Checking the Merlot

It is 3 weeks to the day since I set the Beaverdale Merlot going. the results of another bubble check are below:

Day	Time per bubble (secs)	Gravity
0	infinite	1.078
3	2
5	9
9	15
12	18
15	30
21	55	1.000

As you can see, the wine is now getting close to the target of less than one bubble a minute. I decided to take a hydrometer reading in order to see for certain the state of the wine. As shown in the table, the reading was exactly 1.000. The instructions state that the target is 0.990 to 0.994. I'm pleased to see that the wine has made it a long way down from 1.078. I hope it can make it down just a few more points now. Hopefully by recording the bubble rates and gravity with this, my first wine, I will have a better understanding for future wines of whether it is likely that it will drop further points now that its almost at just 1 bubble a minute.

I also had a little taste (just the juice off the hydrometer). It didn't taste unpleasant, but it had a very alcoholic taste - like a very cheap wine. I was a bit disappointed, but hopefully it will just take time for the flavours to mature.