Moon phase and cider bottling

[The_italian_cider_maker]

Hi all!
A strange question but maybe someone knows the answer.

For the wine is common in some case to bottle when the moon is in full phase or crescent phase for sparkling wine.

Is there anyone who tried to follow this rule or is just a superstition?

I want to try following this rule but I should do this at the end of this month, so if it's no real benefit on the cider then I'll bottle this weekend (waning gibbous moon, which is ok for long age wine or sweet, not sparkling, based on this popular rule). No bottling suggested with new moon.

Thank you all as always and happy and safe Easter!

 

[Epond83]

I have no idea how the moon phase would effect bottling. Sounds like superstition.

What is supposed to happen if you bottle at the wrong phase of the moon?

 

[The_italian_cider_maker]

Boh! I really don't know but I found a lot of articles on the web talking of "moon phases and wine bottling" (most of them are in Italian ).

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, there are some organic winemakers (and cider is basically an apple wine) who follow picking, racking, bottling etc by the moon phases, either for traditional reasons or because they believe there is an effect.

Some people are a bit keen on planting by moon phases since the idea is that the combined gravitational effect of the moon and sun varies according to whether they are pulling together on the same side of earth or on opposite sides of earth. The question seems to be that since this affects tides, what effect does it have on nutrients being pulled up into new surface plants (lettuce, tomatoes, etc) or staying in the root zone of underground plants (carrots, potatoes, beetroot, etc) when they are newly planted. Does this affect the flavour of fruit at picking time by pulling "flavour" from the soil or not. Dr Google and other places have lots of different views on this. The Farmer's Almanac also has plenty to say.

My perception of the practice is that as far as bottling wine etc. is concerned, moon phases just happen to coincide with (or have an influence on) other phenomena that might have an effect. So for bottling, do you want conditions where the gravity level might help sediment remain in suspension or settle. Do you want to bottle something with sediment floating in it? How much difference does the gravity differential make?

Similarly, in fine weather the barometric pressure is high and so wine or cider is less likely to off-gas. So do you bottle in fine weather for spritzig beverages because this retains more CO2 and bottle still beverages in cloudy weather?

Damned if I know the answers, but I am sure that it makes for great arguments! I guess my perception is that it probably makes 3/5 of 0 difference as there are plenty of other significant variables to muck up before you get to what day to do something... but I might be wrong. So, let the debate begin!

 

[The_italian_cider_maker]

@Chalkyt great analysis!
Maybe it will not affect at all.

I'll bottle during this weekend, I'm still in a right moon phase (maybe).

I'll hope the debate will continue!

Happy Easter!

 

[ncguire]

I've heard the fishing is usually best on the days right before and after a full moon, so it makes sense to me. Any time the fishing is slow, it's bottling day.

 

[The_italian_cider_maker]

I've heard the fishing is usually best on the days right before and after a full moon, so it makes sense to me. Any time the fishing is slow, it's bottling day.

Yes I heard the same thing, but in that case I think the reason is that the moon light let the fish see more during the night.