Wine Batch tastes like too much alcohol

[brandylupo]

First wine batch using frozen welches grape no sugar added concentrate, seems to taste like way too much alcohol content, I feel like I am drinking liquor rather than wine! How can we even out the taste to be more sweet and less alcohol?

 

[ibglowin]

Hi Brandy,

Welcome to the VFW Forums!

Glad you found us.

That is pretty common for a freshly fermented batch of wine. That will settle down in a few weeks and the fruit flavors will start to come back out as it ages a bit. Also some oak chips will help bring out some hints of vanilla and make it smell more like wine as it ages.

You didn't mention your starting specific gravity. It could have had a pretty high starting SG so there could be quite a bit of alcohol in it.

Give it some time to age and it should settle down in a month or so.

 

[brandylupo]

I dont have the starting gravity off hand since I am at work but yeah it was a bit higher than it probably should have been so we knew it would be high in alcohol, maybe we will try some oak chips although I am not a big fan of oak tasting wine, I enjoy very sweet wines more, but it will be nice to have a few varieties in wine for guests.


Thanks for the info this is quite a new journey for me!

 

[ibglowin]

Time is your biggest friend in winemaking. If you don't like oak don't add it. Just give it time to come around and it will be fine.

 

[robie]

Likely what you are tasting is not just alcohol. New red wine is very tart.
Like ibglowin said, give it some time. Patience is a wine makers best friend.

You don't actually get a "burn" from alcohol unless it is at or above about 40% ABV. You can try this with vodka - add enough water to get the ABV down to about 30%. At that level about all you taste is sweetness. (I know I'll get some argument, but vodka has little taste other than alcohol.)

At typical wine ABV levels, alcohol tastes a little sweet, but adds boldness, character, and volume to a wine.

An interesting experiment I have read about is to overwhelm your taste buds with alcohol, which is just below 40% ABV; then quickly take a taste of your wine. Because your taste buds are overwhelmed with alcohol, you will not be able to taste any of the alcohol in your wine. The result of this test will be - what your wine would taste like, if it had no alcohol in it.

A similar test can be done with oak, tannins, and sweetness.

This coming winter, using these tastes and this technique, I am planing to have a wine tasting with my close friends. It should be fun.

 

[ibglowin]

Make sure you take some pics of that party!

 

[robie]

Yep, Mike,
Problem with that kind of party is each person has to take a lot of sips!

It's kind of like when - before bottling I taste test the wine to see if more acid, tannins, and/or biolees will help the wine. I have a reference glass and three test glasses. By the time I go back a forth a few times it doesn't matter in more if it has enough or not.
It's one of those things one does sitting down!

 

[jwm1960]

(I know I'll get some argument, but vodka has little taste other than alcohol.)

No argument from me. I've always said vodka tastes like straight alcohol.

 

[PeterZ]

Brandy, I made a batch of green apple riesling last year that, right after secondary fermentation, tasted like rocket fuel. It improved very much after a few weeks.