An aquaintence of mine accidentally oversweetened his elderberry wine. Instead of adding a 1/2 cup sugar per gallon, he added 1 cup. This was a 3 gallon batch, fermented with Lalvin EC118 to the limit, about 18% alcohol. Any ideas or suggestions to make this wine drinkable?
As you realize, it is easier to add than take away. The only real way is dilution. If you added twice as much as you intended then you need to dilute it with an equal volume. Of course you do not want to add a gallon of water to a gallon of wine but you can use a compatible dry wine. You could even make a second batch to use. Sure that means it will take longer but that is better than throwing it out. I recently blended a mead that had stuck at 1.010 with a Niagara grape that was overly dry and it came out very nice.
Ray
Blending is certainly the most obvious and common way to go.
What about re-sweetening it and making a port-style ? Not sure what elderberry port would taste like, but it might be worth trying a gallon.
Elderberry port is probabally the 2nd most common non-grape port (after blackberry).
The high tannin of elderberries really softens after about 10 years int eh bottle, or so i am told.....I am not old enough to have tried it myself (only 30, with 5 years winemaking)
Of course, you have the right alcohol...close to the right sugar I am assuming....maybe a bit more fruit? If you had elderberry juice you could use that....if not you could try fortifying it with a can of grape concentrate and a bit of everclear That would add, sugar, acid, flavor and alcohol top bump it up, but preserve the fruit flavor.
I would concur with the port idea. I would think that an elderberry dry wine at 18% alcohol needs sugar anyway to taste balanced. The 1/2 cup difference per 3 gals doesn't sound like much, so maybe just leave it alone for 1-2 months to let the sugar marry with the rest and taste it then. It's possible no adjustments will be needed at all.
Pp
I've always found that the best thing to do with a wine you don't like is to trade it to someone with different tastes than your own.
I made a large batch of blueberry wine once which had a odd taste to it that I found revolting. My mother couldn't detect anything wrong with the wine, so I traded the entire batch for some of her wine, and we both felt we got the better of the deal.
If you're in BC, I'll take nearly anything that others find to be "too sweet"....
Thanks for the replies, I forwarded them to my freind. I hope it helps
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