What would you say is the average gravity of a sweet wine?

I am going to try making a sweet wine and I was wondering what would be a generally gravity for a wine AFTER it has been back sweetened. Nothing dry but it can't be as sweet as desert wine, right in the middle sweetness I'd say. I'm trying to figure out how much sugar I will roughly need to add without testing tons of samples. Thanks

ratm4484 said:

I am going to try making a sweet wine and I was wondering what would be a generally gravity for a wine AFTER it has been back sweetened. Nothing dry but it can't be as sweet as desert wine, right in the middle sweetness I'd say. I'm trying to figure out how much sugar I will roughly need to add without testing tons of samples. Thanks

Click to expand...

Try starting with 1.010. and see if that is where you want it. That's what I go for with my off dry/semi whites.

I use 1 cup of granulated sugar in a 5 gallon carboy, draw .75 L out of carboy in a 1.50 L bottle, slowly add granulated sugar and cork and spin, continue until all sugar is dissolved, add back into carboy. This worked well with Ives, French concord, Niagara and diamond.

I think it may depend on the acidity in the wine. The more acidity , the more sweetness you might want to balance this. Four ounces of sugar in syrup form to each gallon will raise the final gravity by about 10 points so if your wine was at 1.000 then you will raise it to 1.010. If the wine was at .992 then you will raise it to 1.002 with the same amount of sugar...I am discounting the added volume of liquid because I assume that that is nominal.

Find a sweet vino ya like -- take a sample and measure the SG -- then make that the target for your's.

Personally -- for my Concorde grape vino -- it's 1.03

Cheers and Good Luck!

I think anything above 1.025 is a dessert wine. So 1.10 to 1.20 is pretty much the "sweet spot."

When I want to make a sweet wine I add 1/2 cup of frozen grape concentrate per gal. I don't know the FG, but I am guessing about 1.015 or so. My wife prefers a little more sweetness, so I do 3/4 cup per gal when I make wine specifically for her.

And I also agree with bernardsmith, the more acidity, the more backsweetening you will probably need.

you can really only judge that for yourself. for me, anything above 1.010 is too sweet.