Chambourcin grapes

[petey]

Last fall I harvested a ton of grapes, one demijohns went through MLF and it does taste smoother than the other but both are still very light in body. I will be bulk aging for at least 8 more months what can help this 'lite' wine or should I wait till this fall and blend

 

[seth8530]

This late on in the year I would be tempted to wait until Fall and blend.. However, you could try adding some tannins or oak to the wine if you have not yet done that.

 

[salcoco]

on tis years batch I would add oak prefermentation or powdered tannin, this will help set the color.

 

[JohnT]

The only real way to improve the color is through maceration.

Additives like tannin will not do too much in the way of turning your lite wine into, say, a deep cab or burgundy. Blending would darken your wine, but blending will also, no doubt, effect the flavor of the wine as well.

Not know the specifics on how you made your wine, I would recommend that you macerate your grapes (allow grapes to ferment on the skins) for a longer period of time. PH can also affect color extraction, so I would also try to adjust the PH prior to pitching yeast.

If your maceration is long already (say, over a week or so), and you suspect that your grapes simply did not have color to extract in the first place, then I would recommend that you get some alternate red wine grapes for your local (say a merlot or a petit sarah) and mix them with your Chambourcin to give the color a little kick. Letting your grapes ripen a bit more could also help.

 

[salcoco]

cold soaking prefermentation will also allow more color extraction. visit scottlabs.com fermentation handbook and there are enzymes that can also be added prefermentation to improve color extraction. adding tannin prefermentation not post fermentation will assist in holding the color.