[Allotment Jon]

I am new to wine making but with excess fruit on the allotment decided to give it a try. Have recently done first 2 kits that are nearing end of fermentation. I was going to bottle 1 gallon and store the other in the fermentation bin in a cuboard as I have been told wine is better when stored in bulk.

Can anyone offer any advice regarding this and also as I have the newer plastic fermentation vessels should I invest in the older glass type when storing for longer periods.

[Stripey_cat]

You need to store it airtight - a fermentation bucket isn't suitable, but demijohns are.  Food-grade plastic should be perfectly safe, but you need to pay attention to the stoppers - rubber bungs in particular degrade over time, so keep an eye on them.

[SG6]

As stripy said it needs to be airtight.
General method of stopping all fermentation is a cambden tablet per bottle.

Have to wonder why it is best stored in in bulk?
I have no great knowledge of wine storage but all the wine producers make it then bottle it then store it, 75cl bottles.
Seems to have worked for quite a few hundred years now.

On the practical side:
Not easy to serve from a demijohn
If you use say half the demijohn then the air could send the remainder off if not used pretty quick.

[David.]

I am new to wine making but with excess fruit on the allotment decided to give it a try. Have recently done first 2 kits that are nearing end of fermentation. I was going to bottle 1 gallon and store the other in the fermentation bin in a cuboard as I have been told wine is better when stored in bulk.
Can anyone offer any advice regarding this and also as I have the newer plastic fermentation vessels should I invest in the older glass type when storing for longer periods.

The reason (or one of them) for bulk storage being best is supposed to be that it is less susceptible to temperature fluctuation, so even round glass demijohns are supposedly better than square plastic ones.
With ribbed plastic ‘demijohns’ you need to tap the sides/wiggle a bit occasionally to prevent sediment build up on the ledges, or this will be disturbed when racking.

You need to store it airtight - a fermentation bucket isn't suitable, but demijohns are.  Food-grade plastic should be perfectly safe, but you need to pay attention to the stoppers - rubber bungs in particular degrade over time, so keep an eye on them.

I only use rubber bungs in demijohns fitted with airlocks until they are replaced with cork bungs for storage as rubber bungs can ‘weld’ themselves to the neck.

As stripy said it needs to be airtight.
General method of stopping all fermentation is a campden tablet per bottle.
………………………………
On the practical side:
Not easy to serve from a demijohn
If you use say half the demijohn then the air could send the remainder off if not used pretty quick.

Campden tablets do not stop fermentation, only inhibit yeast activity and help prevent oxidation (+ some other things) and the correct rate is one tablet per gallon.

To stop fermentation you require a fermentation stopper/stabiliser such as potassium sorbate (used in conjunction with campden tablets to avoid a ‘geranium’ smell in your wine).

I very often rack off a demijohn into 3 bottles for further storage and the remainder into a carafe for immediate consumption.