Planning way ahead

I am looking for suggestions for making a wine for my daughters wedding day. She is only 12 now but I thought it would be cool to make and age a wine for 10 or 20 years for the big occasion. Also what kind of cork would you need for a wine that old?

Interesting question concerning the age and timeline. I would look towards the red family of wines as those tend have a longer shelf life over white wines; however I have a french white variety that is about 15 years old and still ok. From there it is going to depend on your tastes and what you are looking for. Anything that requires some time ageing in the barrel will buy you some more time before bottling so that is a consideration as well. The other thing to keep your wine lasting its longest is keeping the air out of the bottle and proper treatment meaning keeping the corks wet by laying the bottles down, moving them very little, keeping sunlight away and temperatures stable and low.

Hope this helps a little, BTW how much vino have you made thus far?

polecreek said:

I am looking for suggestions for making a wine for my daughters wedding day. She is only 12 now but I thought it would be cool to make and age a wine for 10 or 20 years for the big occasion. Also what kind of cork would you need for a wine that old?

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Cabernet ages well. Ever thought of making a mead instead of a wine? Mead ages very well; it's just a thought. As far as corks go, I'd use synthetic, like nomacorks. That's my 2 cents worth, GF.

I'm too much of a noob to be able to advise you on what to make, but once its bottled, this instructable will help you keep it at it's best:

Instructables: How to keep wine