3rd rack - now what?

[TStarr]

Hi all - I have been patient, it is now coming up to 6 months since I started most of my brews, and they are due their 3rd racking. Whilst they appear clear, and little sediment since 2nd rack, (3 mths previous), as these are my first I have no benchmark, and have to assume they are as good as they might get.

I had dreams of racking, degassing further, and k-met'g, before leaving for a few more months, prior to sweetening and bottling. However, patience wearing thin, & I would like to get something into a drinkable state, even if I don't bottle immediately. So I was thinking to rack, degas (if any left), k-met & sorbate - leave a week - then sweeten & glycerine to what I think is where I want to get to, then either bottle or leave in dj to age.

So is it ok to sweeten etc now, even if I leave it to age further, or should u only sweeten when you want to bottle? Are there any merits to leaving the wine as dry, unsweetened, until I really, really want to bottle?

The first 2 out of the djs will be a Blackberry and a Pineapple.

Thanks in advance.

[NorthernWiner]

Your plan sounds fine to me.

The only prerequisites for bottling is that the wine is 1.) clear and 2.) stable, meaning that it won't begin fermenting again once bottled.

You can sweeten at any point. De-gassing, contrary to popular belief, is an optional step. My own preference is for dry red wines to contain no dissolved CO2 whatsoever. I don't mind a little of it in whites, though. Country wines probably fall somewhere in the middle.

As for when you choose to bottle, that's completely up to you. I bottle most of my lighter wines with 4-5 months of when they were started, and they are ready to drink in another month or so. Heavier wines (meaning more alcohol and/or tannin) require a longer period before they are drinkable.