WineXpert different way to add body

[olusteebus]

I have 11 gallons of coastal white that has finished fermenting and clearing. I very well may need to add body to it.

Can I soak say a pound or two of golden raisins in a wine for say a month and add that wine (without raisins) to the coastal white?

The reason I want to do that is I don't want the mess of adding raisins into the coastal white, reracking and having to squeeze the wine out of the raisins.

How far off base am I here?

 

[dangerdave]

The "adding body" process is usually done during fermentation, if I am not mistaken. I have no idea how you would go about adding body to finished wine.

 

[Boatboy24]

Can you just add glycerine? I'd think that adding rasins to a finished wine will simply make it taste like raisins.

 

[olusteebus]

I will try glycerine I guess. Taste trials.

 

[RegionRat]

Adding Body to Wine

From Jack Keller Blog dated August 30th, 2006

Improving Body with Bananas
........... add bananas to the primary, but to slice 2 1/2 lbs of ripe (soft but not brown) bananas into thin discs for each gallon of fruit wine you intend to make, leaving skins on fruit. Put the slices into a nylon straining bag, tie the top closed, and place the bag in as much water as you need for your fruit wine in as large a pan or pot as required. For example, if you were making three gallons of wine that required 3 quarts of water per gallon, you would need a total of 9 quarts of water and 7 ½ lbs of bananas. You'll need a large pot, but could get away with using only half the amount her and adding the other half later. Just keep track of what you are doing.

Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer the bananas for 30 minutes. A grayish scum or foam will probably form on top and should be spooned away and discarded. Remove the bag to a bowl to catch the drippings.

While the bananas are simmering, chop or crush the fruit for your wine and place it in your primary with the required amount of sugar, acid blend, tannin, and yeast nutrient. Combine the drippings with the boiled banana water and pour the water over the fruit, sugar and additives. Stir this well to dissolve the sugar. If you only boiled half the required amount of water, add the other half now, cover the primary and allow the must to cool to room temperature before adding the required amount of potassium metabisulfite (or crushed and dissolved Campden tablets) to prevent the must from browning slightly during fermentation. Wait 10-12 hours and add the required amount of pectic enzyme. Wait an additional 10-12 hours and pitch an activated yeast starter.

The second way of adding banana to a fruit wine to improve its body is to blend a heavy bodied, finished banana wine with the finished fruit wine. The amount of banana wine to blend is up to you, but I would run trials to see what works best. I would do this by pouring four 80-mL of the fruit wine into one glass, 70-mL into a second, 60-mL into a third, and 50-mL into a fourth. I would then add banana wine to each to bring the total volume of each to 100-mL. I would then taste each one, starting with the 80-20 blend first and progressing through the70-30, 60-40 and 50-50 blends.

Suppose the 70-30 tastes too thin but the 60-40 tastes too heavy. You could try another blend of 65-35 to see if that isn't better. If not, you might try blends of 68-32, 66-34, 64-36, and 62-38. Taste them in that order. Somewhere in there you should find the one best to your liking.

 

[robie]

Adding raisins most often will result in a raisiny taste to the wine. That is more acceptable for Italian wines than some others.

Glycerin will also help, but it can affect the taste, especially since, if you add just a little too much, it will give the wine a perception of sweetness. Drink a half teaspoon of glycerin and ask yourself if you truly do want that in your wine. Add it very slowly and taste as you go, else you can ruin a batch of wine.

Gum Arabic will also add some body. Just like glycerin, add slowly and taste.

Oak also adds body, as does barrel aging. I have never tried bananas during fermentation, but it is too late for that for your current batch.

 

[JohnT]

My approach (and suggestion) is to ask yourself "Is this wine undrinkable?

I have found that it is not always a good thing to make a wine something it is not. If the wine is light and lacking body, but drinkable, I would suggest you simply enjoy it and perhaps choose a kit that is intended to have more body.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make a wine better, but I find the more you play with it, the more chance for harm.

If the wine is undrinkable, then you have nothing to loose. If the wine is drinkable, then I would enjoy it and move onto the next batch.

 

[olusteebus]

good point JohnT. I am sure it will be drinkable. I have just heard it is somewhat light in body but that won't be so bad.