Giving Your Wines Amazingly Long Shelf-Life!

Homemade Wine AgingI am fairly new to home wine making and was wondering what process should I follow to insure that the wine that I make will not have a short shelf life?

Regards,
Dave Yoder
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Hello Mr. Yoder,

The very first thing that I think should be pointed out is that the shelf-life of homemade wine can easily be as long as the shelf-life of any commercially made wine. The home winemaker can perform the same procedures and use the same techniques that are used by a winery to extend the shelf life of their wines.

There are a couple of things you may be meaning by shelf-life when using it in the context of wine and wine making. The first is shelf-life in terms of spoilage. How do you make a wine that will go a long time without spoiling? The second is in terms of flavor. How do you make a wine that will taste good for a long period of time… without it’s character, flavor structure and other agreeable qualities breaking down and becoming decrepit? I’ll try to tackle both of these perspectives:


PREVENTING SPOILAGE:

If you want to extend the shelf-life of a homemade wine, the first thing you have to do is not allow the wine to spoil. Making a wine that doesn’t spoil is relatively simple. There are two basic parts to it:

First and foremost, you need to be sanitary.
By this I mean you need to wash and clean all your equipment, bottles, etc. Make them grim free with soap. This part is mostly common sense.

But beyond washing you need to sanitize all these items. Just because it looks clean doesn’t mean that it isn’t harboring traces of mold or bacteria. When you are talking about allowing a juice to ferment for days or weeks you need to be sure that the only thing growing is the wine yeast. To do this you must destroy all the other opportunities.

Soap does not sanitize. For this you need to use a sanitizing solution. We offer several sanitizers that you mix with water to make this solution. You can read more about them on our website.

The second half of preventing spoilage is to use sulfites.
Adding sulfites directly to your wine, 24 hours before the fermentation is critical to keeping spoilage from starting. It is only added in trace amounts but is very effective in keeping the wine fresh during the fermentation. It destroys wild mold and bacteria. Then it leaves the wine must by dissipating into the air as a gas.Shop Potassium Bisulfite

Sulfites should be added to the wine a second time, right before bottling. This is to keep the wine from spoiling while in the wine bottle. Doing this will go a long way in increasing the shelf-life of your homemade wine.

We offer sulfites in three different forms: Campden Tablets, sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite. Any of these three will work fine. You can find more information about adding sulfite to a wine on our website as well.


MAINTAINING FLAVOR:

Now that we know how to keep a wine from spoiling, we need to know how to make it age better over longer periods of time — without losing its flavor qualities… Its goodness. This is the second part if extending the shelf-life of a homemade wine.

It is important to realize that from a flavor standpoint all wines have a life-cycle. They start out a little harsh; a little rough around the edges; a little bit one dimensional. This is what’s meant when someone says the wine is young.

Then as time passes, they slowly matures into a smoother, more flavorful wine. Depending on the quality of the grape, some wines even become complex and layered with many different flavors that come and go on the tongue with each swallow… something with a bit of marveling character. These wines are now considered to be in their prime.

This maturation of a wine will usually happen relatively quickly in its lifetime. Typically in the 6 to 36 month range, depending on the type of wine. After the maturing the wine is usually at its best — flavor-wise. Then very slowly, year after year, sometimes decade after decade, the wine will begin to loose its positive qualities. It will become less flavorful, more flat and lifeless, more uneventful to drink.

This is the rise and fall of the life-cycle of the wine. How fast a wine lives its life or ages-out depends partially on some known factors. These factors control the shelf-life of the wine to some degree:

