Sweetening Dry Wine

Honey or sugar will possibly begin to ferment.

I use "Equal." One packet in a standard bottle is usually enough.

In earlier discussions of this topic, it was suggested that Equal will degrade eventually, but I haven't had that experience---yet, anyway.

vince norris

Guys, To each his own and this is not a put-down. But, I shudder thinking about a packet of Equal in a bottle of Syrah. I cry when I think about a packet of Equal in a great bottle of Syrah. Regards, lum

Jim - I agree with Lum. Don't add artificial sweeteners to wine. Before I offer my comments, do you know what the %TA is for your Shiraz. Sometimes with with a high %TA benefits from sweetening. Here's the most direct approach to adding a little sweetness. Use table sugar. Chances are you won't need more that 1% to take the edge off your wine. Pour up a 750 ml bottle and add add a teaspoon. That's about 5 grams or about 0.7%. If that amount doesn't please you add a little more. Keep track of the additions. Then scale up to your bulk wine. Now, this sugar with start fermentation again. So, add 1.25 grams/gallon potassium sorbate. This will prevent remaining yeast from fermenting the sugar. Be sure your SO2 is at the proper concentration for the pH of your wine. The raw taste of the added sugar will soften in several weeks. Good luck and report back with your results.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas

Bill is right. Add sucrose or simple syrup plus K sorbate. Here's a link explaining those fundamentals:

Mr. Woods, I am not sure just what you are objecting to in your wine.

To me, the term "dry" means without sugar, so when a wine is "too dry," I assume the wine does not contain enough sugar. But, red Syrah table wines are always dry. They contain little or no fermentable sugar, so I don't understand how a Syrah wine could be "too dry."

Acids, like lemon juice, are "sour." Do you mean your wine is too sour? The white pith under the skin of a grapefruit is "bitter." Is your wine too bitter? "Astringency" is not a taste. It is more of a drawing or puckering feeling in your mouth. Is your wine too astringent? "Tannic" is a combination of bitter and astringent. Is your wine too tannic? Too much acid (sour) and too much tannin can work together producing an excessively "rough" wine, so most big, tannic red wines are low in acid. Is your wine too rough?

In any case, consider aging your Syrah in a bulk container for at least six months before making a decision. Red wines become "less rough" as they age, but be sure to keep the container topped up.

Regards, lum

Me too, Lum, but he didn't SAY that his was a "great" bottle of Syrah.

Anyway, if he wants to drink sweet Syrah, it's his right to do so.

I was trying to save him the risk of exploding bottles.

vince norris

Bill, you're not agreeing with Lum, you're DISagreeing with him,. Read his post again. Lum recommended against ANY sweetener.

But if Jim WANTS to sweeten his wine, it will be much easier, and safer, for him to do it with Equal than by using the method you propose, involving potassium sorbate.

Let me suggest you try using your method to sweeten a bottle of wine, and Equal to sweeten another bottle. Go out of the room and have your wife, or someone, pour at least six small glasses of wine for you--SOME of which (not necessarily half of them) from one bottle, and the remaining glasses from the other. See if you can identify all the glasses.

You may be surprised! But if you can score 100% on this test, and you prefer the sorbate, then continue to use it.

vince norris

Vince, I agree with you. If you like sweet wine then drink sweet wine. Regards, lum

What are the pros and cons of using "wine conditioner" instead of sugar and potassium sorbate? I've seen "wine conditioner" advertised by many winemaking suppliers and apparently it is a premixed combination of sugar syrup and potassium sorbate.

WOW!!! I didn't mean to start such controversy on wine sweeteners and whether or not to even use them. In any case I will take all the advice under consideration and let you know later how my decision and result come out. Thanks again for your help Sinc

You might also consider using Splenda to sweeten the wine. I gind it tastes better than Equal and you don't have to worry about it breaking down and losing sweetness (so you could sweeten all the bottles at bottling time as opposed to sweetening each bottle before consumption). Do a google search on this newsgroup for a recent discussion on the pros and cons of Splenda in wine. Warren

Warren Place

Shiraz is usually made dry... Some people add sugar to dry wines when they open the bottle to drink and some people sweeten by the glass. Making a concentrated sugar/water and adding it to your wine ehn you drink it will allow folks that like Shiraz dry to enjoy your wine too.

You can always add sugar to taste, but if you can't take it out if you make the wine too sweet.

Later, A.J.

Throwing out the "sweetening wine" issue to a bunch of winemakers is like throwing a fish in among a bunch of cat's. The only way you could have started a bigger controversy is to ask "Should I use sulfite?"

And by the way, I didn't see that Lum said not to use sweeteners. He just said it made him cry to think of it. ;o)

Ray