Recommend tannin for cab?

[Jbu50]

Can somebody recommend a tannin for my cab? I made 120 litres last year, aging for a year, tastes okay, still a little young. I'd like to improve mouthfeel specifically. I'm looking at the morewine website and would like to purchase tannin but not sure which one. They got a few types of tannin from Scott Labs: Rouge, Complex, and Riche. Can somebody make a recommendation? Thanks!

 

[MiBor]

At this point I would use Tannin Riche Extra. I like to use Tannin Complex as well, but that's more of an early aging tannin and takes longer to integrate.
It's always a good idea to do some bench trials and taste tests before adding tannin to the bulk of your wine.
Riche will enhance body and complexity and your wine will be ready to bottle in about 3 weeks.
I also used the liquid tannin Fruit Enhancer Plus, but not on a cab. It worked well for a Merlot that I made 2 years ago, but I don't think I would use it on a Cabernet.

 

[mainshipfred]

Riche is French oak while Riche Extra is American and both deliver different qualities. My preferred tannin, although harder to find, is Estate which helps increase mid palate sensations. But all of them contribute differently. I would read what they all are supposed to offer and how best you think that would meet your needs. Plus it doesn't have to be one or the other, you can use a combination of them.

 

[Jbu50]

I’ve been reading the descriptions from the distributor’s website and looking for the keyword “mouthfeel” but only one or two mention the word. I did come across the term “mid palate” but not sure what that means. Am I correct in assuming it means that taste you simulate when you pull your tongue off the roof of your palate and make that sound? If so I think that’s it!!

 

[mainshipfred]

I’ve been reading the descriptions from the distributor’s website and looking for the keyword “mouthfeel” but only one or two mention the word. I did come across the term “mid palate” but not sure what that means. Am I correct in assuming it means that taste you simulate when you pull your tongue off the roof of your palate and make that sound? If so I think that’s it!!

I'm sure different people will describe it differently but for me mid palate is the combination of flavors you get while the wine is in your mouth while mouthfeel refers to the wines finish and how long the taste lingers. Whether it's true or not a wine maker once told me you can't have a good finish without a good mid palate.

 

[Jbu50]

Thanks for the great info! Yes, some of these tannins are hard to find. The best supplier that i use routinely break down larger 1kg bags of tannin into smaller quantities of 25g and 100g for the home wine maker, but unfortunately do not break down Estate or Complex. What they did recommend as a substitute and as a tannin to increase "mouthfeel" was Laffort's Querplus Tannin. Anybody have experience with this one? They also have available Tanin Tan'Cor Grand Cru in smaller quantities so I'm considering ordering both of these to try. Any info would be appreciated, thanks. I say this because the descriptions for these tanins are often entirely different from the retailer's website when compared to the manufacturer's website so its really wild to try to figure out what these tannins are supposed to be like.

 

[MiBor]

I was just looking at https://www.piwine.com/tannin-estate-cellaring-tannin-red-wines.html and I found that they sell Tannin Estate for $24.99/55grams+shipping. The description says: "This product can help compensate for lack of tannins in finished wine without the “dryness” associated with barrels. Fruit character, mid palate and complexity are enhanced and some anti-oxidant protection is provided." MoreWine sells Tannin Complex https://morewinemaking.com/products/tannin-complex.html $6.99/30grams.
There is a large variety of tannins to chose from and different people would recommend different ones that they successfully tried, but in the end it comes to your personal taste and what you want to achieve. I've been in a couple of situations like this and what I did was to buy a variety of additives and bench test all of them, then pick the one that I liked the most.
There is no absolute answer in wine making and usually can't find another person with tastes similar to yours, but you can find something that would enhance your wine the way you'd like, if you carefully test multiple products.