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I've had three gallons of wine under the stairs for a while now, 2x elderberry (from cordial) and 1x plum (from frozen). All have been racked (and tasted quite nice at that time) and have been showing no further signs of fermentation. The plum will definitely need degassing and I have a Vacuvin ready for when I bore out a bung to fit it.

Is chemical stablising essential? Do I risk anything by not stablising these wines before bottling?

I don't use any chemical stabilisers. We just leave it in the demijohn for a few months then rack it again and bottle it. We've not had any problems thus far, although we haven't had any lasting more than a year.

Thanks Maggie. I'll do a degas, let it settle, rack and bottle. The plum was slightly fizzy with dissolved CO2 when I last racked it.

GA hit the nail on the head (why so cruel to nails, GA?). You don't need any chemical stabilisation as long as the wine was made cleanly. The nail in this case was GA saying that her wines don't get older than a year. If you were thinking of making something for storage for three or five years, then I'd be a bit more concerned unless the wine was of the order of 15% ABV or more.

Then again, I found this gem on the net (concerning the use of sodium metabisulphite) ...

"Used at bottling in homeopathic doses it does little or no damage to the flavour of the wine, and can help to protect it from being mishandled."

Made oi larf, did that.

Mike

MKG wrote: "Used at bottling in homeopathic doses it does little or no damage to the flavour of the wine, and can help to protect it from being mishandled."

Does that mean I need to start a fourth demijohn? Fill with water, add the stabiliser and then carry on as normal with the original three bottles making absolutely sure that the contents of the fourth demijohn never have the opportunity to contaminate the first three?

The plum wine should be a strong dessert wine around 16-18%, the elder was (from memory, I need to check my notes) aimed at 12-14%. It is possible (though perhaps not likely) that I will keep a few bottles from these brews for a period longer than 12 months, but very unlikely they'll last three years!