Tannins

[1lucky]

I plan on starting a 5 gallon batch of cranberry/orange wine in the next few days, I have seen several recipes and none of them call for tannins. Has anyone added tannins to cranberry wine? This is my first time making it and would also be the first time I have experimented with tannins. I contemplated blueberry or cranberry and went with cranberry because they are in season, but reading the blueberry recipes they seem to add tannin in quite a few recipes.. Thoughts?

 

[FTC Wines]

Welcome to Wine Talk! We make cranberry wine every year and have never added tannins to it. We also make a lot of Blueberry wine , some with some without tannins. IMHO don’t see a big difference, others may feel differently. Roy

 

[Noontime]

It doesn't seem like tannin would be needed (or wanted) in a cranberry wine. There's no necessity for tannin in wines; it helps bring balance to some wines and helps with aging (again, some appropriate wines). I've only encountered a few fruit wines (not grape) that benefited from tannin addition, but that's my opinion. Something else to keep in mind (which someone on Facebook reminded me today) is that just because someone put a recipe online, does not mean they know what they are doing or that it made a good wine when completed.

 

[Johnd]

It doesn't seem like tannin would be needed (or wanted) in a cranberry wine. There's no necessity for tannin in wines; it helps bring balance to some wines and helps with aging (again, some appropriate wines). I've only encountered a few fruit wines (not grape) that benefited from tannin addition, but that's my opinion. Something else to keep in mind (which someone on Facebook reminded me today) is that just because someone put a recipe online, does not mean they know what they are doing or that it made a good wine when completed.

I can see where you’re coming from in regards to taste, though it does help with mouthfeel. From a color retention standpoint, tannins are an important part of binding color in the wine.

 

[Noontime]

I can see where you’re coming from in regards to taste, though it does help with mouthfeel. From a color retention standpoint, tannins are an important part of binding color in the wine.

Very good points. And you also have to account for everyone's individual tastes and style choices; could be that tannin in every wine is exactly what's enjoyable for someone. That's one of the things about making my own wine that I absolutely love, is not only can I make wines that I personally enjoy, but inherently get an education about wine and my palate in doing so.

 

[Johnd]

Very good points. And you also have to account for everyone's individual tastes and style choices; could be that tannin in every wine is exactly what's enjoyable for someone. That's one of the things about making my own wine that I absolutely love, is not only can I make wines that I personally enjoy, but inherently get an education about wine and my palate in doing so.

Absolutely!! A minimal tannin addition at AF start to bind color without impacting taste in the finished wine could be the objective if one doesn’t want a bunch of tannin in the wine. Not sure what that addition size is though......