  • How Big The Wine Is: Big, heavy red wines that have low pH from tannins and high alcohol, will mature and age more slowly than wines that are light and delicate. So if you want a wine that will keep in the wine rack for years and maybe even decades, make it big. The downside to this is that these types of wines also take a bit longer to mature and become fully worth drinking. They will stay young for longer periods of time. Usually at least 24 months and more likely to be 36 months.Shop Wine Corks
  • How Much Air Is The Wine Allowed To Breath: Yes, wines breath, but not intentionally. In part, oxygen facilitates the aging of the wine. A slow infuse of air into the wine bottle is what is needed for optimal aging. It just so happens this is exactly what a natural wine cork does. It allows extremely small amounts of air to come in contact with the wine over very long periods of time. If the wine is allowed too much air in a given time period, then the wine will develop a temporary condition known as bottle sickness or bottle shock, and in extreme cases, may become oxidized. If too little air is allowed then the wine will age very, very slowly and in many cases taking it forever to achieve its full potential. This is why you see light, fruity wines being bottled under screw-cap… to stymie the quick aging and extend the shelf-life of the wine.
  • How Stable Is The Wine’s Storage Temperature: This factor is related to the wine’s breathing as well. If a wine is being stored in an area that has fluctuating temperatures on a daily bases or even on a seasonal bases: summer verses winter, then it will age quicker and have a shorter shelf-life than a wine that is stored at a constant temperature. This it due to the expansion and contraction of the wine in the bottle. As the wine becomes cooler it will contract just a little. Because it is a liquid it will contract more than the glass wine bottle it is in. This causes a vacuum in the bottle and minuscule amounts of air will slowly seep past the cork into the bottle. The opposite holds true as well. As the wine becomes a little warmer, it will expand causing a small amount of pressure to build up in the bottle. Air will slowly makes its way past the cork and out of the wine bottle.
  • How Dense Is The Wine Cork Being Used: This partially relates back to the stability of the wine’s storage temperature. The more dense the cork is, the less air it will allow to seep past when under a vacuum or pressure. However, if the storage temperature is constant, the density of the cork does not really matter since vacuum and pressure are not being built up in the wine bottle. You will find wine corks with different density on our web site.
  • How Cool Is The Wine’s Storage Temperature: This is mostly a commonsense factor. Wines that are stored at cooler temperatures will age more slowly than wines that are stored at warmer temperatures. So cooler temperatures will extend the shelf-life of the wine. I think this is something most of would instinctively know. Most wine experts agree that a good storage temperature for most wines is 55° F.

Just to recap: there are two parts to extending the shelf-life of a homemade wine. First, you want to be sanitary. Clean and sanitize your equipment. Add sulfites to the wine, particularly before bottling to discourage unwanted growth of mold and bacteria. Second, you want to control air contact and temperature while in the bottle. By understanding and controlling these principals you can control the shelf-life of your homemade wines.

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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

39 thoughts on “Giving Your Wines Amazingly Long Shelf-Life!

      • nooooo! that measure is per 5GAL, and to be specific PH plays a major role with SO2 additions.

    • Ken: It’s all pH dependent but if you add 40ppm at crush, 10 ppm at each racking and 20 ppm at bottling, you should be in good shape.

    • One Campden tablet or 1/16 teaspoon per gallon of sulfites.
      Potassium Sorbate (stabilizer) is 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.

  1. Both my jars of sodium metabisulfite and potassium bisulfite have gone hard. Can I still use them?

    • Hello Rolly, metabisulfite reacts with moisture to generate sulfur dioxide. This is the chemical that protects your wine. If the material you have is hard, it most like is no longer 100% active. It turns into sodium or potassium sulFATE, which does not protect wine. It probably has some activity, but it is not up to par. Metabisulfite is inexpensive, so just buy some fresh material. Buy smaller quantities so you always best quality.

  2. Rolly Polly, I would not use either of them. It’s not likely that they will hurt your wine, but they are not likely to protect your wine either. The fact they they are hard would indicate the excessive humidity has gotten to them. My guess is that they are several years old, and time to be thrown out.

  3. i have been making wines for a few years now never added any type of additive and all my wines have been wonderful so why would i need to add any thing now i have wine that is 2 years old and wonderful all around wine made from fresh fruits no kits i was taught by old italians on how to make deggo red as well as how to make wines as a whole

    • The old Italian method, as far as my grandfather taught me, requires burning a stick of sulfur in the oak barrel before filling it. This, in essence, lines the barrel with sulfur dioxide, which has the same properties as metabisulfite. It is an antioxidant that protects the wine and ensures years of enjoyment. If you don’t use sulfur sticks or metabisulfite, the wine needs to stay very cold in order to maintain flavor and prevent oxidation and off-flavors.
      This is why ORGANIC wines, without any sulfite, has such a short shelf life.

    • Mike –
      I have been looking all over for information on how to make deggo red wine. Any help will be much appreciated.

  4. Dear Kraus thank you for the newsletter the information has helped me improve my wine making process.

    Lynn

  5. I am new to wine making,need all of the help that i can get. I have Winemakers recipe handbook and Frist Steps in Winemaking books. What other book or books would you suggest for things to do just before bottling such as to make Alc. % go up or to sweeten , Plus Stabilize ???g

  6. One of my favorite books is, "101 Wine Kit Tips". It has a lot of good practical information and fits in nicely with the two books you already have. You can find this book on our website under: Wine Making ==>> Wine Making Books.

  7. Hello: I bought an oak barrel to enhance the flavor of some of my wines (I like oak). Yes, I’ve used oak chips, but I want the real deal. My question is, what wine kits are compatable to do a step in the oak barrel? Also, would it be the last step (racking) prior to bottling? Any incompatable wines other than the obvious (like fruit wines)?

