Tart Grape Juice wine after 2 weeks in Primary

I'm just trying my first gallon of Grape Juice Wine. After 2 weeks of primary, I racked to secondary. Tasting it was like a sweet tart.

ingredients:

almost 1 gal Newman's Own 100% Grape Juice - Kirkland (purple)
2 cups of sugar, cup of water. Added till gravity was 1.09
Red star yeast - Pasteur Red

I checked the juice in the beginning and the acid strip said it was about 3.2. Is that about right?

At 2 weeks the gravity was 1.000

When I transferred - I added potassium metabisulfite, bentonite and a handful of raisins.

The juice had both Ascorbic and Citric Acid so I added no acid blend as I've seen called for in recipe's. Still I'm concerned about the tartness. Will this mellow in secondary or will I need to correct?

That actually sounds pretty tasty. I like a dry, tart wine.

2 weeks is way too young to evaluate it though. Try it again in a month or two and you probably won't even recognize it.

The CO2 buildup due to fermentation can cause additional acidity which will mellow with age or degassing. I wouldn't mechanically degas this late in aging though as it will stir the sediment back up.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I think then instead of messing with it, I wait for a month and taste again on the next transfer.

Is there anything else I'll need to plan for? Is tannin a requirement? I see it in recipes as well.

My plan is to age a month or two transferring twice more. Then stabilizing adding the sorbate and metabisulfite, then waiting a day or two and bottle.

Tannin adds a little body and a whole lot of bitterness. It isn't needed.

You may get away with degassing right after racking when there is no sediment on the bottom. If you take a little cup of the wine and poor it from one cup to another and then back and forth for a few minutes, it will degas it enough to sample.

At four weeks, I took a sample and was surprised the tartness has really diminished. Its still there but I'm seeing that time is doing good things!

Mugsfull said:

At four weeks, I took a sample and was surprised the tartness has really diminished. Its still there but I'm seeing that time is doing good things!

Click to expand...

Good to hear! It should continue to get more mellow as it ages.

I've had a similar experience with a wine made from store bought juice. It started pretty tart, but aged nicely. I actually gave a lot of it away cause I thought it was a lost cause until one of my family members told me that it turned out really good. I tried a bottle, and it did age nicely. So give it time.

I actually gave a lot of it away cause I thought it was a lost cause...

Click to expand...

Nice. So I wouldn't let your friends know the reason for your sudden generosity!

Actually, in the few years I've been at this, I've only made one batch or so (beer) that had an off flavor. I think it was a little astringent in the aftertaste - I've gotten picky about taste since I started brewing. Anyways, few others noticed, so guess what. I became very generous with that batch.

If this works well, I'm gonna do a 5 gallon batch.

Well it wasn't like I just pawned it off on unsuspecting people. It was mostly family who came over and liked the taste. So I was just like great have some!!!

I am doing a similar experimental batch in one gallon quantities.