Other Kit Alterations: Semi-drying a Riesling

[JoaniB]

I have been wondering about modifying kits.

There is a wine in Canada that lists itself as a semi-dry Riesling, and I enjoy it a lot.

Would I be able to continue fermenting a Riesling kit until it attains a semi-dry state? Is that viable, or just taking risks with a kit that I would have little experience with?

 

[robie]

If that kit is like most, the wine is actually fermented completely dry, then an F pack of sugar and maybe some other flavoring like apple is added back to sweeten. The F pack and/or kit contains sorbate to keep the wine from re-fermenting.

That being said, if you don't want it as sweet, just don't add all the F pack or don't add the F pack at all.

Maybe some others who have made that kit can comment further. Which kit is it?

 

[JoaniB]

Hi, Robie,

Thanks! I haven't bought a kit at this point, but was looking at the possibility of doing so.

 

[robie]

For non-dessert style wine, I like a very lightly sweetened Riesling, myself... just a touch. I buy this Germany Riesling - Funf, for about $5.99 a bottle. It comes in a solid white bottle. A nice, inexpensive wine.

I have never made a Riesling, but hope to someday.

 

[cpfan]

JoaniB...some Riesling kits make an off-dry riesling. Talk to your local retailer about what is available to you. Off-dry may not be sweet enough, so you could add sugar after stabilizing the wine to make it sweeter. If you already have a hydrometer, you could measure the sweetness of the wione that you like.

For example, Vineco's Cheeky Monkey California Riesling.

BTW...embarassed to mention the commercial wine that you like? If you had mentioned the name, I might have been able to find out more about the sweetness, and been able to help you more.

Steve

 

[JoaniB]

Oooh, thanks for the suggestion.

Not embarrassed at all, I just didn't know how well-known it might be, and you've just reminded me there are a lot of Canadian wine-drinkers (and makers) here!

It's the Vineland Estates Semi-Dry Riesling. I tried it at the Ottawa Food and Wine show about five years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. I couldn't tell you which year, though. There was a lot of wine that night...

 

[cpfan]

The LCBO says that the current version of this wine is 9% alcohol and 26 g/l of sugar (or sweetness code 3). That is lower in alcohol than any of the straight riesling kits that I am familiar with (they run 11-12%), and sweeter than the off dry kits (usually sweetness code 1 or maybe 2).

Similar info on the winery's site.
http://www.vinelandwineshop.com/products.php?product=2009-Semi%2dDry-Riesling

Steve

 

[DoctorCAD]

The commercial winery can stop the fermentation at 9% by cold crashing and/or sterile filtering. You can't.

You can sweeten back to that sugar content, but the alcohol will still be in the 12ish% range.

 

[JoaniB]

Thanks for the information, everyone. I suppose I fell for the marketing. :/ Very interesting to know!