Tannin question

[Donatelo]

I'm making my Welch's concord grape wine recipe again. I have made four one -gallon batches of this in the past. While it makes a nice enough wine, I wonder about adding a 1/2 tsp. tannin to it and if so, when I should add it.
The recipe is as follows.

This is an easy recipe that turns out well, at about 14% alcohol and is full bodied.

Welch’s bottled grape juice. Added into a one-gallon jug:

96 oz of Welch’s concord grape juice.

2 cup sugar.

2 tsp. acid blend

1 tsp pectic enzyme

1 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 packet of EC-1118 yeast

½ tsp. potassium sorbate

1 crushed campden tablet

Add Welch’s concord grape juice to one-gallon bottle. Add remaining ingredients except yeast, campden tablet and potassium sorbate. Take the Specific Gravity and record it. Cover with napkin fastened with rubber band and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and place an airlock. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fill remainder of gallon jug with water, stir and fit an airlock. When clear, rack into a clean carboy, leaving the gross lees, add crushed campden tablet and ½ tsp. potassium sorbate, refit airlock. After additional 30 days, sweeten if desired, then rack into bottles, avoiding disturbance of the gross lees. Discard the lees. Makes five .750-liter bottles of decent red table wine.

I have tried this recipe and it does turn out nice.

 

[winepittsburgh]

The tannin will buy you a little mouth feel/perceived viscosity if you are planning to go for another dry concord. I would add it right from the start of fermentation. Have you considered dialing back the sugar to give you about 11% alcohol and then back-sweetening until the taste is just right? In my experience, concord just doesn't taste quite right dry. Usually mine are way too acidic and need a little sugar to achieve balance. I always do a lot of test blending in a glass before adding any back-sweetening sugar. With something like a concord, you can also water it back a bit if it is too acidic, but I would only do that if you are going to back-sweeten. I have heard that it is not uncommon for wineries to add 1 gallon of water for every 5 gallons of concord wine since the flavor is so dominant and can even get over-powering after a few glasses.

 

[Donatelo]

Thanks for your well written post. I have a SG of 1.100. Ph is 3.61 and temp is 74 F. I will add 1/2 tsp. dry tannin to 1/4 cup of warm water then add to the must.
Sorry to say that I have already put the two cups of sugar in the must. I'm still perfecting this recipe. It turns out pretty good , but I wanted to improve on it. I may go ahead and start another batch with less sugar , maybe only raise the SG to 1.080. I think the addition of tannin is on the right track.

 

[salcoco]

usually tannin added prefermentation is sacrificial and is used to sustain color of the grapes. as you are starting with juice I don't think tannin added prefermentation will be beneficial. I would suggest waiting until wine is clear and stable.then do bench trials. take 10 grams of tannin add to 100ml of water to make a 10% solution.using 375ml samples, for 100ppm add .375ml of solution to sample for 200ppm ad .75ml, 300ppm is 1.125ml. let samples sit for one to two weeks and do taste test to determine best one. then add final amount to large batch. tannin will smooth after aging so wine may taste better after a year.

 

[Donatelo]

This wine , like Dragons Blood, is made to drink within 2 months of bottling. It will never make it to a year. I may have to let a batch age for that long ,but it keeps me from sampling the Peach Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and white Cranberry that I'm trying to stay out of. I'm sure most of us have been there.

 

[tjgaul]

I made a 3 gallon batch of Concord from grapes in 2016. I did not have a press at the time so it was a very light hand pressing through a mesh straining bag after only 5 days on the skins. I finished the ferment out to fully dry, back sweetened lightly and bottled just off-dry. It had a rather menthol character to it for several months, but at the 12-16 month mark it made a turn and is now a very nice wine. However, the nose is still dead on Welch's grape jelly!

2017 was a lousy crop for my co-workers vines, but 2018 is shaping up nicely. Going to taste test and measure brix this weekend and should be picking soon. I have a very good crop of wild grapes on my property and I'm thinking I may do a co-ferment with a blend of 70% Concord & 30% Wild grapes. Could be interesting . . . or it could be very scary.

 

[JustJoe]

I made a 3 gallon batch of Concord from grapes in 2016. I did not have a press at the time so it was a very light hand pressing through a mesh straining bag after only 5 days on the skins. I finished the ferment out to fully dry, back sweetened lightly and bottled just off-dry. It had a rather menthol character to it for several months, but at the 12-16 month mark it made a turn and is now a very nice wine. However, the nose is still dead on Welch's grape jelly!

2017 was a lousy crop for my co-workers vines, but 2018 is shaping up nicely. Going to taste test and measure brix this weekend and should be picking soon. I have a very good crop of wild grapes on my property and I'm thinking I may do a co-ferment with a blend of 70% Concord & 30% Wild grapes. Could be interesting . . . or it could be very scary.

I make a blended wine with 2/3 wild grapes and 1/3 elderberries and it is great. This is the third year and I am finally making enough of it (15 gallons) to let some age reasonably.