Compliment to Country wines

[bikerbob41]

I have three one gallon carboys with strawberry, raspberry and blackberry wines. I need to rack all three. Trouble is when I do that, there won't be sufficient wine to reach near the top of each carboy (and minimize air contact). Does anyone have a recommendation as to what type(s) of wine I might add to each to take up the missing volume? Thanks for all your help in the past!

 

[bernardsmith]

Perhaps too late for these batches but what you might do is make more than a gallon (with appropriate addition of fruit and sugars ) and start the fermentation in a two gallon or larger bucket. When you rack from the bucket to your carboy (wine ain't beer and it does not need to be sealed from air during the first week or so of active fermentation) you store the excess in a sanitized bottle in your fridge and you use that excess to top up the carboy when you next rack ... This time you might add sanitized glass marbles to take up the excess head room.

 

[Yooper]

What works well is a similar wine.

Since nothing is similar, exactly, to any of those, I really like using a fruity dry white wine (like pinot grigio) for fruity country wines, especially dandelion and peach. I use something bold like cab franc for my oaked chokecherry wine, if I don't have any from last year or don't make enough extra in a batch for topping up.

A similar wine can just be something that won't dilute the country wine, so a a dry (not sweet) white or red can be perfect for topping up.

 

[WVMJ]

What stage are you in? Just finished fermenting or are they already cleared and getting ready to be aged? If its clearing and you have nothing to top up with a simple thing to do is to make a 12% dilution of Everclear, add 3 tsp/gal acid blend. Its tasteless and wont affect the taste of your wine except of course it will be diluted a little. If you are just going from primary to secondary racking then you can make a simple syrup to top up with, added very carefully. WVMJ

 

[bikerbob41]

Thanks for the responses. I am currently in the secondary going into the aging process. I saved some extra that didn't fit into the secondary when originally tranferring from primary, but don't have enough extra. I ended up using pinot grigio to top off all three. I figured that I would need about 150 3/4 in diameter marbles for each of the three carboys to consume the missing volume, so I went with the pinot grigio. I appreciate your suggestions!