Will my wine be sweet or dry?

Many people ask me which grapes to use for a sweet or dry wine. I tell them it really depends upon how you make the wine.

Making a dry wine is very easy; most all the grapes grown in Michigan will ferment out to a dry wine. Yeast consumes sugar and converts it into alcohol. This is the basics on how to make wine. Most yeasts will only ferment up to about 13-14% alcohol, If there is only enough sugar in the must (the grape juice) for 12% alcohol, the wine will be dry, since all the sugar will be converted to alcohol. When we make wine at our farm I usually like to aim for about 11 to 12 %. A must for 12% wine will have a specific gravity (using a hydrometer) of 1.090, or a brix (using a refractometer) of 22.

One easy method of making a higher alcohol sweet wine is to add more sugar than the yeast can consume. This is usually done when preparing the must, but sugar can also be added during the fermentation. As the yeast creates alcohol it will reach a point where it will kill off the yeast cells (the alcohol is in itself a preservative). Any sugar that is left will stay in the wine.

I like to make many of my white or blush wines with just a little residual sugar, but keep the alcohol level to about 10-11%. Sometimes this is a little tricky.

This can be done by either (1) stopping the fermentation before it is completed or (2) adding sugar after the wine ferments out to a dry wine.

Creating a sweet wine by incomplete fermentation is very useful for producing a fresh, fruity style wine. Many different methods can be used such as fermenting the wine as slow as possible with cool temperatures and then chilling the wine (to about 30 degrees) to stop the fermentation. Then you rack the wine off the sediment (to try to remove most of the yeast cells) & add sulfite (camden tablets). Sometimes adding bentonite or other fining agents a few days before stopping the fermentation is helpful in removing the sediment. Sometimes a filter or centrifuge is used to remove the yeast cells.

I usually try to sweeten the wine after it is finished fermenting. I like to adjust the sugar level in the must to about 11% when I start. I use a yeast culture that does not tolerate high alcohol such as Cote De Blanc, Epernay 2, or Sauterne yeasts. After a few months, when the wine is completely dry, I rack it, sweeten it to taste and add a strong sulfite dose (about 1.5 to 2 tablets per gallon). I leave it in the 5-gallon carboy at this point because it does not always work & sometimes ferments out the sugar - If is does I try again (although the alcohol has increased by now). If everything is fine, I bottle it after a few months. Many people have use potassium sorbate along with the sulfur to prevent refermentation. Use about 1 gram per gallon - note that sorbates do not kill the yeast, they just prevent them from multiplying and sometimes they can produce an "off" flavor.

Experiment - This is what makes winemaking an art!

Bill Schnute
Honeyflow Farm

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