Body

[Cheeks945]

I've made a couple batches of Merlot and Malbec, also experimented adding my own fruit during fermentation, some good results using kits and the wine is to my liking.

However it's missing the body which makes it taste weaker than the 9.8% I know it is.

So how do I get the wine to taste full bodied, stronger

 

[Rice_Guy]

In general stronger means longer lasting or more intense flavor notes;
* add fermentation tannin as FT rouge or FT Blanc
* add a natural tannin as grape skins or crab apple juice or even cranberry
* add oak cubes/ powder/ staves etc
* add a Wine Improver product which is glycerin and oak extract
* add gum arabic

Looking at a thread last week you could even add longer flavor notes by a low dose of cracked pepper. Some of these go back to the fermentation, example I have put 1% crab apple (for tannin) in several fermentations in 2020. This is low enough that it is not identified but gives a longer aftertaste.

 

[winemaker81]

9.8% ABV is low for a red, and you get less extraction during fermentation.

 

[Juniper Hill]

Lots of great suggestions above. The only one I would add to the list is Surlie. Agree that 9.8% is quite light for a wine.

 

[Khristyjeff]

if you haven't already, check out the thread "Tweaking Cheap Kits" on this forum. Many, me included, have taken lower ABV wine kits and raised the ABV by reducing the volume from 6 gallon to 5 or 5.5 gallons. Generally you may add tannins and an f-pac to get the wine in balance. We've made some very enjoyable wines this way. I also have wine from the first kit I ever did that is a Merlot weighing in at around 10% ABV, and there is no amount of time that will help that thin wine from ever being good, in my opinion.

 

[CDrew]

What fruit did you add during fermentation? The ABV seems way off. What was the starting brix?

Does this mean you had a kit wine and added grapes to it? Or grape skins like come with some kits?

 

[winemaker81]

I've taken the opposite action from what @Khristyjeff recommended, and chaptalized a Island Mist kit, designed to come in at 7% ABV -- increasing the SG enough to produce 10.5% to 11.5% ABV. I've done both (shorting water and chaptalizing) and with good quality kits I no longer short the water as the kits are designed to be reconstituted to 23 liters so changes may put the wine out of balance. In my last 2 instances, the acid was too high, making the wine sharp. YMMV

 

[Cheeks945]

What fruit did you add during fermentation? The ABV seems way off. What was the starting brix?

Does this mean you had a kit wine and added grapes to it? Or grape skins like come with some kits?

I don't remember the original sg, just used the pre and post fermentation reading in the equation to get my ABV and probably not accurate , I used some blackcurrants and raspberry in a muslin bag, crushed.

Still very new at this so every batch a learning curve, but no disasters yet.