Blueberry Port Question

[GTS]

I have 3.5 gallons of Blueberry wine that is coming along nicely. I plan on fortifying at least a gallon to a port style wine. I have done all the math and know the proper ratios to achieve my target ABV. I will also sweeten to an SG of 1.030 to 1.040, for more of a dessert wine. My question is a pretty basic "chicken or the egg" type question, but I still can't decide. Is it best to fortify then sweeten, or sweeten then fortify???
My inclination is to sweeten then fortify to get the base wine the way I want it first. It may not make much difference, since I can probably make any necessary adjustments regardless of the order, but I would appreciate the input of others.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Deezil]

I would fortify first, as thats the one of the two variables that you know where you wanna go with it. Then sweeten to match and/or smooth out the other facets of the wine - flavor, acidity, alcohol, tannins

 

[GTS]

Thanks for the reply Deezil.
I may try it both ways to see if one or the other method seems to work better. Worst case, I'll have twice as much port wine to drink, if that can be considered a bad thing.

 

[MN-winer]

I did some blueberry port last year and loved it. I basically racked everything to a bucket and started adding brandy and the flavor pak I made. I added all the flavor pak and kept adding brandy until I liked the flavor and it was balanced. Its a personal thing. You will love the port.

 

[greyday]

I highly suggest a flavor pack for the port portion, and if possible mix in some wine grape concentrate to the pack. This will give it a bit more of a porty-feel.

And bravo on the brandy, ignore anything that tells you to use everclear for fruit port (you end up with something too fruity and not porty enough). You can age on oak chips if you want added woodiness, but the brandy will provide a lot of flavor at that ration (I'd suggest a single 1.75 or AT LEAST 2 750ml bottles to make sure you kill active fermentation). I also suggest back sweetening after aging; I made my plum port pretty fruit heavy and used the remaining grape concentrate as an f-pack and it turned out great, you may not need much back sweetening at all...

 

[GTS]

greyday,

Thanks, all very useful input. I have had a medium toast American white oak spiral hanging in the carboy for several weeks now, and it is just about where I want it. This wine was started with about 18 lbs of blueberries for a 3 gallon batch, so a good strong blueberry flavor is not an issue on this one.

To me, the brandy is a must. I know it is considerably more expensive, and a higher volume is required, but I just don't feel like I would get the end result I want with grain alcohol.

Thanks again,
Greg