How to adjust a dry Niagra after primary fermentation

[lanceowen]

Hello,
I make red wine and decided to make a white wine for the first time. I choose Niagra. I adjusted the BRIX to 22 and adjusted the acid for the primary fermentation. I didn't make a reading until the primary fermentation had about stopped and it was below 0, so there was no sugar left. The niagra did not taste sweet, but I racked it into a carboy anyway. Since I've tasted Niagra before and it was sweet, I'm thinking that I should add sugar. Should I do this at the next racking or at bottling time? If I do and the reading goes to zero again, should I adjust again at the following racking? I rack four times for my reds. Maybe I can rack less for the Niagra and keep the SG above zero for some residual sugar. Does anyone who has made Niagra before know? Probably a dry Niagra is not a good thing since I think it should be sweet.

Thanks & Regards,

Lance

 

[whackfol]

I don't know Niagra. For whites I give it a nice dose of SO2 (40 - 50 ppm) after fermentation and let it clear. If I backsweeten this is when I do my trials. I don't know what RS level works with Niagra or your preference. Once you backsweeten, add potassium sorbate and make sure your SO2 level is around 50ppm and bottle soon after. This will protect against refermentation.
The first SO2 addition will help prevent MLF. Sorbistat K will produce off odors (Geranium) if the wine went through MLF. Pay attention to the pH also. I assume it is acidic because it can tolerate the sweetness.

 

[Turock]

We Make LOTS of Niagara wine. There IS such a thing as dry Niagara, but this grape is so fruity that I think it tastes much better with some sweetness on it. How much you sweeten depends on where the PH is. We set our PH at 3.2

Racking is not going to influence sweetness. You will need to get this wine clear, first. Niagara can be a real problem getting it to clear unless you use one of the better pectinases, add some tannin at the ferment, and also bentonite at the ferment. You should age this until it is clear and stable, which is around 9 months at least. When you are ready to bottle, sweeten to taste and don't forget to add sorbate and a bit more meta to it.

Do not MLF Niagara--it will lose all of it's fruity flavor.