Dessert wine question

[Neeshac]

I have been looking around some and I am not seeing what I am looking for, so I am going to very humbly ask. I am new to wine making, having just bought a kit. My wife LOVES dessert wines. The sweeter the better. If you have ever been to the Apple Barn in Gatlinburg TN and have had Apple Peach there, then you know what I am talking about. I am hoping to make a nice light dessert wine for her. In order to do that, do I have to sweeten the wine after fermitation ends and the add potassium sorbate? If so, will the fruit flavors I used in the initial fermintation process still stand out, or does the fruit taste disappear along with the sugars as they are converted to alcohol? I am sorry if I sound ignorant, but if so, it is because I am. Consider me a blank slate!

 

[robie]

In a home winery, the wine should be fermented to dry, then back sweetened. In many cases, instead of just sweetening with sugar, a flavor pack (F pack) is produced from the original fruit and added to the wine after fermentation to enhance the flavors.

I am not a fruit wine guy. There are several gals/guys on here who are and can answer your question better.

So, welcome to the forum.

 

[Rocky]

Hi Neeshac, welcome to the forum.

One thing, and it may just be the way you typed it, to sweeten the wine after fermentation ends, you add the potassium sorbate first and then sweeten. To make your flavored dessert wine, you might try making a white wine like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay or Muscat, fermenting to dry, sorbating and then sweetening to taste with simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water). To add the apple and peach flavors, I suggest and have had success with extracts. Add them slowly to a small sample (e.g. 1 bottle of wine) until you get the taste you like and then scale up.

 

[saramc]

Neeshac...I know the wine you speak of and I think your wife would truly enjoy.a wine made from Welch's 100% White Grape Peach (4 cans per gallon) & about 2# ripe, fresh/frozen peaches per gallon. Once the wine is dry and has gone thru the process of clearing (6 months) and degassing (6-12 months au natural) you can then stabilize your sediment free wine with k-meta plus sorbate (both need to be on board), wait 3 days or longer, then draw off a few one ounce samples and backsweeten with granulated sugar or thawed white grape peach concentrate, or blend of. When you find your happy spot you then sweeten you batch. It will likely drop sediment again so wait 10 days or so, rack and then bottle. It makes a fabulous fruity wine.
You could even use 2 cans apple juice + 2 cans white grape peach concentrate per gallon, plus the addl peaches. Or www.homewinery.com carries a good selection of fruit (and grape) concentrates, buy some apple, some peach. Their pint sized bottles will make 1 gallon of wine, you order via phone; their 64 oz jugs make 5 gallons, you order by phone or online. Great concentrates, store in MI & I believe the owner has a home in TN too, or is it AL?

 

[jamesngalveston]

I sure hope you are young sara, because all the wine you make, and all the aging you do....you may me able to drink half of it in 25 years..

 

[saramc]

I sure hope you are young sara, because all the wine you make, and all the aging you do....you may me able to drink half of it in 25 years..

I honestly give about 90% of it away. I enjoy drinking my wines, but find more joy in sharing with others. Plus, they give me confidence in my winemaking skill by returning empty, clean bottles and asking for more of what they just had or asking for anything I want to give them. I just turn them loose and they pick what they want.

 

[jamesngalveston]

you know...i made a 3 Gallon strawberry/blackberry DB, I bottled on Sunday, today is Thursday, and I have two left for myself.
i have learned...to take my really good stuff and lock in my wine closet...lol
and like you ...they bring an empty they can take a full...

 

[Neeshac]

Thank you guys for all the help! I am excited to get started! I wish I could get concentrates locally, but except for grape and apple, it is slim pickings here in Alabama. I will definately get online and get some stuff. I feel like a kid in a candy store right now.

 

[saramc]

Thank you guys for all the help! I am excited to get started! I wish I could get concentrates locally, but except for grape and apple, it is slim pickings here in Alabama. I will definately get online and get some stuff. I feel like a kid in a candy store right now.

I am sure a lot of AL residents will be dipping into winemaking with the recent law change. Have fun!

 

[dessertmaker]

My wife is pretty obsessed with dessert wines. Hence my user name on here.

My advice is to get the coastal white kit from vintners harvest, ferment it to dry and then after a month add 3 cans of apple juice concentrate and 3 cans of whatever peach juice concentrate you can find.

Let it sit on that for another month, then sorbate and after 24 hours backsweeten to taste with apple and peach concentrate.

It's an easy kit to use and makes a great base for dessert wines!

Last time I did this I added sorbate and then racked it off into a few 1 gallon carboys and backsweetened each one with a different concentrate. Havent bottled yet but the samples are KILLER!

 

[Neeshac]

My wife is pretty obsessed with dessert wines. Hence my user name on here.

My advice is to get the coastal white kit from vintners harvest, ferment it to dry and then after a month add 3 cans of apple juice concentrate and 3 cans of whatever peach juice concentrate you can find.

Let it sit on that for another month, then sorbate and after 24 hours backsweeten to taste with apple and peach concentrate.

It's an easy kit to use and makes a great base for dessert wines!

Last time I did this I added sorbate and then racked it off into a few 1 gallon carboys and backsweetened each one with a different concentrate. Havent bottled yet but the samples are KILLER!

I think I will try this route too! I have 3 kits now because I found one for 50.00 on Craigslist that had 2 6 gallon carboys and buckets. I guess I am going to have to run out one of the kids so I will have room for the bottles.

 

[Neeshac]

My wife is pretty obsessed with dessert wines. Hence my user name on here.

My advice is to get the coastal white kit from vintners harvest, ferment it to dry and then after a month add 3 cans of apple juice concentrate and 3 cans of whatever peach juice concentrate you can find.

Let it sit on that for another month, then sorbate and after 24 hours backsweeten to taste with apple and peach concentrate.

It's an easy kit to use and makes a great base for dessert wines!

Last time I did this I added sorbate and then racked it off into a few 1 gallon carboys and backsweetened each one with a different concentrate. Havent bottled yet but the samples are KILLER!

What is the alcohol level of your finished product?

 

[reefman]

Riesling makes a nice dessert wine as well. Wine Expert makes an Ice wine style Riesling kit.

 

[GaDawg]

Orchard Breezin maker several sweet wines.
http://www.rjscraftwinemaking.com/products/brand/Orchard-Breezin

 

[dessertmaker]

What is the alcohol level of your finished product?

Averages around 15%ABV with premier couvee which is what comes with the kit.

 

[jdrum]

Neeshac its getting to be fruit season, put the kids to picking black berries, and any other fruit you can find. i do blackberry, peach, pear, fig, rasberry, country wines make great desert wines, staring form scratch is more labor intensive, but the finished product is more selfsatisfying to me. plus cheeper most of the fruit can be scrounged for little or nothing. offer a bottle or two to whoever donates fruit.

jim

 

[Neeshac]

Neeshac its getting to be fruit season, put the kids to picking black berries, and any other fruit you can find. i do blackberry, peach, pear, fig, rasberry, country wines make great desert wines, staring form scratch is more labor intensive, but the finished product is more selfsatisfying to me. plus cheeper most of the fruit can be scrounged for little or nothing. offer a bottle or two to whoever donates fruit.

jim

Great idea! My brother has pears, and I have a neigh or who has blueberries. I thought about running a Craig's list add for something like what you are talking about.