WineXpert Make sense out of mouth feel for me, please

[waygorked]

So far, I've bottled only one kit, with a couple of others in bulk aging. Needless to say, my sample is still very small. I just cracked a midlevel 2010 GSM, and found that the mouth feel is markedly better. It has a chewy thickness, and an almost greasy density that I absolutely love. My kit wine seems thin and insubstantial by comparison, despite tasting better.

What causes the difference? And is there anything I can add to my next kit to create a similar density?

 

[waygorked]

I have heard tell that glycerine can enhance mouthfeel somehow. What exactly does glycerine do to mouth feel?

 

[seth8530]

perhaps you could try using a kit which comes with grape skin packs? Or perhaps you could consider picking some up on your own.

Adding glycerin can give mouthfeel, but I would rather not venture that way if I could avoid it.

 

[jojabri]

Glycerin can be useful for some things. I use it in fog juice, DIY body wash, and E-Cig fluid. I just dunno if I wanna put it in my wine... I mean considering the other things I use it for... ummm

 

[BernardSmith]

So far, I've bottled only one kit, with a couple of others in bulk aging. Needless to say, my sample is still very small. I just cracked a midlevel 2010 GSM, and found that the mouth feel is markedly better. It has a chewy thickness, and an almost greasy density that I absolutely love. My kit wine seems thin and insubstantial by comparison, despite tasting better.

What causes the difference? And is there anything I can add to my next kit to create a similar density?

I am not certain but here's my hypothesis: I think what causes the difference in mouthfeel is that some wines contain more fruit material than others such that if you removed all the liquid from one wine there would be a tiny amount of dried matter left behind in the test-tube but if you evaporated all the liquid from another wine there would be considerably more dry matter. Wines with less matter in them tend to have a feel closer to water and wines with more matter in them tend to linger and take longer to slide over your tongue and lips and the inside of your mouth. So my elderberry wine lingers and slips and slides slowly as I drink it but my hard cider tends to go down my throat rather quickly as if there was nothing to impede it.
That said, I wonder if a slower fermentation (ie fermenting at lower ambient temperatures) might result in more molecular matter being left in the wine.

 

[sour_grapes]

I recently had a kit that felt very thin. I drew two small glasses, and added a small amount of glycerine (a couple drops) to one, and nothing to the other. The glycerine made a large difference: it increased the mouthfeel dramatically, and also smoothed out this young wine's rough edges.

I wanted to bottle this batch, so I decided to conduct an experiment. I bottled 10 bottles with no additions, 10 bottles with glycerine, and 10 bottles with a finishing tannin (Tannin Riche). I'll let you know how they come out in about a year and half!

 

[LoneStarLori]

What causes the difference? And is there anything I can add to my next kit to create a similar density?

There is a thread on here called When good wines gone bad by Joeswine. He does some pretty good stuff with kits increasing mouthfeel/body in wines by using raisins and other fruits and tannins in the primary or secondary. I have done this on several of my kits and I can honestly say it can make a $70 kit taste like a really good, full bodied wine.

Heres is the start of the thread. It's a long one but full of good ideas.

Joeswine tweaks

 

[WI_Wino]

So far, I've bottled only one kit, with a couple of others in bulk aging. Needless to say, my sample is still very small. I just cracked a midlevel 2010 GSM, and found that the mouth feel is markedly better. It has a chewy thickness, and an almost greasy density that I absolutely love. My kit wine seems thin and insubstantial by comparison, despite tasting better.

What causes the difference? And is there anything I can add to my next kit to create a similar density?

How long has your wine been aged? That definitely plays into the taste of a wine. Judging say a 6 month wine vs. a 3 year old wine isn't a fair comparison.

 

[Gwand]

I recently had a kit that felt very thin. I drew two small glasses, and added a small amount of glycerine (a couple drops) to one, and nothing to the other. The glycerine made a large difference: it increased the mouthfeel dramatically, and also smoothed out this young wine's rough edges.

I wanted to bottle this batch, so I decided to conduct an experiment. I bottled 10 bottles with no additions, 10 bottles with glycerine, and 10 bottles with a finishing tannin (Tannin Riche). I'll let you know how they come out in about a year and half!

I have been reading about arabinol. It also increases viscosity like glycerine and helps maintain red color. Like glycerol it adds a bit of sweetness. Many Commercial wineries are using this product.

 

[sour_grapes]

I have been reading about arabinol. It also increases viscosity like glycerine and helps maintain red color. Like glycerol it adds a bit of sweetness. Many Commercial wineries are using this product.

I wonder if that is what is in Carnivor Cab Sauv. I picked up this up because of a suggestion from GreginND in my "affordable Cab Sauvs thread. It was good, but a little bizarre. The color was a deep, bright purple. The legs were EXTREMELY long: thick and viscous; moreover, the legs appeared purple in the glass (!), which I have never seen before. The film that dried in the glass after it was empty looked almost day-glo red/purple in character.

