Making a 'healthier' wine - any suggestions?

[Impiryo]

Few drinks can compare to a big, bold, 14% cabernet, or a 15% abv amarone. Unfortunately, if you like to drink like I do, and love the taste of those wines, you could be 10-20 years away from your liver taking a permanent vacation. It's a crap shoot, and you could get lucky, could get unlucky, but I always like hedging my bets.

Has anyone had any success making a wine that might approximate that style of taste, but in the 7-8% ABV range? I imagine the recipe would involve diluting the grape juice, using extra oak, skins, and added tannins, but I'm not sure exactly where to start beyond that.

 

[Deezil]

7-8% probably wont happen because then you're looking at the lifetime length of a wine cooler / hard lemonade

11-12% might work, because then it'd still be shelf-stable and honestly i think your liver is more likely to take a vacation from drinking harder spirits and not so much the wine, although everyones different and im no doctor, i wouldnt say wine causes a lot of health-related problems as long moderation/common sense is used

 

[novalou]

Few drinks can compare to a big, bold, 14% cabernet, or a 15% abv amarone. Unfortunately, if you like to drink like I do, and love the taste of those wines, you could be 10-20 years away from your liver taking a permanent vacation. It's a crap shoot, and you could get lucky, could get unlucky, but I always like hedging my bets.

Has anyone had any success making a wine that might approximate that style of taste, but in the 7-8% ABV range? I imagine the recipe would involve diluting the grape juice, using extra oak, skins, and added tannins, but I'm not sure exactly where to start beyond that.

You can make fruit wines in the 7-8% range since most of those recipes require sugar addition to get to 12%.

As far as grape wines, if you get grapes from northern climates, they usually come in with sugar at 9-10%, otherwise, you are looking at diluting with water.

Keep in mind, the alcohol helps preserve the wine, so drink up!

 

[Boatboy24]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009F3PHQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[rezod11]

Or you could take a milk thistle supplement. Very affordable and easy to find.

 

[Impiryo]

I was more using the liver damage as an excuse for a challenge - how good of a red grape wine can I make at that alcohol level (and is it even possible)?

 

[s0615353]

J.Lohr has a line of wines called Ariel that have .25% ABV. Somehow they are able to remove the alcohol after fermentation. They were designed to give you all of the flavor, and good stuff in wine without the ABV. Give them a shot, and see if this process is possible for a home winemaker.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Hmmm.....I've heard that many Italian and Frenchmen that have lived well past the ripe old age of 90 yrs old attribute it to wine.....I'll take my chances with the wine!

 

[olusteebus]

I made a low fat (no body), high fiber (Lot's of bottle settlement) strawberry not long ago!

 

[SpoiledRotten]

Hmmm.....I've heard that many Italian and Frenchmen that have lived well past the ripe old age of 90 yrs old attribute it to wine.....I'll take my chances with the wine!

I will too. On the Today Show one morning, they were interviewing a 106 year old woman, asking her what's her secret to living a long life. She said, "A glass of wine a day".

 

[Boatboy24]

On the Today Show one morning, they were interviewing a 106 year old woman, asking her what's her secret to living a long life. She said, "A glass of wine a day".

Then I should live to be two or three hundred years old!

 

[wineforfun]

Hmmm.....I've heard that many Italian and Frenchmen that have lived well past the ripe old age of 90 yrs old attribute it to wine.....I'll take my chances with the wine!

haha
I am guessing he is talking about drinking more than 1 or 2 glasses a day from his post.

 

[Impiryo]

Yea, a glass a day - great. A bottle a day - less so. But it's so good!

 

[s0615353]

I am no one to talk, but just like everything in life, moderation is the key. From what I have read, for men this is aproximately 10 oz. of wine a day, and for women this is 5 oz. of wine a day (preferably red for usually not having sugar added after fermentation, and all of the goodies from the skins). And for the people who just thought to themselves, why can men have double the booze, ask Dr. Oz

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMHPdwnN2z4[/ame]