Will a red WOW improve with age

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GDog

GDog

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Will a red WOW improve with age like a kit or country wine?

Bottled my two batches last night, (made 7th December) and it's not really to my taste.. Tastes like alcoholic juice, not red wine - no body. Dark rose in colour, crystal clear.

-One is x3 litres asda red grape, 640g sugar, and the usual x3 tea bags.
-One is x2 litres grape, x1 litre blueberry, 700g sugar, x3 teabag tea.

The pure grape is probably the better of the two. No camden or finings used, just redbush tea and time...

Happy to stick them in the garage for 6 months, so nothing lost - I've thoroughly enjoyed the experiment and they will get drunk one way or another, and at 50p per bottle the cost is not a factor..

A mid range kit is next I think until the fruit is back on my trees....
 
I've only made the the 2RG 1B version of this. Tried a bottle just short of a month after bottling and had improved since initial bottling day. Light and Beaujolais like but expecting it to mature . I've stuck them away for 6 months. I've found they do change with age, but all down to personal taste.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just a dumb question... what does wow stand for? Wine something something, or something something wine..
 
I would say a WoW peaks at about 2-3 months old, flavours have married well by this time and the initial "fresh" alcohol taste has long since gone, if it's more body you want on your next batch you can try adding some raisin's, @Tau is forever experimenting with all manner of fruit and can give you some good pointers.
 
Thanks Chaps - I have been wondering if there was any fruit I could experiment with to add a certain something.. I'll have a search, but will label them up to leave well alone until April, I'm trying to cut down anyway :whistle:

Speaking of @Tau - I hope my post isn't tactless, as the methods I followed I stole off him, that isn't at all my intention.
In fact re-reading initial post , and my half-asleep wording I think that could be the case (tactless).. It's just personal taste, in fact I've just given 2 bottles from the dozen made to a lad at work and he's tasted one just now and loves it !
Apologies anyway if that's how it came across - people take the time to share their recipes, and it's up to the individual to experiment and try them..
 
It was just experimenting on my part, I was convinced that I could get a red looking wine without using a camden and using the redbush as the preservative and anit-oxidant. Which in part was successful, just bottled exactly same as @GDog today, thought the 2 red grape and blueberry was a pleasant light red and the 3 red grape was dominated by the redbush flavour Beaujolais like, but had some body, not a great amount though. Should improve over the next couple of months, although drinkable now. Tannin and flavours with rebush and the malic in the grape juices will mature, how much I don't know. Maybe I'll try a 4 ltr grape at some point with a low foaming yeast and empty the rebush and tea bags into it rather than making a tea.
 
last night i fancied an impromptu Thursday drink, and had nothing in other than not-ready country wines, and the remaining ten bottles of WOW.. I think i tasted them too soon and too cold the other day when bottling - as at room temperature a bottle of the pure grape was very drinkable last night .

Still perhaps missing something, so perhaps x4 l grape would add more flavour like you say, rather than 3l.

Have you considered/tried adding supermarket fruit to a supermarket juice, like currents mentioned earlier? @tau
 
I agree with chewie, they are at their best from 3 -6 months, after that they start deteriorating, I was used to country wines that usually need time to come good, and applied this ethos to wows but found that wows, and turbo cider, are best drunk by about 6 months.
 
GDog said:
last night i fancied an impromptu Thursday drink, and had nothing in other than not-ready country wines, and the remaining ten bottles of WOW.. I think i tasted them too soon and too cold the other day when bottling - as at room temperature a bottle of the pure grape was very drinkable last night .

Still perhaps missing something, so perhaps x4 l grape would add more flavour like you say, rather than 3l.

Have you considered/tried adding supermarket fruit to a supermarket juice, like currents mentioned earlier? @tau
Click to expand...

Raisins would improve the vinosity of a red grape wow (any wine) somewhat, just adds an extra step in the racking and a adjustment on the sugar added. 3 ltrs with 500g of blended or finely chopped raisins would add quite a bit of body and flavour. At some point an easy wow becomes just wine when you start adding fruits where that line is I don't know! Might be a curved and wobbly line :)
 
yeah, i was thinking maybe 500g raisins, but just guesstimate with how much less than the 640g sugar used previously. I doubt the hydrometer or even the raisin packet will tell how much sugar is going to be extracted from the fruit over 5-6 days of stewing on the pulp.. I'll check the packet and have a go..

As for Elderberries, I wish I'd kept a few smaller bags frozen, its definitely a 'mixer'. My best wine to date (by a mile) was an accidental mix of blackberry and elderberry (much more BB than EB) - just using up what was in the freezer after the single unmixed batches were done. Luckily I wrote down the recipe and weights !

On their own, the Blackberry is too 'rose' for my taste but delicious at this v.v.vearly stage, and the Elderberry is disgusting.

Al
 
fantastic, thanks both - bedtime reading there !!! (as well as my CJ Berry book I got for xmas)
 
GDog said:
fantastic, thanks both - bedtime reading there !!! (as well as my CJ Berry book I got for xmas)
Click to expand...

Watch out for berry's sugar, always way over needed, he racked maybe ten times a wine before bottling reducing the sugar content. Saying that he lived until he was 84 :-o
 
tried anther bottle last night, and its settled down already and has lost the alcopop initial taste.. No headache either, I'm going for a run in a sec !

This stuff is perfect for when you fancy a drink, but have nothing in or ready, and to save opening a country wine too early. In fact I've got another batch on already, but have added 500g Sultana's instead of some of the sugar. Bit messy, and the sultana's have made it rose not red but we'll see.

Picking up some dried elderberries today, and dried currants for x2 more batches :lol:
 

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