topping off primary's

[zack67360]

hi all. I have made 2-5 gallon batches of lt. bodied wine and have 3-5 gallon primaries of full bodied. no press, so mashed grapes well and put in primaries with no water added to the full flavor batches. needless to say, have a very thick head of skins, seeds, to remove which will leave me lacking about 1.5 gallons room in the 3 primaries. my question is can I add the lt. bodied to the full bodied without messing anything up? already removed the skins, seeds from the lt. bodied and specific gravity is about 1.02. tasted one of them and it is quite good for such a young wine. my other options are to top off with water or buy white grape juice and top off, but this would not be 'my grapes'.
another question if you don't mind. I have enough grapes frozen for one more batch, whatever lt. bodied wine is left in the primary I pull from, can I leave it in the primary until i'm ready to use it? should I refrigerate it?
thank you,
zack

 

[Tom_S]

If you just need a few oz. to top up, I don't think you're going to notice anything by using a lighter-bodied wine in a full-bodied wine. Certainly better than using water to top up with.

 

[JohnT]

+1 on what Tom said. Never use water.

 

[zack67360]

thank you for the responses. used some of the wine to top up. next season really need a press.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

never use water if at all possible - Your PH will definitely will change

You are better off using a similar wine to top off