    • Hello Dave,
      Store your wine in oak after fining. Sample it at 6 month intervals and bottle when the amount of oak is just what you are looking for. Top it off EVERY TIME you sample. Most wines will need at least 12 months in oak and after 24 months, there is little benefit.

      By the way, oak barrels don’t last that long. Most commercial wineries start by aging a short time in a new barrel and then rotate to older barrels. After 2-3 uses, the barrel doesn’t provide much tannins or flavor.

  8. Dave, in general, you want to stick with heavy red wines for oaking: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, are the best three candidates I would suggest. Barrel aging is a step that is done after the wine has completely cleared and before bottling.

  9. When is the best time to add Oak to your mead ,before fermentation when its aging. How grams or oz. do place in a 10gal container.

  10. Ken, all of the containers of sulfite we sell have complete directions, including the dosage. But to answer your question, you use 1/16 of a teaspoon per gallon of wine. That’s 5 standard wine bottles. You add it to the wine right before bottling.

  11. Doyle, if you are adding oak chips, you want to add them after the fermentation has completed and the wine has mostly cleared. This is the time you would normally barrel age the wine. How much to use is always in debate, but we recommend 2 to 4 ounces for every 5 gallons of wine. How long you keep the chips in there is up to you. We recommend taste testing the wine every 30 days. When the oak character is optimal, remove the chips.

  12. I have 2 persimmon trees in my back yard. This yearI harvested about 6 bushels of persimons and when they finally got really red and extreemely ripe I washed them, removed their stems and seeds, crushed them into a 100 liter food grade plastic container added 5 gallons of water15 lbs of sugarand 3 lbs of raisins, yeast nieturant , pictic enzyme and sodiun metabisulfate and waited 24 hours then added ny chanpaigne yeast.I racked it 3 time in 3 months and you cannot believed the most clear and tasty wine i produced at about 12% alcohol.

  13. William, all fermentations require sugar to be able to produce alcohol. The Rose Hips have very little sugar, therefore you have very little alcohol. You really do need to start all over, only this time you need a Rose Hip wine recipe to go by. Here is one you can use: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques46.asp

  14. I made tame blackberry wine with the same way that I did 2 years ago. The wine is week of the blackberry flavor.What can I do to make it better?

  15. Hi, I have a good source of Rose Hips. I made a batch of wine with some but i did not add any suger to it . I bottled it up after it cleared out but it is SOUR.I thought about pouring it back into a fermentation bucket and mixing it some of my Chardenay. Would this do it any good or should i just throw it out and start over next fall? thanks William

  16. With regard to your info on aging wine with sulfites, was this intended for fruit, your wine kits or both? Also, I read your suggestion to cover the fermenter with a light cloth (tea towel) rather than the fermenter lid with the air lock. I have heard of this before, but never tried it. Is this a better way than with the lid? Great info on how to add the yeast. Sprinkling is much easier and surer.
    Thanks
    Paul

  17. Just a note: I have been making cranberry wine for many years. I have always refrigerated my wines after bottling. Just a note: was cleaning out my wine refrig
    and found a bottle of cranberry wine, labeled ’09 lying on its side. Thought that this would be a great time to try. First a sniff test, was ok. Then poured a small amount into glass for tasting!!! The best cranberry wine I have ever made. The moral of the story is to bottle your wine,refrigerate and forget about it for a long,long time. Then enjoy!
    larry seuling

  18. I have a question on post bottling? I think I remember an article saying after bottling a wine should be left standing upright for 3-4 days? Is this correct? Why? and what is the purpose. Once the post bottling stand then a wine should be laid down to keep corks swollen. Why or should the bottles be left standing for several days before storing laid down?

    • Larry, When the cork is squeezed through the corker it deforms. The time standing allows the cork to reexpand in the bottle completing the seal. Sometimes corks try to push out of the bottle, if this happens on it’s side you’ll have a mess.

  19. In your article on how long a wine last I never saw anything written on effects of Potassium Sorbate in the wine,or a wine conditioner.Could you give us some information on it effects to aging and longevity of a wine?

    • Dan, adding potassium sorbate simply prevents re-fermentation and helps to make the wine more stable. However, if you sweeten the wine and this includes Wine Conditioner, it will help to speed up the aging process by smoothing out the harshness of a young wine but it does not aid in the longevity of the wine.

  20. You mentioned sulphite should be added directly 24 hrs before fermentation. So when should I add the yeast?

    • Helen, you will add the yeast 24 hours after adding the sulfites. Be sure during that 24 hour period that you leave the fermenter covered with just a towel and do not put it under the airlock. This allows for the sulfites to leave the juice so that they do not damage the yeast.

  21. Great article and most timely,it great to see so many useful commits as well. Thanks !

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