Kiwi wine

pertc · Nov 25, 2013

Hi folks

long time lurker, there's a lot of great information here!

I've a gallon demijohn of kiwi wine just about ready to bottle, I busked the recipe, using white grape juice concentrate, sugar, green tea for tannin and lime juice for acidity. It's a _wee_ bit tart! Has anyone any pointers about the best way to impart a little sweetness prior to bottling? I'm considering the following:

1. syrup / stevia
2. lime cordial
3. some medium/ sweet apple cider

Any thoughts or pointers would be gratefully received.

Cheers,

Craig

Turock · Nov 25, 2013

Well, one way to approach this is just use sugar. However, going with the 3 choices you posted would take some bench trials with small amounts so you can see how each of the 3 impact the wine. Some level of sweetness will balance the acid, and that's probably where you're trying to go. You have to decide if the apple cider will modify the flavor or not. That's why bench trials are the way to go.

jensmith · Nov 25, 2013

Easiest and safest way is to bottle it as is and then sweeten to taste by the glass full. No risk of bottle bombs that way! Next choice would be to as sorbate and sulfa, wait at least a day, then backsweeten to taste. Wait at least a week and recheck to make shure it has not refermented.
As far as sweeners go, most like plain old white shuger. Either made into a syrup or just disolved with some wine and stirred in. I can't have any unfermented suger so I use frozen fruit juice concentrats. In whatever flavor is close to what I made. With your kiwi I would use white grape juice. Start with just a little and add less then you think! Sometimes it takes a full day for the full sweetness to mix in.
You can use honey or agavi as well. I think some of the fake sweetners are non fermentable, those may work as well. I have never used any however. Stevia, I would rather eat **** then stevia!!! Maybe if you liked the stuff it would be a good choice. I don't know.

pertc · Nov 25, 2013

Thanks very much for the prompt replies!

As you correctly inferred, it's a general 'rounding out' I was looking to achieve. Bench trials, as *cough* 'messy' as they can get, would seem to be the way to go!

I'm no particular fan of stevia, other than presuming it's non-fermentable.

Thanks again

Cheers,

Craig

P.S. @Jen: "start with a little and add less than you think!" Love it! I might use that phrase myself, hope you don't mind?!

wineforfun · Nov 25, 2013

Make sure and put some sorbate in it before bottling if you are going to backsweeten it. I would just use plain sugar to sweeten and do as turock has suggested, do some bench trials.
I would guess you will want to get the SG back around 1.010 somewhere.