Fruit Wine Flavors, or lack of???

New to wine making to the point that I have many versions going but haven't bottled anything yet except for a quick grape mead.

Racked several of my first wines from the secondary today. Although they actually tasted great already, they didn't have ANY hint of the fruit used to make them. They all tasted like a very nice white wine. They were strawberry, muscadine, and pear. I'm really happy with the pear but again, no pear flavor at all.

Is this normal? Will the fruit taste start to come through with age? Will the taste come through with sweetening them? Any ideas?

bama2112 said:

New to wine making to the point that I have many versions going but haven't bottled anything yet except for a quick grape mead.

Racked several of my first wines from the secondary today. Although they actually tasted great already, they didn't have ANY hint of the fruit used to make them. They all tasted like a very nice white wine. They were strawberry, muscadine, and pear. I'm really happy with the pear but again, no pear flavor at all.

Is this normal? Will the fruit taste start to come through with age? Will the taste come through with sweetening them? Any ideas?

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I am very very new so this is just MY experience so far. Yes the flavor will come with a little back sweetening... and even more with some age. I have two carboys mixed up right now. One is peach and the other is pear. I cannot taste any difference in them lol so I have no idea which one is which!

Your not going to ge a big fruit flavor out of them. I've made several different fruit wines and although after aging a bit, the flavor does come through, they are not going to taste like you might think. My last apple wine has no apple taste. I did add a couple tablespoons of frozen apple juice concentrate to each bottle at bottling time and it not only sweetened it up a bit, it brought back a light apple flavor.

My blackberry tasted like red wine but after 6-12 months in the bottle, I definitely get a bouquet of blackerry to it.

I've never done pear but I can imagine its going to be similar to the apple in that it wont have a lot of fruit flavor in the end.

Well, you can definitely sweeten after stabilizing with fruit juice if you're wanting to have the taste of fruit in the wine.

But think about this- commercial wine doesn't taste like the fruit it's made out of either. Like, merlot or chardonnay doesn't taste like grapes. It's the nature of wine.

I made a tomato wine that everybody liked but nobody pegged as tomato. They'd say, "Oh, it reminds me of something......." and I'd say, "tomato sauce" and THEN they "Oh, yes!"

Some commercial fruit wines are faked to be flavored like blackberry. When blackberries are fermented, they have an aroma of blackberries but not the "in your face" taste of fresh blackberries.

Yoop I racked some wines today into clean carboys. I swear two of them tasted like you could light them and they would burn. I have tasted moonshine that was not far off from the taste and that weird tongue feeling. I only started them at 1.080 OG and they are at .094 and 1.002 I swear I cannot tell em apart taste wise just by the color. I am about to give up on wine making.

OHIOSTEVE said:

Yoop I racked some wines today into clean carboys. I swear two of them tasted like you could light them and they would burn. I have tasted moonshine that was not far off from the taste and that weird tongue feeling. I only started them at 1.080 OG and they are at .094 and 1.002 I swear I cannot tell em apart taste wise just by the color. I am about to give up on wine making.

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Put them away, and top them up and airlock them. Come back in 6-8 months and see. It sounds like it fermented too "hot", like at a high temperature. It should get better with age.

Yooper_Brew said:

Put them away, and top them up and airlock them. Come back in 6-8 months and see. It sounds like it fermented too "hot", like at a high temperature. It should get better with age.

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will do..... I need a fermentation ROOM. a chamber will never be big enough. I think I may have too much head space. I have 6 gallons in the 6.5 gallon carboys.. about a half inch below where the neck starts tapering in....

OHIOSTEVE said:

will do..... I need a fermentation ROOM. a chamber will never be big enough. I think I may have too much head space. I have 6 gallons in the 6.5 gallon carboys.. about a half inch below where the neck starts tapering in....

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Yeah, that's too much. You want almost NONE. About an inch below the bung is safe.

Yooper_Brew said:

Yeah, that's too much. You want almost NONE. About an inch below the bung is safe.

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ok what do I use to top em off? I need the extra space for active ferment but it is too much for aging and too much volume for my 5 gallon carboys? Maybe drop to 5 gallon batches rther than 6???

OHIOSTEVE said:

ok what do I use to top em off? I need the extra space for active ferment but it is too much for aging and too much volume for my 5 gallon carboys? Maybe drop to 5 gallon batches rther than 6???

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You could put them in 5 gallon carboys plus a jug, or any other combination of fermenters. I have some 4L Carlo Rossi jugs, some 1 gallon jugs, some 3 gallon carboys, etc. I have leftover wine in wine bottles, and use those for topping off. (The very small stopper, I can't remember the number maybe 3? fits the wine bottles). So, you could do a 5 gallon carboy and a growler, for example. I always make extra must for topping off.

the other choice is to top off with a commercial wine. For dandelion wine, you could use a sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio. For a blackberry, a cabernet sauvignon. Those are just examples, but you see what I mean. Today, I had to top off a crabapple wine. I used 1/2 bottle of banana wine that was in my cellar (and drank the rest). Weird, but not really when you think about the "fruity" aspect!

Ok yoop I went and checked on carboys and if I get the two I was just given cleaned up, I have seven 5 gallon ones. HOWEVER these are 6 gallon batches BUT I have 7 1 gallon glass jugs also! so I am good to go. i MIGHT have to make a run for bungs but thats life I guess. One more question and I will quit buggin you. I just racked all of this wine today.. will doing it again tomorrow or wednesday be too much too soon?

OHIOSTEVE said:

Ok yoop I went and checked on carboys and if I get the two I was just given cleaned up, I have seven 5 gallon ones. HOWEVER these are 6 gallon batches BUT I have 7 1 gallon glass jugs also! so I am good to go. i MIGHT have to make a run for bungs but thats life I guess. One more question and I will quit buggin you. I just racked all of this wine today.. will doing it again tomorrow or wednesday be too much too soon?

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It's better to rack again than to leave it untopped up, in my opinion. I'd go ahead and use 1 campden tablet per gallon, if you didn't the last time, to help prevent any possible oxidation.

Yooper_Brew said:

It's better to rack again than to leave it untopped up, in my opinion. I'd go ahead and use 1 campden tablet per gallon, if you didn't the last time, to help prevent any possible oxidation.

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dont have tablets.. got a bag of kmeta though... looks like I have some cleaning and siphoning to do today.

Would it be a good idea to add campden tablets everytime the wine is racked, or is once enough?

bja said:

Would it be a good idea to add campden tablets everytime the wine is racked, or is once enough?

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Not every time, no. Ideally, you'd have an S02 meter and keep the wine at 50 ppm or so. However, I don't have a meter and guestimate 50 ppm as one tablet per gallon at every other racking. It's been "good enough" so far for me.

OHIOSTEVE said:

dont have tablets.. got a bag of kmeta though... looks like I have some cleaning and siphoning to do today.

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Check the "dosage" on the k-meta. It might be a very small amount you have to add, like 1/8 teaspoon or 1/4 teaspoon per carboy. It's been a long time since I've used the powder, so double check the amount carefully!