Help - First attempt at home made wine

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Muss

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Hi All

I've been brewing beer for 8 months now and am having a go at making wine.
I'm starting with a kit - a Selection Speciale Millenium Sparkling Wine.

From what I've learned from browsing the net is that home made sparkling wines are pretty dry since the bottle fermentation is going to eat up all of the left over sugar (making this a Brut?), however I'm not too fond of dry sparkling wine and prefer the sweeter Sec and Cuvee. I understand I can add lactose at some point to sweeten it up a bit but I have no idea how much.
- Has anyone seen a table showing how much lactose to add to reach the sweetness of Brut, Sec, cuvee etc?
- Has anyone used this technique before and do you have any tips?
- Is this a really bad idea?
- Should I assume that this kit already has some unfermentable sugars added to sweeten it? (there's nothing in the description that suggests it)


Thanks for your help.

Muss
 
Make it according to the kit and sweeten it as you serve it. Make notes as to the amount and type of sweetener and apply it to your next batch.

I bet that after a few bottles, you will develop a taste for dry wine :)

Don't forget to use the right kind of bottles and closures to withstand the pressure.

If your looking for a sweet wine, then get a fruit flavored kit to start with.

Sweet sparkling wines are one of the more advanced winemaking techniques.
Most commercial wines of this style have the yeast nuked, either with potassium sorbate and sulfites, or a sterilizing filter, then they are flavoured, sweetened and force carbed.
I've made fruit flavoured wine kits and carbed them using this method. They were well recieved, but I kegged them and served them on tap.
 
Thanks mate.

I'll make the kit as is then and see how dry it is. The description is that it's quite fruity.

I'm keen to start kegging as I've been wanting to add nitrogen to my beer also, which is unpractical when using bottles.

I might have to buy myself some Christmas presents :D
 
That particular wine is "Off Dry" meaning it is on the dry side but still has a touch of sweetness to it. I don't know if any charts that state how much sweetener to add. It is basically done by taste.
 
I just had a look at the prices of kegging systems... I doubt Santa can carry one in his sack this year.

Thanks Smurfe I'm glad it's not going to be a completely dry wine. I will keep half of the batch as standard and will add some lactose to the other half when disgorging the lees from the bottles. It would be great to taste the results.

From your experience how long do you think these would age well for?
 
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