My experience with kit wines is that the more "full-bodied" varieties never
really have enough tannin. This is probably due more to the quick extraction
methods at the factory than anything you did or did not do. A "big"
California cab is almost always macerated on the skins for weeks to get full
extraction and something you will not get with a kit.

Also, I would never add tannin after primary fermentation. I've found that
dried grape tannin never really "takes" to a finished wine and only adds a
disharmonious bitter flavor. You could, however, try adding a bit of acid
(tartaric, not acid blend). This will add some tartness.

A couple of other things you might try:

1. bulk aging for a couple of months on medium-toast oak chips or cubes will
add some natural tannin back into the finished wine. Don't overdo it,
though. A medium bodied wine will not gain anything from heavy oaking, other
than a plywood smell. I've found that Stavin cubes work very well.

2. If the wine tastes fine otherwise, hold it and blend with something more
full-bodied, like a cabernet or shiraz kit down the road - cabernet and
merlot make a great classic blend. You can easily bulk age your wine for a
year or more, provided you keep it topped up and make minute sulfite
additions from time to time. The hardest part is avoiding the temptation to
drink it. :-)

Personally, I would probably choose to live with it as is and simply chalk
it up as a lesson learned.

Steve K

"Wino-Nouveau" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I have had very good results with my own grapes and cans of juice
> (Alexander) and decided to try a 6 gallon Kit. It is a Winexpert
> Merlot. I have read repeatedly that a kit should be made exactly
> according to the instructions for the first time. (Unfortunately, I did
> not follow the "extended" instructions on Keller's website).
>
> This wine kit started out with a very low s.g. of 1.080 and very low
> acid. It is now at day 32 and I find it to be very very bland! The
> acid is about .55%, pH is about 3.4 and does not seem to have much
> tannin (in addition to the low abv).
>
> I plan to bulk age it for at least a few more months ( in addition to
> at least 60 days in the bottle to recover from bottle shock). At this
> point I need to live with the low achohol but I think I need to add at
> least 1 1/2 tsp of tannin and at least a few tsp of tartaric acid. I
> can check it again in 30 days at the next racking.
>
> Is there any reason why I should not do this? Is it too late to add
> tannin and acid? Is Is there a better way to salvage this wine? (On
> the next kit, I plan to boost the tannin, acid, and s.g. prior to
> primary fermentation.)
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Roger L. Pelletier , Aurora, NE USA
>