Wine tastes bland

[Relevant]

Hey guys. Recently finished my first wine. Did a white wine (muscat) using juice.

It tastes a little plain. Hard to describe. It's at the right sweetness to what I like, and the alcohol content seems pretty good, but there just isn't much flavor. I'm thinking the acid may be too low? Any ideas?

 

[Arne]

Draw a glass, add a pinch of acid blend, stir and taste. Arne.

 

[montanaWineGuy]

Draw a glass, add a pinch of acid blend, stir and taste. Arne.

+1

Same with last years Apple Wine. Acid blend did the trick. Use it sparingly. A bit goes a long ways.

 

[geek]

Sounds exactly as the same issue with my California Muscat juice bucket...
It seems like this varietal came out bad this year. No flavor.

 

[Relevant]

Sounds exactly as the same issue with my California Muscat juice bucket...
It seems like this varietal came out bad this year. No flavor.

Ahh, yeah, that could be it. Thanks

I did add a little bit of acid blend and that did help. But now it seems to have more character, but still not a whole lot of flavor. But it's better, and it was some more good practice, if nothing else!

 

[heatherd]

Ahh, yeah, that could be it. Thanks

I did add a little bit of acid blend and that did help. But now it seems to have more character, but still not a whole lot of flavor. But it's better, and it was some more good practice, if nothing else!

I would give it time - the flavors will change as the wine ages.

 

[cintipam]

I second Heatherd's motion. My first Muscat from juice bucket bored me totally until it was about 16 months old. It transformed into a whole nother wine at that point, and became a fave of mine. But I did add some fruit up front in primary (strawberries, tart cherries plus a few gooseberries) and I think that gave it the acid boost it needed without me adding any.

Pam in cinti

 

[Reluctant Chemist]

Why not test

A bland wine is often due to low acid. Why not run a test? It's really the only way to know. A simple titration will work with a red wine (burrette, NaOH solution, and indicator), but for less hassle try those one step TA Test Kit tubes you can get from people like Presque Isle or Northern Brewer.

 

[ffemt128]

If the acid increased the taste but you still feel there is little flavor, did you try back sweetening a little bit. If the wine is dry adding a little sugar may bring out the flavors of the fruit more. Just make sure you stabilize if you intend on sweetening the entire batch.

 

[Relevant]

Great, I'll try that out, too. Thanks!

I have 2 carboys ready to go, so I can try out different things on each to see what works better.

I opened a new bottle last night that I hadn't added any acid blend to, and tried it and realized how much better the wine had gotten with a little acid. So I'll certainly do that for the rest of the batch. I have a couple bottles left of the first batch of bottling (only had enough bottles for about 1/3 of the full batch ), so I can use those for some testing with additional sweetening and acid levels.

I don't have any type of acid test kit. Maybe I should invest in one. I've just been going by taste.

If I'm just using sugar to back sweeten, how long should I let it sit to get the sugar flavor more integrated into the wine?

Thanks for all the suggestions! At first, I was thinking that once the wine was ready to bottle, there's nothing left that can be done. Good to know there's quite a few options.