atrebla2 wrote:
> I asked what else folks have added to their wines to impart a special
> flavour but responses got sidetracked into berries & bears. Has anyone
> experimented with black pepper? vanilla?
>
>

Well, I've taken a couple of moderately good but not
spectacular shiraz kits, and added a handful of cracked pepper
corns to one and 250 g frozen strawberries to the other, and got
two interesting variations on a theme. Both better than the kit
as is, IMHO. I've taken a 4 wk pinot noir kit which I thought
was a bit thin as manufactured and put it into 19 litres instead
of 23, added 30 g of light toast American oak and a sliced banana
and got a good solid red, but I don't think you could still call
it pinot noir. On the other hand, I've added 50 ml of health
food store melon extract to 23 litres of a rather poor chardonnay
and ended up dumping most of the result down the drain. We learn
by our mistakes.
Is this the sort of information you're after?

Leslie Gadallah