blending '02's dry wine with '03 fresh juice?

Question

I have several batches of dry whites made last year (muscat, gewurtz, riesling) that are ready for bottling but are too dry. In prior years, I've added one of the wine conditioners which includes sorbate. But this year, since it's so close to the new harvest, I'm wondering if I can just add some freshly pressed juice to the batches. If so, should I filter out the sediment first from the fresh juice? Also, I'll have to do something to prevent renewed fermentation, but will filtering the whole batch work, or should I just add sorbate? The finished dry wines right now are perfectly clear and probably don't need filtering otherwise.

Thanks for your help.

Lee

Pavel314 · Accepted Answer

I've made cream pear wine in 2000 and 2002 by adding pear syrup to the prior year's batch of dry pear wine; details of the first attempt at

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For the 2002 batch, I avoided adding the pulp, just stirring the clear syrup into the dry wine. I stabilized with sorbate and let it settle out to clarity for a month or so before bottling.

The reason I used syrup as opposed to pear juice was to avoid diluting the mixture too much. If you add straight grape juice, it will up the sugar but lower the percent alcohol by volume. Depending on the alcohol level of your dry wine, this might not be a bad thing, but it's something to consider.

Paul

Ray · Answer

What about concentrating the juice the same way you do freeze distillation. Just skim off the ice crystals as they form until the SG goes up enough. Just a thought if you really want to use your juice.

Ray

blending '02's dry wine with '03 fresh juice?

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