What can I do to fix my muscadine wine

[olusteebus]

I have two batches of muscadine, one straight muscadine and one muscadine/blackberry jam blend. I am being generous when I say the taste of both is blah.

The mouthfeel is poor, no muscadine flavor at all.

About 9 months ago I put in way too much kmeta, 2 tbs in one and 1tbs in the other.

The ta for both is .80 and the ph is 3.2. Aren't those readings in range?

The sg is around 1.002 for the straight muscadine and 1.008 for the blend.

I plan on sweetening it somewhat with simple syrup.

Would doing a fpac fix this?

What other suggestions do you have?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Buster

 

[dralarms]

First muscadine needs to be sweetened a little (IMHO) or the flavor just dosen't come to light. I'd take the 1.01 sg one and take out a bottle and sweeten it to 1.010 to 1.015 and see if the flavor comes around.

How much fruit did you use per gallon? if you didn't use enough then yes a f-pac might help, but if you used enough than sweetening might be the only help (again IMHO).

 

[olusteebus]

I think I used 35 to 40 pounds of grapes for the straight muscadine and 20 pounds for the muscadine/bb along with 5 jars of bb jam.

I sweetened both today with some concord grape and white grape and peach concentrate today. I think they are both about 1.010 now.

I am going to bottle it soon and hopefully it will taste better out of a bottle than out of a hydrometer flask!

 

[olusteebus]

I backsweetened both with concord grape concentrate. The Muscadine/blackberry jam is absolutely fantastic. The SG is a little less than 1.01. Perfect.

The Sg of the pure muscadine is also a little less than 1.01 but is not near as good.

I am considering making three gallons of blackberry jam wine and then blending the two.

How would that work?

 

[dralarms]

That would work. It might taste different than the other since the other was fermented together.

 

[olusteebus]

Thanks. I was wondering if it old make a difference by not being fermented together. I know I will also have the problem of the bb not being seven months old. I think I will oak the bb while fermenting in hopes of it mellowing out the bb acid early.

 

[jswordy]

My muscadine experience is limited as of now but bench testing of my batch shows that the more sugar I add the more forward fruit the muscadine flavor is. Mine is 100% grape juice, no water.

I made a second pressing and it also has the same tendency. More sugar = more forward flavor.

I've also experimented with adding citric acid, which does increase the tartness of the wine but should be added cautiously. If I do it to the whole batch I will use ReaLemon as the acid source so I am less likely to overdo it than with the powder.

My blueberry wine experience is more extensive. The acid should go away at Month 13. You drink some at Month 10, then try it again at Month 13, and you will think you have a different wine altogether.