Riesling wine

[jkrug]

My wine has been aging for a few months. I was thinking about adding some fruit to give it slight fruit flavor or aroma plus the grape flavor. Any thoughts on how to do it and what fruit to add? Should I use a f-pac or float actual fruit in the carboy? What fruits go best with Riesling, apple, pear, pineapple etc? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[JohnT]

i need to ask... what are you trying to do here?

i am a huge fan of rieslings. if you want fruit components, the way to do it is to control the temp of your fermentation.

if the wine is dry, try simply adding sugar (after a dose of sorbate)

 

[ou8amaus]

Do you prefer crisper lemon/lime Riesling, or more rounder Pineapple/Stone fruit? That will dictate what you add. I have added whole fruit in the past to low-middle end kits into 2nd (carboy) fermentation and had good results. I would also taste where the batch stands at this time and see if it gives you directions... listen to your wine!

 

[FTC Wines]

When I was making my Riesling I topped off with my Peach Wine, it gave it a very slight peach flavor which blends nicely. Now when we have white wine drinkers over I open a Riesling & a peach & mix to their tastes. Roy

 

[Rocky]

Jkrug, when I was stationed in Germany and drank a lot of Riesling, it always reminded me of green apples. I made a batch in which I cut, cored and juiced about a dozen Granny Smith apples and added the juice the fermenter. It turned out great and went very quickly from my cellar.

 

[seth8530]

As John as alluded to, it is generally better to let the wine produce these kinds of flavours on their own via characteristics unique to the grapes and fermentation techniques. Ie, If I want a cherry notes in my merlot, I don't add cherries. If I want a little smoke in my wine I use heavy toast oak, but not liquid smoke.

However, I do not mean to stop anyone's fun. If you enjoy adding fruit components to your wines and you like it, go for it. But, I believe that being subtle is a great thing. I think you are much better off letting the drinker look for these flavour components and pick them out as he slowly explores the wine.

 

[Rocky]

I am too old for subtlety. I find it is a waste of time and energy.

I have also added Blackberries to Cabernet Sauvignon, Black Cherries to Zinfandel and lemon zest to Sauvignon Blanc. I am not trying to create the perfect wine. I just want a wine that my friends, family and I can enjoy.

 

[FTC Wines]

I totally agree with Rocky. I've added ALL the above & have added a bottle or3 of fruit wines to a 5 gal of Cab, Zin, Merlot etc. My favorite is to add Blackberry & or Blueberry wines to my red Wines. BLENDING is FUN! Roy

 

[jkrug]

If I decide to add the apples how should I do it? Slice the apples and throw them in for a couple weeks or juice them somehow?

 

[FTC Wines]

I slice them real small or chop them in a food processor, then put in the primary for a week or so. Roy

 

[jkrug]

I have already fermented the wine and it has been aging. Looking to add little apple flavoring now.

 

[joeswine]

adding fruit

just a thought if your wine is finished and by that I mean done ready for bottling, and it's the time of the year soon for the apples to come out again ,why not add a pure apple juice <fresh from the press to taste ,now you'll have the crispness of the wine and the freshness of the apple (to taste)mix and chems then bottle, done. just a thought.

 

[jkrug]

I don't have a press to get juice from the apples. What would the best method to get the crispness of apples? Should juice apples and add the juice or should I cut apples and throw them in the wine?