I am not a new winemaker, but not a total rookie either. Probably 15 or 20 batches to my credit, on my own or with my buddy.
I bought two RJ Spagnols Cru Select kits - Shiraz & Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. I had real good luck with an earlier kit of Shiraz from these guys.
In both cases, when I started them, by the time I made the volume up to 23 litres I was starting with a S.G. of 1.08 and 1.076 respectively (about 23 C. in both cases).
While this makes for a nice light wine (I figure it will come out to about
10.5% alcohol), I am musing whether a guy could "kick it up a notch" in terms of final alcohol content by adding sugar in some form at the very start. If so, what kind of sugar would be best? Or is there another stage of the fermentation at which one would do this? I just racked the Shiraz to the secondary this morning, and started the S.B.