With the same grape or juice, if one wanted to make a wine heavy or light
(more body or less body) what would they do different. Am gettin ready to
bottle a Cab and it seems light.

Thanls
Crhoff

ferment with different yeasts, ferment at different temps, add glycerol
and/or maltodextrin to the finished wine.

ferment with different yeasts, ferment at different temps, add glycerol
and/or maltodextrin to the finished wine.

A main contributor to perception of "body" in wine is alcohol content.
Earlier in the game you could have bumped up the sugar prior to fermentation
or used a higher alcohol-tolerant yeast to boost the alcohol content, but at
bottling time I think the only option on that front would be blending with a
higher alcohol wine (or "fortifying" the wine with some spirit, like vodka).

Another big component to "body" in wine is the residual sugar content, so if
you want to make a semi-sweet wine, you could add sugar (and potassium
sorbate to keep the added sugar from fermenting in the bottle). You could
also add glycerin, which is usually the main component in "wine
conditioners" sold at homebrew stores (glycerin is non-fermentable to it
won't contribute to refermentation in the bottle). Glycerin has a sweet
taste (so adding it will add some negligible sweetness to the wine), but the
glycerin itself is a very viscous fluid (which I believe is what gives it
the body-enhancing properties). Be careful not to add too much glycerin to
your wine (glycerin is also a laxative ... could make your wine a moving
experience ). Some yeasts generate glycerin as a by-product during
fermentation, so choosing those yeasts could allow you to end up with higher
glycerin levels in your wine ... look for wine yeasts that they "enchance
mouth-feel due to complex carbohydrates" such as Lalvin's D-47.

A final major component to "body" are grape solids left in the wine, and you
can maximize those by not filtering, fining only lightly, and racking less.
Also, note that some new wine drinkers confuse tannin content with "body" in
the wine (so, maybe some modest tannin addition might satisfy those folks,
if the wine will support it).

Jon
[Check out my winemaking homepage
http://users.rcn.com/jcgilliam/Southeast_PA_Winemaker/!]

"Crhoff" > wrote in message
...
> With the same grape or juice, if one wanted to make a wine heavy or light
> (more body or less body) what would they do different. Am gettin ready to
> bottle a Cab and it seems light.
>
> Thanls
> Crhoff
>
>
>

Crhoff > wrote:

> With the same grape or juice, if one wanted to make a wine heavy or light
> (more body or less body) what would they do different. Am gettin ready to
> bottle a Cab and it seems light.
>
> Thanls
> Crhoff

Did you press the grapes? Was it pure juice not let down or was it
bought as juice and possibly let down? Just a thought.

--
Regards, Shane
"A closed mouth gathers no feet!"
Website: http://www.wonk.demon.co.uk/