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

Wino-Nouveau wrote:
> 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

Any chance you've added too much water in the beginning? The numbers
sound low.

FYI - you can't reliably measure TA on kit wines before fermentation -
something in the processing makes some amount of acid bound to other
things and this onl gets released during fermentation. After ferment,
the TA canbe measure correctly.

I don't see any problem in anyone adjusting wine to their taste -
that's how it sholud be done. If you add tartaric acid and don't want
to get bitartrate crystals in bottle, you'll have to cold stabilize.

Pp

Thanks for the reply Pp.

Yes , the water was ok and I made sure I mixed everything extremely
well. The instructions said it should be between 1.070 and 1.085 so
the 1.080 seemed ok at the time. But, later I noticed that this is
only 10.6% abv.

You cleared up something that I was confused about. I checked the TA
before fermentation started and got a real crazy result (even after I
did it serveral times and even after opening a fresh bottle of Sodium
hydroxide). Now I know why. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

Maybe I'll skip the acid adjustment and just add some tannin. Looks
like if I had added tannin and adjusted the s.g. prior to fermentation
(like the "extended" kit instructions suggest) I would have been okay.

Oh well, live and learn.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Roger L. Pelletier , Aurora, NE USA

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
>

Thanks Steve ... Your response was very helpful.

When I tasted the merlot the other day, I had been enjoying a full
bodied tannic wine. I tried the merlot again the next day on an "clean
palate" and it was not all that bad (it seemed balance abeit low
alchohol, low acid, low tannin). I decided to leave it alone and drink
it young. My next kit is a Heron Bay Chianti with french oak. I think
that will be more to my liking.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Roger L. Pelletier, Aurora, NE USA