I crushed my yard grapes of several kinds (red, white, blue unknown
varieties, local word being they were 'wine grapes not concord') and
made 4 gallons of wine which I handled as a red, with the cap and all,
during primary. After the primary I squeezed the pulp in a press until
the pulp was dry for my 4 gallons. I topped off the 6 gallon secondary
bucket with several bottles of decent cheap wine and a gallon of grape
concentrate. After a couple weeks at 70F and an attempt to restart
fermentation I'm happy enough with the taste. It's quite tart and I
suppose acidic. I haven't gotten to the wineshop again to get an acid
kit. But I do know that the wine is WATERY!!! It's rose' in color but
darn dilute. I recall that my initial hydro reading was something like
1.20 specific gravity. It seemed OK to me. Wouldn't that measure
sweetness or richness? Is there any way to make this a thicker, richer
wine now? Should I have added sugar at the start? I liked the idea of
just going with the juice in the grapes for my first batch from this
100-yard single-row vineyard (an unpedigreed one that my brother has
revived). It's only been 2-3 weeks in secondary now. Tips?

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
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