VH Black Currant Wine

[quark44]

I've been bulk aging a 5 gallon batch of Vintners Harvest Black Currant wine for about 14 months. My calculations tell me it's about 13.5% alcohol, which is right where I wanted it. The problem is that I'm about to bottle this wine, and I would say it tastes pretty flat and hollow with zero complexity.

I searched through this forum and found similar feedback when making a 3 gallon batch using the same volume of concentrated juice that I did.

I guess my question is whether there's anything I can do to revive this wine. I naively expected this wine to come out with a lot more body to it than this. Should I just save this wine and use it to top up future reds I make?

Could i have safely just doubled the three gallon recipe and used two cans of concentrate, or would have that throw the PH off too much?

 

[barbiek]

I would make another batch but only use 1 and1/2 can of water add sugar to sg 1095. Follow your wine making process until finished and sorbate then blend the 2 wines adding some banana peels to add some body let it sit and do your 3 month rackings and kmeta hope this helps! Goodluck

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi quark44 - and welcome. A couple of suggestions - You don't say how dry the wine is so you might take a sample and see if backsweetening helps - the additional sugar may improve the mouthfeel making it more viscous (I checked the spelling - not "vicious", but "viscous"). The added sugar might bring forward more of the fruit flavor too. If the wine is too dry and you do intend to add sugar you will need to stabilize the wine first. Bench test the amount of sugar you will add if you choose that route. Four ounces added to one gallon will increase the gravity by 10 points.
You may want to add more acidity - (Can you check the TA? A wine like this might have a pH of about 3.5 and a TA of about 6.5 or 7). Often if a wine is not acidic enough it will taste blah... I don't know the main acid in blackcurrant - I think - but I am not sure - that citric and ascorbic acids are the dominant acids - in which case you could add some lemon juice to see if that might provide additional zing.
What about adding tannins? Tannins are astringent and so I think you can perceive their presence as improving the complexity of a wine that tastes flat. And finally you might also consider adding some oak cubes or chips for a week or too to provide additional complexity... But I agree with barbiek that most of the wines from VH are better when made to 3 gallons and not 5. But rather than suggest that you sink more money and more effort into what you may in fact not enjoy I think that these small "tweaks" might bring what you have into a different league...

 

[Stressbaby]

A recipe I used last year for one of my batches of elderberry wine had me adding black currants to the secondary as a "secondary infusion." It worked very nicely. You could consider that as well. I think it was one box for a week for a 5-6 gallon batch.

Also, agree with Bernard, bench trialing acid additions and some tannin might prove useful. I used Tannin Riche last year as well.

 

[quark44]

Unfortunately I don't have any way to measure pH... or anything other than SG for that matter. I shopped a bit online today but honestly could not find a consensus for which meter is best for my needs... but that might be fodder for another post.

I like barbiek's idea, but I think I'll save it for last as it might be the most time consuming and expensive.

I'm thinking of adding toasted french oak as well as a box (of what size?) of dried currants for ~1 week, while also bench testing acid and tannin additions to see the benefits and scale them up in the big batch.

Does that sound like an ok plan? If so, do the acid and tannin additions scale up linearly? If I require 1/4 tsp of acid per cup, can I safely just add 4 tsp per gallon to get the same effect?


Sorry for all the questions. Your help is VERY appreciated!

 

[Stressbaby]

The recipe I followed used a 10oz box of black currants.

The acid and tannin should scale linearly however I doubt you will be close to 1/4t in a cup. My guess is that your acid additions will be more along the lines of 1/4-1tsp per gallon.

 

[dorfie]

i added glycerin and extra tannins to mine when i made it. can't remember if i oaked it or not...notes are missing for the time being. but mine ended up pretty good! i think the glycerin added a lot of needed mouth-feel.