Hello, I am looking to make a red wine and was wondering if there are any suggestion. I just made a white wine that was a Riesling trio and I liked the flavor. I’m not a fan of bitter wines but at the same time I don’t want it real sweet. Is there a middle ground?
Chris
I would look into a Pinot Noir kit. They’re certainly dry, but are oftentimes much softer than cabs or zins.
I have tried a pinot noir. I wanted something between that and a moscato on the sweet to bitter scale.
Chris
Well any red wine can be back-sweetened to taste. If what you’re looking for is a red with a touch of sweetness, then you can take any varietal, ferment it dry, and once the yeast has fallen and it has clarified, add potassium sorbate and sweeten to taste.
Adding sugar too early will just cause the yeast to ferment it out, leaving your wine drier and more alcoholic. Sorbate prevents yeast from budding, so once fermentation is complete and the yeast have fallen out of suspension, you can rack it to a clean carboy and dose it with k-meta and sorbate. This will prevent the few yeast cells remaining in the wine from fermenting out any additional sugar you add.
Oh. Ok. Now is there certain type of potassium sorbate that I should use? How much would you recommend I use?
Chris
Perhaps the best way to do it is to make your wine kit as usual, and then add a dose of ‘Wine Conditioner’. It’s a liquid sugar with sorbate already in it, to prevent refermentation.
You could also choose one of the off-dry kits that are available. RJ Spagol’s has a Rosso Grande, and while it ferments out below 1.000, it’s very rich and has a smooth, fruity finish. If you want something a little lighter that’s still smooth and without a tannic bite, you could also try their Bergamais–it’s fruity and rich.
