Will this wine mellow?

[MrsCordial]

My first batch of tea bag wine - the one I over-sugared and had to split out and re-yeast three weeks ago - has now finished fermenting. More details here about SG and so on.

It tastes thin and sharp. If I bottle it now is there any chance it will mellow, or am I going to need to sweeten it with something? I have so cordial I made over the summer that is a little low on flavour but plenty sweet enough so a few drops of that might help. Atm the wine is racked and sitting in plugged DJs. I'd like to reuse the DJs for damson port now, as I have about 20 lbs of damsons in my freezer! Ever the optimist here...

[Hazel at the Hill]

In my experience, all wine benefits from being in a bottle for some months. I'd leave the bottles at least six months. If it's still mouth-puckeringly sharp, drink it as a spritzer with a dash of lemonade.

[Kirk]

They improve with standing, however the "thin" aspect will never develop into body. Equally there isn't much generally in a teabag wine to give any body. I don't know the original recipe.

I guess the basic recipe was tea bags, raisins and a lemon as the main ingredients, not a lot of body will come from any. Did you add bananas? Was there any fruit juice as a base - white grape, pear?

The sharpness could be tannin from the teabags, that will need time to soften.

[rustylady]

It's not teabags Kirk, it's fruit teabags.

[MrsCordial]

Oh well, I've bottled it today and we'll see what it comes to. I'm happy to tinker about with it a bit to make it drinkable, after it's had a few months to mellow.

[Two_Sheds]

Don't chuck it.

Carry on with your next batch. One duff doesn't mean you can't make wine, and it doesn't mean the wine is no use either.

Get something going with elderberries (that stuff has BODY). You can always mix your elder wine (whatever recipe you decide to use) with the tea bag wine, either just in the glass or in the DJ.


ie, use the Teabag Wine as a mixer.

[MrsCordial]

That's a good idea. I had to sort out some freezer stuff the other day and was surprised how many elderberries I had.

I'm not actually that discouraged - I know it's an art and I won't master it in five minutes. At least using foraged fruit and cheap ingredients I'm not making too much of an investment as I take my baby steps.