When to bottle for sparkling wine

[hypnoticmonkey]

Hi,

I've made an experimental rosehip and lavender wine, which I'm intending to make as a sparkling. It's finished fermentation and has mostly cleared. I've never really done sparkling wines before (although I know that you need stronger bottles, capable of handling the pressure of bottle conditioning).

Is it advisable to bulk mature for 6 months or so and then bottle with a bit of sugar? Or do I bottle it now* and mature it in bottles?

(*now-ish, I'll give it a few more days to make sure it's fully finished up).

 

[MrJay83]

I made a sparkling pineapple wine about 4 months back. I just bottled straight into Bulmers (Irish) pint bottles and I think I added 4g (don't have my notes) to each and put them under my stairs. Tried one after a month and it was okay but a bit of a weird zing. Tried one every 4 weeks after that and they get better each time.
I used the Gervin sparkling wine yeast. First time doing something like that so not sure what difference it makes to it.

 

[MrJay83]

Forgot to add that I let it sit with the pineapples for 5 days then transferred to a secondary for another 14 days before bottling.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

How many bottles did you do in total? Just wondering how long the 'one every four weeks' idea lasted you...

 

[MrJay83]

15 pint bottles. Sometimes I've had two over a weekend but I've still a good few under the stairs. Actually due another one this weekend.
This was more of an experiment than anything.

 

[MrJay83]

Looking at my notes... I added 4.5g of sugar to each. Seems to be very well carbonated.