Vinquirys' tannin products

Hi Ben, I have used tannins from both Vinquiry and Scott Laboratory. They seem to help some poor wines but not others. I think good fruit and oak makes the best wine. Regards, lum

Agreed, but sometimes you gotta live with poor fruit, at least I do. Have you used Scott Labs late addition product, Tanin Plus? I got a very small sample from a friend to try in a test batch, but I don't want to base my opinion of it just on that one data point. I haven't tried mine yet, BTW, I was told to let it sit for several weeks before evaluating the difference between it and some untreated wine.

Brian

Brian, I ferment my share of poor fruit, so I undersand your position. I didn't mean to imply enological tannins were worthless. Quite the contrary. Sometimes, they can work wonders. I view the use of tannin much the same as I view the use of a band aid. I would rather not need to use it but ...............

Coincidentally, I did an enological tannin demonstration last Saturday sponsored by the San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society ( SDAWS.org ). The demo included Tannin Plus and several other tannins. 100 PPM of Tannin Plus changed a very herbaceous wine, with little phenolic structure, into a good, solid, mediocre wine.

I think many of the tannin chemical reactions are very slow, and several weeks may be required to reach equilibrium. The herbaceous wine was tasted about four hours after the Tannin Plus addition, and I suspect that a much smaller dose would have had the same effect if added earlier. Some of tannins are made specifically for addition before fermentation, so bench testing is difficult.

Regards, lum

Now that's the kind of confirmative info I was looking for. Thanks. (I am aware of what the companies selling these products claim for them, but was interested in getting practical feedback from winemakers who'd actually used them.)

Definitely, and even longer (polymerisation/bridging of tannins is a long time frame process).

Ben

Ben, Are these sold in small enough quantities that they may be of interest to the home winemaker?

Don

Don,

They sell Oenotan and Tanichene in 250 g "sacks" and Taniraisin in 500 g. The others come in larger quantities. Admittedly, you'd have to be making a fair amount of wine to get through 250 g, but it's not a large weight in terms of typical packaging (or postage costs) etc.

Ben