Disappointed in my Zinfaldel Royal

[Rocky]

I made this wine from juice in buckets that I bought at L'Uva Bella in Lowellville, Ohio. I had two buckets and made the wine in two 8 gallon fermenters. The wine is decent tasting but thin in mouth feel and light in color.

Here are my notes:

9-8-12 Two buckets of Zinfandel Royal, Red Star Pasteur Red yeast, 1 each 2.5 Kg Cabernet Sauvignon grape packs in each of two fermenters.
9-9-12 SG 1.084 (not too concerned about the low ISG because the juice was fermenting when I got it home.)
9-10-12 SG 1.064
9-11-12 SG 1.040/1.042 (in the two fermenters)
9-12-12 SG 1.022/1.028
9-13-12 SG 1.010/1.016 Racked to secondary in carboys
10-1-12 SG 0.992 Racked and added 3 oz. American Oak, Heavy Toast to each carboy
4-19-13 Moved wine and cubes to two oak barrels.
6-17-13 Taste tested in preparation to remove from barrels. Wine taste is good but wine is thin and light colored for Zinfandel.

I am somewhat disappointed because I thought the addition of the grape packs would help both the mouth feel and the color. So, my dear Experts, what do I do? My choices seem to be:

a. do nothing and be happy that the wine tastes good!
b. add an f-pack after sorbating and live with the additional sweetness. The wine is very dry now. (I am thinking blackberry)
c. add TanCor
d. add glycerin
e. combination of some of the above.
f. other?

As always, I deeply appreciate your help.

 

[robie]

Outside of a barrel, I have no ideas.
Run the wine though a nice oak barrel. The more neutral the barrel the longer the wine can stay in it. The longer it stays in, the better mouth-feel and body it will have.

I am not much of a juice bucket fan.

 

[Rocky]

Thanks, Robie. I am becoming less of a juice bucket fan! I must say that I have had some very nice successes, but a lot are wanting.

I have the wine in my barrels now that are now neutral so maybe the best thing to do is leave it there for a few more months.

 

[Rock]

Rocky,choice C would be a good choice.Have you checked your ph and ta?May need some adjustments.No f-pack,No sorbate.Did you Ml your Zin?Have you any Petite Syrah on hand?Or do as the romans do.Like your last post go back to crushing grapes.

 

[hocke230]

What about adding a zin concentrate?

 

[JohnT]

Rocky,

If it tastes good, I would leave it alone.

 

[Deezil]

I'm not familiar with TanCor, but I'm guessing it's relatively similiar to Uva`Tan / Uva`Tan Soft, which are tannins I use that are okay to be added post-fermentation but want to give them atleast 6 weeks before bottling.

"used to stabilize color, enhance structure and provide anti-oxidant protection "

Might help fix the "thin" part... As for the "light in color" part, that might have been out of your control although booster rouge / opti-red / tannin additions during fermentation would have helped to stabilize the color of the grape packs that could have fell out

 

[shoebiedoo]

Rocky, I'm starting to look at making wine from grapes and ended up with a crusher/De-Stemmer AND a press so if you want to use the equipment anytime, just axe