I commented in my tasting notes: "Smooth, languid, cough syrup, boysenberry, artificial candy taste, slightly sweet. Bizarre deep purple color. Looooong legs. The legs look purple. Very viscous. Artifical color and/or added glycerol?"

 

[joeswine]

Mouth feel




MOUTH FEEL ,WHAT IS IT?

TO SOME IT'S THE PERCEPTION OF A WELL ROUNDED TASTE AND COATING IN THE MOUTH THAT ALLOWS ALL THE SENSES TO BE USED AND THE FULFILLMENTS OF A GOOD WINE.

BUT FOR SOME IT ISN'T EVEN TO NOTICED DO TO POOR TASTE RECEPTORS AND SINUS PROBLEMS.JUST LIKE BODY IN A WINE ,THEIR ARE ACTUALLY 3 ,THIN,MED AND HEAVY BUT THE PERCEPTION OF WHAT THE BODY OF A WINE IS ,IN ,THE TASTERS CHOICE.TO EACH HIS OR HER'S OWN.

OVERALL A GOOD WINES NEEDS BODY AND STRUCTURE THIS EXEMPLIFIES THE WINE MASTERS WORK,GOOD AROMA AS WELL AS TASTE GO HAND AND HAND WITH THE OVERALL COMPOSITION OF THE WINE.

SO WHAT DOES THAT LEAVE US WITH,WHAT WE LIKE WHEN WE TASTE IT ...........................

 

[audmkamp]

I wonder if that is what is in Carnivor Cab Sauv. I picked up this up because of a suggestion from GreginND in my "affordable Cab Sauvs thread. It was good, but a little bizarre. The color was a deep, bright purple. The legs were EXTREMELY long: thick and viscous; moreover, the legs appeared purple in the glass (!), which I have never seen before. The film that dried in the glass after it was empty looked almost day-glo red/purple in character.

I commented in my tasting notes: "Smooth, languid, cough syrup, boysenberry, artificial candy taste, slightly sweet. Bizarre deep purple color. Looooong legs. The legs look purple. Very viscous. Artifical color and/or added glycerol?"

Know this is an old thread, but I bet it was Mega Purple.

 

[sour_grapes]

Know this is an old thread, but I bet it was Mega Purple.

I bet you are exactly correct, audmkamp. I had not heard of megapurple 3 years ago, but that is what I would guess now.

 

[bkisel]

I bet you are exactly correct, audmkamp. I had not heard of megapurple 3 years ago, but that is what I would guess now.

3 minutes ago, well maybe more like 5, I'd never heard of Mega Purple and now thanks to GOOGLE I'm an Mega Purple knowledge expert!

https://vinepair.com/articles/what-is-mega-purple-and-what-is-it-doing-in-my-wine/

 

[Boatboy24]

I've tried to find it for purchase, as I'm curious to have a taste/smell of it on its own for better identification, as well as for potential experimentation in my 'lab'. Not a lot of luck so far.

 

[Ron0126]

3 minutes ago, well may more like 5, I'd never heard of Mega Purple and now thanks to GOOGLE I'm an Mega Purple knowledge expert!

https://vinepair.com/articles/what-is-mega-purple-and-what-is-it-doing-in-my-wine/

Google makes everyone an "expert" but don't tell the Internet!!!

 

[Cellar_Dweller]

I've tried to find it for purchase, as I'm curious to have a taste/smell of it on its own for better identification, as well as for potential experimentation in my 'lab'. Not a lot of luck so far.

$200/gal. http://thevintnervault.com/index.php?p=view_product&product_id=4177

 

[CabSauv]

I wanted to bottle this batch, so I decided to conduct an experiment. I bottled 10 bottles with no additions, 10 bottles with glycerine, and 10 bottles with a finishing tannin (Tannin Riche). I'll let you know how they come out in about a year and half!

So what was/is your analysis on the 3 varieties of this batch? If it's in another thread my apologies, but I am very curious to hear your results.

 

[sour_grapes]

So what was/is your analysis on the 3 varieties of this batch? If it's in another thread my apologies, but I am very curious to hear your results.

I sort of winced when this thread bubbled back up, because I was afraid someone would ask this very reasonable question. The truth is, I couldn't tell much difference. It is a little hard to say, I must admit, because I never opened 2 or 3 of these bottles back to back. Another confounding factor is that I am not very impressed by ANY of this batch. They were kind of "meh." If I recall correctly, this was one of two batches I did before realizing my carboys were much larger than 23L, so I wound up diluting it with water by ~6%, to boot.

Soooo, a big, fat inconclusive. Sorry!

 

[balatonwine]

The truth is, I couldn't tell much difference. ....
Soooo, a big, fat inconclusive. Sorry!

Finding no difference is a conclusion. The conclusion being that the additives did not help. And that is indeed useful information.

Of course, any experiment needs to be repeated somewhere else to see if the results are universal. Any takers?