The Most Important Ingredient

Turns out its patience. Ridiculous amounts of patience. Tonite, in pursuit of bottles to cut in half, Kelly grabbed a couple bottles from old batches I had given up for skunked but not had the heart to dump: a 2007 Merlot from a kit and a 2004 white peach wine from the last peaches we harvested from the peach tree at our old house on Otisco, which Kelly's great-grandmother Florence (Nightingale) had planted. Presumably from a pit of a consumed peach (I guess she was frugal like that).

The Merlot I was not terribly surprised about; it had enough tannins to enable it to stand up to time pretty well. It did still taste a little flat (not enough sulphite I bet) but it was undeniably Merlot. Not sure any more time will help that one out, though.

The Peach wine was out of left field. It was made with a base of white grape juice, and was supposed to be prime at 6mo, a year tops, after that it did not have enough tannins to improve. However, this time, it was... was, summer in a glass. Campfire in the pit, wind in the hair, summer on the Lake. Back in my early days, I was a little over-eager in my use of sulphites, as evidenced by the residue in the bottle and residual sweetness.

So the lesson learned is that sulphites are not just good sanitizers for bottling, they serve a purpose in aging too. Oxygen is the enemy. And the other most important ingredient: patience, bordering on stubbornness.