I am about ready to bottle a batch of Riesling that turned out too dry for my tastes. I've already added K-sorbate and bought a gallon of 68-brix concentrate to use for re-sweetening.
My question is, per 750mL bottle, what's a good amount, roughly, of non-diluted concentrate to add so that the resultant wine has a sweetness approximating a Spatlese or Auslese?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Brian
BTW, wine currently has a gravity of about 1.003 and alc of about 14.5% (Used EC-1118)
Spatlese or Auslese level can cover a wide range of residual sugar levels, but I would start with around .07 to .10 liters (2.4 to 3.4 US fl oz) per 750 ml bottle. This should get you in the range you're looking for.
As Paul Harvey used to say, and now for the rest of the story.
The acid level of the wine can also play a very important part in the apparent sweetness of the wine. Spatlese and Auslese wines tend to have significant acid. If your wine does not, you may want to cut the above suggestion down a bit.
The best thing you can do is a bench trial. Measure out multiple samples of the wine and to each, add a different amount of the concentrate. After you pick the one you like, use the amount of concentrate added to that sample to determine how much to add per bottle or the whole batch.
You mention you added Sorbate. I hope you've added a healthy dose of sulfites also to keep the ML bacteria away from the Sorbate.
FYI, I never sweeten when I'm bottling anymore. I let the wine sit in bulk after sweetening to make sure the wine remains stable.
1) being consistant is difficult
2) if the sorbate/PPM is not enough to inhibit yeast reporduction you can end up with corks getting blown off.
After the wine has cleared well and I'm ready to bottle, if I find that I'd like to take some of the dryness off, I'll sweeten to taste, add PPM, & Sorbate - all in the carboy. After adding these I let it sit at least another two weeks to even out & I keep checking to be sure the Sorbate has really done the job. If everything still looks good I'll bottle it.
I think, however, that it's always better to error on the side of too dry before bottling because with time the acids mellow and need less counter-balance.
I typically ferment those wines that I prefer a little off-dry by fermenting them right out then fining and cold stabilizing before bottling. These include Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, etc. and I just keep a container of sugar syrup in the fridge and sweeten in the bottle to taste. This is done by experience and not carefully measured but it works just fine for me.
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