Adding Depth and complexity ??

[fauxfly]

Good day all

Kind of a strange question here, I make quit a bit of wine from concentrate from the grocery store. It's how I got started in the beginning and have just stayed with it. Although I have made many batches from any and all country fruits. I was recently in my LHBS and was talking to several "seasoned" winemakers and they were talking about depth of flavor and complexity of flavor. I listened as they spoke about adding certain spices to a recipe and adding things to "tweak" the flavor of their batches a little bit. I'm not talking about the regular ingredients here, but other things. I'm wondering if this is common to add other things that are off menu. I'm wondering what the possibilities are to do this kind of thing.

Any thoughts or past experiences any one wants to share ??

About the only experience I have to tweak a batch is adding cinnamon sticks to my apple wine or ginger root to my pumpkin wine.


Steve

 

[non-grapenut]

whole vanilla bean and/or almonds, especially in cherry (dried or juice,) pureed white grapes in light wines and pureed raisins in dark wines, pureed prunes in berry wines, whole cloves, hops, strawberries and/or scuppernong/muscadine add musky scent, pineapple and mango add a pine scent and, last of all, blend some unusual combos just for fun! Like peach and chili pepper. I don't care what anybody says, even 1-2 ingredient fruit wines gain complexity with aging.

 

[fauxfly]

Thats the stuff I'm talkin' about. That stuff kind of interests me. I think once you've made a few successfull batches of wine, the next logical step in the hobby is to branch out and see what flavors you can achieve with different combinations of fruit and spices. I've never tried anything in the nut family though. Sounds interesting to me.

I have an old cranberry wine recipe from about a hundred years ago from a distant grandmother and its all sort of strange ingredients, like lemons, oranges, raisins, sticks of white oak. I had a bottle of it not to long ago and it was some of the best wine I've ever had. Very cool.

S

 

[non-grapenut]

just be careful with pecan nuts. Do a search internally and you will open up a whole new can of worms. Thanks goodness we have our forum friends for enlightenment and inspiration!

 

[djrockinsteve]

I have evolved into a time where I will rack from a 5 gallon into a 3 and 2 one gallon carboys so I can blend different items as you have enquired. This way I can have my wine and experiment too.

 

[non-grapenut]

I have evolved into a time where I will rack from a 5 gallon into a 3 and 2 one gallon carboys so I can blend different items as you have enquired. This way I can have my wine and experiment too.

I like to do that, too, so that I can offer various levels of sweetness. Some of my friends appreciate dry, some wet.

 

[Wade E]

Peppercorns will add a nice complexity also.

 

[deboard]

Anybody have a good peppercorns per gallon -> pepperiness in wine scale? I've been liking the chilean merlot, which is a little peppery. I'd like to try some peppercorns, but I don't want to add too few or too many.

Do you add these kinds of things to primary or secondary?

 

[Wade E]

I would add them at bulk aging time myself and use a handful and taste every 2 weeks.