Flat/watery black raspberry merlot

Can anyone help me?! I dont usually make wine, but someone gifted me a black raspberry merlot kit for my wedding. I just tasted it today to see what it was like as I was meaning to bottle it in the next week or so. It tasted flat, watery, and slightly carbonated. I know that doesnt make much sense, that a wine can be both flat and lightly carbonated, but this is the best description i can give you. I am not sure of the alcohol content, as I failed to measure before and after, but it tastes low in alcohol. If anyone has any tips to bring a watery/flat wine back to life before bottling, I would greatly appreciate it! I dont want to waste the kit, and I dont want to drink crappy wine. thanks.

I added a teaspoon of tannin and two oz of tartaric acid to mine to get it to taste right.

Add a some of each to a sample of your wine to see what you need taste right.

If that was a "mist" style kit, you made it wrong. They are low in alcohol and generally sickley sweet. The carbonation may be dissolved CO2 that you need to get out of suspension.

What were your steps when making this wine?

I have been informed that my kit was a "Mist" kit. I am not crazy about the flavor, body, and alcohol content. I want to bring some life to it. I have been told to bring my wine up to par, I should add raisins, orange, and more yeast to allow more fermentation and better flavor. I am not a wine snob, so i am not concerned with perfection as much as I am concerned with making this a drinkable wine. Is this good advice? How much raisin? orange? Let me know what you guys think.

If you have made your Mist kit per directions and already added the stabilizing packet which is usually k-meta plus sorbate, then there is little you can do now except for adding some glycerin for body--but need to trial that. Or consider making a few gallons of blackberry or black raspberry wine and blend the two--a 96oz can of Vintner's Harvest wine base made into a three gallon batch may help you. Or even blending with a few bottles of commercial merlot may rescue this.
If you have not added the sorbate component you may consider adding two-three pounds per gallon of berries, a 48oz can fruit wine base/puree or 1-2 containers per gallon of 100% fruit juice frozen/thawed concentrate like Welch's White Grape juice as this will increase body--as long as current batch still has fermenting capability, and I think it would. Worse case, you pitch a new yeast, but again only if sorbate is not on board already.
Overall, adding more yeast in any recipe will not yield a better outcome. Raisins are used as a natural nutrient and body builder and can be added in varying amounts, just depends what you are making. Oranges-or citrus for that matter were used to add citric acid to the ferment. Just randomly adding either raisins or oranges will not yield a better wine.
But the mist kits are supposed to be more like a wine cooler, light, sweet and fruity, 8-9% ACV if that.

After the fact you could add some brandy which would raise the ABV and cut the sugar and flat taste some. Bench trial first.

I still say you did it wrong. Mist kits are NOT flat nor watery.

Did you follow the directions?

To people who are used to full bodied wines with an alc content of 12% or higher, a mist-style kit will very likely seem watery and flat. Aka light bodied, lightly flavored, still fruit wine. Try drinking a wine cooler that has been opened and left at room temp for six hours, some say mist-style kits compare to that. If you do not know what to expect, you can be shocked.

Yea I was pretty shocked as this was not the type of wine I was expecting. Because this was my first wine, and it was a gift, I had no control over its purchase. but i now know to not buy mist wines in the future. I followed the instructions correctly. The wine is still pretty sweet, and I feel like more fermentation is possible. Because i will not drink as is, I will try raisins/grape juice/yeast addition to see what results I can get. I'll let you know if I am able to transform this mist kit into a richer, full-bodied wine with a little more punch. Some of you may think I am crazy, but as a first time wine maker, I am allowed to make these mistakes, lol.

I believe i already added my sorbate, but from researching the topic, i believe that I will be able to achieve fermentation after sorbate regardless, as my wine is still very low in alcohol content and very high in sugars. read the article.
http://www.fermentarium.com/homebre...ng-you-know-about-potassium-sorbate-is-wrong/

I believe i already added my sorbate, but from researching the topic, i believe that I will be able to achieve fermentation after sorbate regardless, as my wine is still very low in alcohol content and very high in sugars. read the article.
http://www.fermentarium.com/homebre...ng-you-know-about-potassium-sorbate-is-wrong/

Well I didn't really get any further fermentation, but the raisins and oranges gave it a lot of flavor. While this wine is still weak it is much more drinkable now.

didnt get too much more fermentation, if any at all. yet i did accomplish a better testing wine by adding the oranges and the raisins. turned this mist kit into something more drinkable. will never purchase a mist kit.

If you bump up the sugar at fermentation(about 4 pounds) and add some very ripe bananas you will have a higher ABV and wine with more body.
Mist wines can be very good. I have 2 more to start and one in primary that were Christmas gifts. My first 2 kits were not too bad but not much body and abv of 6.9.