some yeast to the carboy when adding the priming sugar?

2) If I do not carbonate, do you think it would be safe to CORK?

Thanks
Kevin

I wouldn't carbonate a wine unless you're looking for a sparkling wine. And yes, you'll be fine corking as long as it's uncarbed.

If you decide to carbonate, you shouldn't need any new yeast. I find that just moving the carboys tends to knock up enough yeast to do the job.

I think a little carbonation is always beneficial to a cider, just make sure that you kick up a little bit of the yeast while transferring it into the bottling bucket. It may take an unusually long time (4+ weeks) to carbonate properly, but it will.

After aging the cider for 6 months, the vast majority of the CO2 trapped in the solution from fermentation should have dissipated. If you're still a little bit uneasy about it then you can go to your LHBS and buy a "wine saver". It's a vacuum pump that's used for pumping the air out of an uncorked bottle of wine. If you stuff a carboy bung into the receiving end of the wine saver and use it to create a vacuum inside of the carboy then the CO2 will come out of the solution.

You always have the option of leaving a portion of your batch still, then carbonating the rest after you've bottled that batch. This way you can see if you enjoy it carbonated or not. Also, you can cork whether it's carbonated or not. Your LHBS should sell muselets (more commonly called wire hoods) which are placed over the cork top and twisted to keep the cork in place under pressure. You'll also see people do the same thing with Belgian style beers that are corked.

Just keep in mind that you can't use wine bottles for carbonated drinks.