Keeping Fruit Wines In Fruity Balance

Monday, December 19, 2011 by Ed Kraus

Hi:

Thank you for your newsletter each month. It is very informative and helpful to me in my winemaking.

I have a question, "How do I keep the fruit flavor in my wine? I end up with about 13 percent alcohol content but am losing the fruit flavor. Could you help?

Thanks
Ed H.
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Hello Ed,

Thank you for all the kind words. We try very hard to bring useful, relevant information to the home winemaker.

What your question really involves is the basic balance of the wine. There are three primary elements in a wine's basic balance profile: fruit flavor, alcohol and sweetness.

Obviously, the amount a fruit that you use in a wine recipe will affect the wine's fruitiness. The more fruit in the wine recipe, the fruitier the wine will be. But there are limits to how far you can take this.

Using too much fruit can create a wine that is sharp tasting. This is caused by excess fruit acid coming from the fruit. It can also create a wine that takes an incredible amount of time to completely age. So there is only so much fruitiness to be had in a given recipe.

While adding more fruit increases the fruitiness, alcohol decreases it. This happens simply because the alcohol is numbing the tongue making it less sensitive to fruit flavors. This is why you will typically find among wine recipes in various wine making books and on the web, that the higher the alcohol level, the more fruit the wine recipe will call for.

Sweetness also plays a role in balance. During a fermentation all the sugars are turned into alcohol, even the sugars that come from the fruit itself. Removing the sugars will lower the fruity impression of the wine dramatically.

The good news is this can easily be corrected at bottling time. By adding a little sugar syrup solution you can bring back the fruitiness. Just a very slight amount of sweetness can bring out a lot of fruitiness in the wine. You don't necessarily need to make the wine sweet. You just need to take the dry edge off the wine.

Add the sugar to taste and then also add Potassium Sorbate. This is a wine stabilizer that will keep the wine from fermenting the newly added sugars. This is what I recommend doing with your current batch. As for future batches, you will want to lower you target alcohol level a little... maybe 11% instead of 13%. This will make a noticeable difference. The wine will seem more lively and less watery.

By working with these three basic elements of a wine: fruit flavor, alcohol, and sweetness, you can control how much fruitiness your wine will or won't have. It is up to you to create a wine the way you like it. It's all part of learning how to make your own wine.

Happy Wine Making
Customer Service

Comments for Keeping Fruit Wines In Fruity Balance

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 by Gene Loehrer:: Nice piece info in a understandable wording
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 by Ronda:: Wow! That was really helpful!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 by Mark Drennen:: Several years ago I was at a wine tasting at a local winery They had a peach wine that they were practicly giving away.It was horrible and they knew it so I bought several cases . I have a little secret that I use with my fruit wines especialy peach.It is bananas, yea you heard me Bananas.Include them in your recipe and you will be suprised at the differnce they make as long as you dont go overboard with them. The peach wine that I bought I fixed by simply going tothe grocery store purchaseing a couple of bunches of bananas ,mashing adding water boiling and firmenting .After fermintation and racking I added it to the peach wine I had bought and rebottled . You can buy a sweetener / conditioner to add befor bottleing or as stated buy customer service add sugar to taste then add Potasium sorbate.
Hope this helps.
Thursday, January 12, 2012 by chris Hilliard:: can you add the bananas and peaches in the same firmenting bucket or do they need to be separate?
Thursday, January 12, 2012 by Dawn:: Love the banana idea. Wish I would have know that last year when I made my peach wine.
Friday, January 13, 2012 by malcolm jones:: I didn't see an answer to the question of chris hilliard of whether you can ferment banana & peach together to make a peach wine.
Friday, January 13, 2012 by Customer Service:: Chris, while you can add the bananas and peaches together in the same fermenter, another idea that I promote is making a batch of banana wine separately. When it's done store it in gallon jugs. Then blend it to taste into wines that you later make. Some wines may taste best with just a gallon blended in; others my taste best with two or three gallons of banana. By doing it this way you are taking better control of the wine's flavor.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by kide Linda:: that was really helpfull information, please keep up