Hi guys, I've read alot about tannin Riche. I'm concerned it would impart too much oak as I already use 100g of chips typically included in the kit in the primary and 50G oak cubes for 3 months when aging, and I prefer the oak flavor to come from actually oak rather than a tannin powder. At the current moment I'm using grape tannin which is powdered and comes from the skins and stems (generic wine kitz supply brand). When tasted by itself in a bit of water its a bit earthy, astringent and bitter. So far so good i just don't add too much as I would imagine it would make the wine taste too bitter where I'm looking for structure and astringency. I usually add 1-2 tsp while bulk aging for cheap wines, lately though I've been adding it during fermentation as I heard it integrates better and only 5-15% are really only sacrificial or drop out. However, on the bigger kits I've only just started adding 1tsp while bulk aging so I can taste how the addition affected the wine. Prior to this I just followed the instructions for premium kits, where now I feel that they could use a touch more tannin. Are the Scotts labs tannins any better than what I'm using now? Are they more astringent and less bitter? Do they have any tannins that are neutral and don't add additional oak flavors? Also not sure if it's just me, but I notice that the high end kits seem to be more astringent 1 year later as opposed to when it was young just after clearing...this makes it hard to judge how much tannin to add. Perhaps the young fruit flavor that fades with time masks the tannins and astringency?
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