Cherry Chocolate Port

[dcbrown73]

So, my Cherry Chocolate Walnut wine is right at six months old now. I want to bottle it around nine months old, but I want to make at least half of it into a Cherry Chocolate Walnut port.

I've been reading a lot of stuff about making a port, but not everything I've read jives with each other. (sometimes quite different processes)

So, I have six gallons. The Cherry wine is quite heavy and dark compared to most cherry wines I've tried so I think it would be a good base for a port.

The wine originally was about 11.8% ABV, but after topping up with cherry juice a couple of times. I suspect it's likely closer to about 10.7% AVB now with a little bit of residual sugar.

I can take a gravity measurement, but that will likely be off for alcohol and for sugar due to the alcohol, so I'm not clear how to proceed to get an accurate idea of what the current residual sugar is nor alcohol.

One of my favor ports is Fonseca BIN 27 port and I would like this cherry chocolate port to come out of similar style of ABV and residual sugars. (heavy, fruity, silky with a nice sweet edge for enjoying with chocolates as a after dinner snack/desert)

Some say use vodka while others say use everclear. I would think everclear would be the better choice to prevent flavor dilution due to having less volume than vodka to reach the same AVB.

Also, how to know how much sugar to add and not over-sweeten due to the time it can take for sugars to blend. (causing the wine to get sweeter with time aging like say dragons blood)

Anyhow, I would love some advise. I want to get this right as thus far I'm very happy with the outcome.

Thanks!

 

[sour_grapes]

Also, how to know how much sugar to add and not over-sweeten due to the time it can take for sugars to blend. (causing the wine to get sweeter with time aging like say dragons blood)

Here is one way around that particular problem. The sugar gets sweeter as it splits up from sucrose (a disaccharide) to glucose + fructose (which are monosaccharides). Fructose is very sweet. If you make a simple syrup, you split up the sucrose right away. Therefore, you could sweeten with simple syrup and it shouldn't get any sweeter with time. Just a thought.

 

[dcbrown73]

Here is one way around that particular problem. The sugar gets sweeter as it splits up from sucrose (a disaccharide) to glucose + fructose (which are monosaccharides). Fructose is very sweet. If you make a simple syrup, you split up the sucrose right away. Therefore, you could sweeten with simple syrup and it shouldn't get any sweeter with time. Just a thought.

Hmm. I did that with my Pineapple Mango Lime wine. I sweetened it till it tasted very good and I was extremely happy with it.

About a month after bottling, I opened one and it tasted even sweeter than it was when I bottled it. (at least it really seemed that way) So another reason I posed that question here.

Maybe I just didn't realize how sweet I made it. I should get someone else who tried to to taste it again. It's still very good though.

 

[sour_grapes]

Adding acid (like lemon juice) to the water for your simple syrup speeds up the dissociation. I have no idea if that is what is needed to help your problem, of course...

 

[geek]

How is it tasting so far, I need to check my cherry wine soon but I know it would be mehhh