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Jack Keller
 
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Droopy, I had not made this wine when I posted the recipe four years
ago, but have since then. It is indeed a thinner wine than most, but
also a sweet wine and sugar adds a little body to it. You can add a
little glycerin to it to help thicken it a bit, but I would not
over-do it. One tablespoon per gallon should be plenty. I would not
add grape concentrate to this (or oak leaf wine) unless you really
want to make a different wine.

My walnut leaf wine was not very good until it had aged about 16
months -- 10 months longer than the recipe suggests. It was quite
nice at that point, and no thinner than most Japanese Sake. It is not
a wine for everyone (but neither is sand burr nor bramble tips nor
acorn wines), but worth making for the variety. Make it and cellar it
for 16-18 months. I don't think you will enjoy it all that much
before then.

As for the sugar, demerara is getting hard to find. I only know two
stores in San Antonio, a city of over a million folks, that still
carry it. Turbinado and "Sugar in the Raw" are much easier to find
and could substitute, but neither has quite the same taste as
demerara. Indeed, I think demerara is unmatched in flavor. I just
wish it wasn't so expensive and was more available. But, if you have
to substitute, I'd go for one of the others (NOT brown sugar, or white
sugar with molasses).

Good luck....

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/