Adding chocolate or cocoa to red wine

[Grunner]

Hello All,

I'm new to wine making. Only on my 2nd wine. I've tasted several commercial wines which, on the label, say they contain "hints of chocolate". I kind of like the flavor and was curious if anyone had made any wine using either cocoa or chocolate. I'm interested in knowing when you put it into the must, how much and would you use cocoa or ground cocoa beans?

Any advice on others experiences with this and how the wines turned out would be great. I'm going to start another 5 gallon black grape wine with blueberries and thought the "hint of chocolate" might be a nice touch, if I can figure out how to add it.

Thanks in advance

G-runner

 

[Jericurl]

I am currently aging a 1 gallon batch of cranberry/chocolate/habanero wine.

I used 1 gallon of cranberry juice. I want to say I added 1 can of grape juice concentrate(I am at work and don't have my notes with me) and enough water to get it up to around 1.5 gallon in my primary bucket. Adding chocolate means there are going to be a ton of lees dropping out and I wanted to end up with a solid 1 gallon.
I added about 4 oz of crushed cocoa beans and 1 cup of dark chocolate cocoa powder.
It's still aging and I expect it to age around a year before I attempt to drink any. When I racked into secondary, it tasted great, but cranberry is still definitely the dominant flavor.

 

[israelj]

Jericul, how long before you tasted it, and was it through the first racking? Most complain about a bitter taste from the chocolate. I have 3gallons of chocolate orange going right now. and it's still in the fermenting stage in the bucket...

 

[B McG]

Hello All,

I'm new to wine making. Only on my 2nd wine. I've tasted several commercial wines which, on the label, say they contain "hints of chocolate". I kind of like the flavor and was curious if anyone had made any wine using either cocoa or chocolate. I'm interested in knowing when you put it into the must, how much and would you use cocoa or ground cocoa beans?

Any advice on others experiences with this and how the wines turned out would be great. I'm going to start another 5 gallon black grape wine with blueberries and thought the "hint of chocolate" might be a nice touch, if I can figure out how to add it.

Thanks in advance

G-runner

Recently lightly caramelized organic palm sugar with organic Cocoa powder and organic maple syrup to my red grape juice with some organic Barley chicory coffee substitute,lightly cooked it out and added to mix when cooled .Yeast added and very quickly started feeding off the sugar .Previous batch had subtle nuances of cocoa and pomegranate ( organic juice ) ....

 

[Midway Island]

Hello All,

I'm new to wine making. Only on my 2nd wine. I've tasted several commercial wines which, on the label, say they contain "hints of chocolate". I kind of like the flavor and was curious if anyone had made any wine using either cocoa or chocolate. I'm interested in knowing when you put it into the must, how much and would you use cocoa or ground cocoa beans?

Any advice on others experiences with this and how the wines turned out would be great. I'm going to start another 5 gallon black grape wine with blueberries and thought the "hint of chocolate" might be a nice touch, if I can figure out how to add it.

Thanks in advance

G-runner

I made a chocolate port blend 4 yrs ago, added 1/2 cup of Hershey syrup to the juice at startup, brix was 24, after primary added 6 gr. of cocoa nibs at first racking. 2nd racking in 4 months. Added bentonite 2 weeks before racking. After 4 more months bottle

 

[bernardsmith]

Looks like I may be a bit of a contrarian here but I boiled 4 oz of chocolate malt barley per gallon of mulberry wine for the pronounced chocolate flavor this roasted barley provides to chocolate stouts and I earned a silver medal at the Cellarmasters of LA wine competition in November. I have yet to find that cocoa nibs or cocoa powder which when it clears , clears all the flavor with it , imparts enough of the chocolate flavor I seek. Those dark roasted barley grains - so fully roasted that they add not one molecule of fermentable sugar - hits the nail right on its head, as far as I am concerned.