Wine Kitz I need Tannin!

[Aaron McClain]

I have ran a commerical brewery for many years and been a home winmaker for many as well. I decided to dabble into commerical winemaking so last fall i bought some Zin, Syrah, and Alicante Bosuchet juice from CA. There are no off-flavors, the color could be a bit darker but is nice, the fruit character is popping, but even after significant oak aging the tannin structure is woefully lacking. Every Red I have ever made from juice has had the same problem.

I know there are lots of products out there but I'm trying to find something that will work in this situation and finding lots of deterents.

Mega Purple - only availble in large quanities and adds color and a bit of body but not tannin
Liquid Oak Tannin - afraid of destroying the fruit charatcer.
Powedered Tannin - can I get it into solution?

FYI this is a 100 gallon batch sitting in a SS tank (Medium Toast Oak cubes have been suspended in the tank)

 

[Rice_Guy]

The best US information is from the Scott Laboratory handbook. A second thought is to just call Scott Labs up and ask for feedback on what product does what. Third direction would be to order a tannin sample set and run bench trials to find which one(s) you like.

* powder tannin will be extracted into your batch. There are finishing tannins for tweaking the flavor of wines. In general the label will say wait two to four weeks then bottle.
* you can create your own liquid tannin by extracting a source with grain alcohol, not as easy as buying one but it works. This pushes back to the question of which tannin in which case I’d say go to Scott Labs again.
* tannins are magic. Looking from the apple/ country wine point of view we can take readily available concentrate and build tannins to resemble traditional European ciders.
* small quantities/ test quantities are a problem, bottles of qucerbo wood and grape tannin are LD Carlson products

 

[sour_grapes]

I'm a big fan of Tannin Riche Extra. You dissolve it in a bit of water (or wine) first, before adding it to the bulk wine.

 

[winemaker81]

Every Red I have ever made from juice has had the same problem.

Others have commented on solutions, but this is the source of your problem. Red juice lacks the oomph you'll get from fermentation on the skins. The choices are to switch to grapes OR purchase skin packs.

 

[Aaron McClain]

The best US information is from the Scott Laboratory handbook. A second thought is to just call Scott Labs up and ask for feedback on what product does what. Third direction would be to order a tannin sample set and run bench trials to find which one(s) you like.

* powder tannin will be extracted into your batch. There are finishing tannins for tweaking the flavor of wines. In general the label will say wait two to four weeks then bottle.
* you can create your own liquid tannin by extracting a source with grain alcohol, not as easy as buying one but it works. This pushes back to the question of which tannin in which case I’d say go to Scott Labs again.
* tannins are magic. Looking from the apple/ country wine point of view we can take readily available concentrate and build tannins to resemble traditional European ciders.
* small quantities/ test quantities are a problem, bottles of qucerbo wood and grape tannin are LD Carlson products

Thanks for the info!

 

[Aaron McClain]

Others have commented on solutions, but this is the source of your problem. Red juice lacks the oomph you'll get from fermentation on the skins. The choices are to switch to grapes OR purchase skin packs.

I have switched to making wine from grapes in my home endevors but last fall (I live in TN) there just isn't enough hi tannin red being grown in this region to make the type of wine I wanted in a commerical quantity so I settled for juice. Next fall I have a line on getting some WA state Syrah delivered and hope never to go back to juice but I need to figure out something for this batch.

 

[Bekanimi j]

I have ran a commerical brewery for many years and been a home winmaker for many as well. I decided to dabble into commerical winemaking so last fall i bought some Zin, Syrah, and Alicante Bosuchet juice from CA. There are no off-flavors, the color could be a bit darker but is nice, the fruit character is popping, but even after significant oak aging the tannin structure is woefully lacking. Every Red I have ever made from juice has had the same problem.

I know there are lots of products out there but I'm trying to find something that will work in this situation and finding lots of deterents.

Mega Purple - only availble in large quanities and adds color and a bit of body but not tannin
Liquid Oak Tannin - afraid of destroying the fruit charatcer.
Powedered Tannin - can I get it into solution?

FYI this is a 100 gallon batch sitting in a SS tank (Medium Toast Oak cubes have been suspended in the tank)

Use grapes and your problems are solved. You know better!
Sorry just a little tough love from Canada! I will only use California grapes. Although the BC wine industry have improved over the years
I still cant bring myself to go Canadian! Love California Grapes.