how to make a good flavorfull sweet fruit wine

I suppose that depends on how balanced you want your wine. The feeding method will produce a wine with significantly high alcohol (15% or higher). That may be ok if it tastes balanced with the residual sugar and acid - but I would expect it to be a bit more port-like than wine-like in that respect. Personally, I would opt for fermenting to 11-12% alcohol (dry), stabilizing with sorbate and bisulfite and then sweetening to taste. I suspect you will find a more balanced product in the end.

Do you mean getting it clear? Or adjusting some other property of the wine (taste, color, etc)?

I would not use any fining materials unless the wine has bulk aged and been racked when necessary for at least 6 months. Then, it depends on what specific problem is causing your haziness. Pectin, protein, etc. will each need something different to fine with.

You cannot filter a cloudy wine. It will not go through a filter. You should only filter a wine that already looks completely clear. Thus, it is not an option for the clearing process.

Very broad questions. My suggestion is to pick up some books on country wines and read them critically. Jack's site is great for his comments about making country wines of many types. Read his recipes, not just his methods.

More flavorful wines. I assume you want wines that taste like the original fruit. In that case use the maximum amount of fruit called for in the recipe. Then make it dry. At this point it will probably not taste like the original fruit. Stabilize and sweeten in a little and the fruit character will probably come back. Adjust it to your taste.

You can try using more fruit than called for in a recipe but be ready to adjust the acidity or it will get way out of balance real quick.

I agree with Greg. Slow feeding is a great way to make high alcohol wines of 16-18%. That will not make them flavorful. It just makes them get you drunk quick. Actually you can get drunk just as quick off 6-8% wine because it is so smooth you will drink too much of it before you know it.

Racking every 3-4 weeks will do nothing but expose the wine to air and lessen the quality. That is way too much handling. Rack to secondary, Rack after fermentation and it starts to clear to get it off the gross leas (I always wait at least 2 weeks after fermentation), rack 2-3 months later when it mostly clears, and rack one more time only if necessary but not before

3-4 months.

Aim for 11-13% wine and adjust the sweetness. It will have plenty of flavor and plenty of kick.

Ray

stabilizing

I apologize. The above has noting to do with this post. I thought I was answering another thread. Don't know how I got here?????/ ;o\ Ray

Stephen, I can't add much to what has already been said except to add that good fruit wines are made with good fruit. With few exceptions, most fruit peak in flavor when the fruit are at the peak of ripeness. Harvesting your own is the way to go because if you pick any under-ripe fruit you can only blame yourself. Commercial (super market) fruit are notoriously under-ripe when harvested because their cycle is timed to allow the fruit to "turn" during transit and on the shelf. The proof of this is to taste a deep red strawberry purchased at the supermarket and then taste a vine-ripened strawberry from your garden. You wouldn't even know they are the same species!

But you need to be clear about one thing. Fruit wines do not taste like the fruit they are made from any more than grape wine tastes like the grapes they are made from. But if they are made well, from fruit at the peak of their ripeness, they will taste like wine from that fruit is supposed to taste. You will know what it is because your nose and palate will recognize the fruit character in the base.

By "made well" I mean they are balanced. Alcohol is a major component of balance (the other major components being sugar, tannin and acidity--both TA and pH). If the alcohol is too high for the fruit type, you will never achieve balance without major intervention. Newbies make high alcohol wine because they don't understand balance. Some of the best fruit wines I have ever enjoyed (and I sure didn't make them all) were 10.5 to 11.5% abv. I even had an outstanding kiwi wine that was only 9.25% abv. It had an s.g. of 1.002, but it tasted like it was 1.006 at least because the alcohol did not compete with it. The kiwi flavor jumped out at you because it was a very well-balanced wine--TA was around 5.5 g/L and pH a bit high at 3.6 to

3.7 (two measurements--same meter--gave two readings). She (the winemaker) had fermenting on the skins and then added just a smidgen of tannin from tea leaves.

I hope this and the other posts help.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

Hi Jack

Seems to me you said quite a lot in just three short paragraphs !! ;O))

Just an observation from someone who hasn't been at this as long as the others. I've taste-tested my fruit wines at various times to gain an understanding of how they change, and they do change. From the fruit wines I've done, the alcohol kick does overwhelm the fruit taste in the beginning, but as the wine ages the fruit taste does start to come out (if you can wait that long). In response to your last question about fining, I don't unless the wine has a problem with it. Usually my wines clear of their own accord after racking and bulk aging. In three years, I've only resorted to fining with one batch because it's not clear - the one I'm working on now (dandelion). Darlene